Letter: Pedestrians must stop, look, listen

Recently there has been a lot of concern about hit-and-run accidents in Glendale. I have observed with interest as traffic enforcement, safety and city staff wrestle with trying to get a handle on the problem.

Recently my husband and I were driving up Glendale Avenue a few notches below the speed limit. As we proceeded up the street, parallel but slightly less than a half-car length ahead of us was another vehicle.

My husband and I (and thankfully, the other driver) watched as a lady walked up to one of the lighted crosswalks, punched the button and proceeded into the crosswalk.

She did not look right or left, hesitate, or wait to be sure the traffic had stopped; she barged into the street in front of our two approaching cars. We were easily able to stop and the second car, an obviously alert driver, was also. Someone who was not as aware of basic driver education rules regarding awareness of what is going on around us at all times would not have been able to stop.

My husband and I watched as this thoughtless, arrogant and over-confident pedestrian strolled across the crosswalk without once looking up, around or at the traffic on either side.

As I watched, I thought of an old axiom that applies to people like her. They may be right — “dead right.” And, the other side of the coin, a driver not focused on driver’s awareness would have been put through great angst as a result of this person’s failure to follow a simple guideline that most of us learned in childhood: stop, look and listen.

Patricia Burns
Glendale