One thing about C-Ville…they really hate bicyclists and pedestrians. In a recent story I found out that when in a vehicle if you “accidently” run a bicyclist off the road, break his hip, leg, and ribs, you will get a $100 ticket.
Today someone accidently ran down a mother/son. I wonder if the driver was on a cell phone, or just in a hurry to get somewhere. When I was out running earlier at the intersection of 29 and Main (or is it Ivy at that point…names change about every three blocks around here) and while waiting through a light cycle I counted the number of drivers on cell phones.
14 out of 26 that passed by were chatting up a storm, and those are just the people that were holding one in their hand. Are there rules about cell phones in this commonwealth? I barely drive and don’t use a cell phone…so I wouldn’t know. Now…if I had an iPhone I would use that while driving to watch a movie. Those phones are sweet.
Nice shot from Daily Progress.
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Someone also ran down a student at the intersection of JPA and Emmet on Wednesday afternoon.
In the future, I believe crosswalks will be eliminated and the speed limit on West Main will be 55 mph.
There’s two things about this terrible incident that I’d like to point out. First, according to the story in the Daily Progress “a witness said the victims were waved across by a motorist, but were struck by the SUV as they walked into the next lane.” People try to be nice by letting pedestrians and drivers go when they don’t actually have the right of way. Unfortunately they don’t seem to consider that other vehicles on the road may be unaware that they are giving the right of way to a pedestrian or vehicle that doesn’t have it. I have surprised and annoyed drivers by refusing to accept their offers of the right of way because I’ve almost been hit in the past. In most cases people should just follow the rules of the road and not let their good intentions cause more trouble.
Secondly, the article also points out that “East and West Rio roads have no crosswalks for pedestrians.” This is terrible and needs to be corrected but painted lines on the road may not have prevented this accident. The article does not make clear the exact location where the accident occurred but I think it may have been at the intersection of the entrances to the Mall, Rio Road and Albemarle Square. It is not at all unusual for people to walk from Albemarle Square to the Fashion Mall. I’ve done it with my kids. This is a regular pedestrian crossing and even without a crosswalk pedestrians often have the right of way. If the sidewalk leads up to an intersection and then picks up again on the other side the state is automatically designating that spot as a pedestrian crossing.
Section 46.2-924 of State law says.
A. The driver of any vehicle on a highway shall yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian crossing such highway:
1. At any clearly marked crosswalk, whether at mid-block or at the end of any block;
2. At any regular pedestrian crossing included in the prolongation of the lateral boundary lines of the adjacent sidewalk at the end of a block;
A lot of drivers seem to believe that pedestrian ONLY have the right of way where there is a crosswalk. This is not so.
Knowledge of the laws regarding pedestrians is very poor. Many police officers are ignorant of them. I had a shift commander with the Charlottesville Police Department tell me that pedestrians only have the right of way if they make eye contact with the driver first!
Based only on the information on the article I think that Pete Mainzer is correct and that there was no negligence on the part of the SUV driver. Even so, several questions were not answered in the article. Did the driver of the SUV see the pedestrians in the street and did they have sufficient distance to stop? Were they turning or traveling straight through the intersection? How fast were they going and what’s the speed limit at the intersection?