Let's Kill Children!

[McGoddess09]

Today, I decided to be a nice sister and wake up early to take my baby sister to school.

On the way into the Junior High parking lot, we saw a car that was pulled over by a cop. I looked into the car and saw one of the Junior High teachers. We laughed and went on our merry way.

I saw some High Schoolers in teh parking lot, waiting for their bus, so I gave them a ride.

On my way home, I see this:

In front of the Junior High is a crosswalk. There is a guy,wearing an orange vest, who has a chair in the median and when kids have cross, he gets his little handheld stop sign and walks the kids across.

The guy is in front of me, walking to the kid so he could walk him over. I stop. The guy next to me doesn't.

The kid had to jump back onto the grass, so he wouldn't get hit because this guy wasn't stopping. The crossguard was waving his stop sign at the van, but hte van didn't stop.

Unfortunately, the cops had pulled someone else over and didn't see what happened, otherwise this person's ass would have been in *McGoddess's tiny town* jail.

I don't care how much of a rush you are in. You FUCKING STOP when a kid is walking with a crossguard. If I would have been able to catch up with this person, I would have flipped them off and hoped they would have pulled over so I could bitch at them.

Now before anyone goes on about how IL drivers are, let my tell you this:

The license plate was from WI.

[mikoyan29]

The crossing guard's stop sign is just like the one planted in the ground. IN fact, it probably carries more weight since there is generally a reason for it being up......

[LillFilly]

Ehe, people try to play 'hit the pedestrians' all the time in the mall crosswalk. I was stopped for a FAMILY when the person behind me, not considering the reason WHY the truck that says 'Security' with the big flashing light on top stopped, pulled around the right of me, onto the sidewalk, blew past the family, and through the stopsign at the end. I chased after him and chewed him out. His reasoning...

"I didn't know why you stopped! I didn't see anybody crossing."

Ummm, they weren't exactly invisible. Sigh. We get a lot of this to varying degrees. Mostly just people who don't want to wait the extra 7-seconds it takes the average person to cross the road. And heaven forbid it's a child or an elderly person who takes a little longer! They rev the engine, roll closer, gesture and shout. For crying out loud it's a 5MPH speed limit!

Pant pant pant...Grrrrr....

Ok, I'm better now. But at least one person a year gets hit where I work by asshats like this, and dozens come close. I would rather my first aid skills be in theory only.

[EricKei]

McG: I sympathize. I live one block away from a local elementary school. The thing is, I've found that the nastiest, most aggressive drivers are generally the ones who are doing 30-40 in a 20mph school zone...yelling into their cellphone...with their own kids in the back of the car...either taking them to or dropping them off at that school or the one a block down from there

[McGoddess09]

As do I. Well, I live on the same block as one of our elementary schools. I live on a corner,with a stop sign.

I get people doing 70 mph,blowing through the stop signs during the time that kids either walk to school or to their bus stops. I'm not just talking high schoolers and junior highers. I'm talking little bitty kids that you wouldn't be able to see.

I remember during my Sophmore year, the semester before my driver's ed, there was a guy doing way over the speed limit past the bus stop. The older kids pushed the younger ones to the yard of the house where our bus stop was and yelled at the speeding car.

I am very maternal, on a normal basis. If I see kids walking by themselves, I watch through my window or on my porch until I see them enter a house or meet up with someone. When I hear a kid cry, I'm the first one to reach them to find out what's wrong. Endangering the lives of children puts me into protective mama mode, as if they were my own, and that is a very dangerous McGoddess to deal with.

[finlayfox]

this is one reason to always have a cellphone...if you see something like this immediately call the cops and give them the licence plates(including state if applicable)... they absolutely love to screw these guys(for good reason... many of them have kids of their own).

[McGoddess09]

this is one reason to always have a cellphone...if you see something like this immediately call the cops and give them the licence plates(including state if applicable)... they absolutely love to screw these guys(for good reason... many of them have kids of their own).

I would have, but all five cop cars were out,watching for speeders in the school areas.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Now before anyone goes on about how IL drivers are, let my tell you this:

The license plate was from WI.

Well, I never said you Friendly Illinois Brethren had the market cornered on sucky drivers.

That sounds like something that could just as easily happen up by me. I know there are drivers here that treat crosswalks as pedestrians in them as merely suggestions to stop.

[RootedPhoenix]

Happens here in CA too.

Do people not believe that people cross streets? It's not as if the other car is blocking the view of a crosswalk that takes up THE WHOLE ROAD. Good grief.

Even when the things are there without the benefit of intersections, ....oh arrrrrgh! >_< I've heard other stories about people who've been nearly hit by idiots in this kind of situation!

[protege]

The thing is, I've found that the nastiest, most aggressive drivers are generally the ones who are doing 30-40 in a 20mph school zone...yelling into their cellphone...with their own kids in the back of the car...either taking them to or dropping them off at that school or the one a block down from there

Now that just pisses me off. I get to see that *every* morning where I live. There's an elementary school just around the corner. It never fails, that some parents will drop their kids off, and then haul ass out of there. Never mind that even thought it's a one-way street (it's a circle--the street turns back on itself), there's no sidewalk once you get past the school, and it's not uncommon to find kids walking along the street.

With the way these fools drive, I'm surprised that nobody's been hit (yet), and none of my neighbors (or even me) have been hit while attempting to back out of the driveway.

It's even worse during the winter. The first winter after I moved in...we had a water main break The entire street, from the corner, past my place, and all the way down the hill... was a sheet of ice Did that stop the Mario Andretti wanna-bes from speeding? Of course not! Quite a few went around the corner *sideways*

Surprisingly, no cops to be found. Mainly, because they're too busy pulling people over for going 1 mile over the limit...or trying to score free donuts at Sheetz