Look both ways

Some of you may remember this little drawing i did a while back regarding my lovely view of downtown Chattanooga, from my office window.



Yesterday that view was not so lovely...
I was typing at my computer, being a busy little bee, when i suppose (I don't really remember for sure) that i heard someone slam on their brakes. I looked out the window just in time to see a pedestrian get hit by a car. The car hit him in the crosswalk and he was on the hood until the car stopped (about 2-3 feet later) and it threw him into the middle of the road. He hit his head and then landed on his back. I jumped up and screamed something along the lines of "oh my gosh this guy just got hit by a car, oh my gosh!!" I think there were a couple more "oh my goshes" in there...the guy driving stopped his car and got out, as did another driver who called 911. I grabbed a couple people in the office and we all ran down there to see if there was anything we could do. By the time we got down there there was blood running out of the guys head. He had neck/head injuries so we couldn't move him. We directed traffic and got ice and something to shield him from the sun until the paramedics came. A couple other people gathered around and then 2 of them got in an argument. Apparently the one guy (who was white) told the other guy (who was black) to back away from the scene. The black guy got mad saying he was racist for only telling him to move when there were other white people around...anyway I broke up their fight, saying something along the lines of "it's not about you, there's a guy who is hurt here" and "it's ok"...i don't really remember exactly what i said...weird. Anyway. The fire truck came and then the ambulance and they got the guy on a stretcher and took him away. I filled out a police report and gave them all my info and will probably be called to court at some point as a witness.

Here's what the paper says about the guy...

Pedestrian struck on Market Street in downtown Chattanooga
By: Staff Reports
A pedestrian was struck and severely injured this morning while in the crosswalk at the intersection of Market and Fifth streets, according to Chattanooga police.
Police have not released the pedestrian’s name, saying only that he was taken to a hospital with head injuries.
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Today they said he had severe but not life threatening injuries and was being treated at a local hospital.

Here's that picture again... the arrow indicates where the car was coming from, it was coming off 5th turning left on Market. "X" A indicates where the pedestrian was when he was struck and "X" B indicates where he landed.





So, the moral of the story is look both ways when you are crossing the street...the whole time you are crossing the street. AND especially if you are the driver!

Anyway, pray for the guy, they won't release any info about him, but from what we can tell he will be ok.

So that was MY Monday...