just what is the correct etiquet when just about to be run over?

I don't know what has made me accident-prone recently but this wasn't even my fault.This happened just as I was thinking to self how well I was doing and just needed to drive home and could rest.

In the car park just about to get into my car with the door open onto the carparking space next to me. The spaces are actually too small for a lot of cars so mine was on the line to make space for the one next to it.

Anyway someone decides not to wait for me to get into the car and drives into the space that I am standing in. There isn't time to get in the car and close the door and the tiny space is surrounded by thick burberris (very thorny plant I am allergic to). I try shouting wait a minute, but the driver continues reversing and chatting to her passenger, so in panick I shouted "OI" and waved my arms, convinced she hadn't seen me.

I asked her if she thought she should have waited and got this fantastic response. "If you hadn't been so rude perhaps I might have!" So she saw me and decided to keep on coming? I told her that I valued the use of my feet and when that seems iminently threatened OI seems perfectly appropriate.

So just what is the correct etiquet in this situation? I mean I am assuming I was in the wrong for been in the way, being a mere pedestrian at the time, and that if she hit me they give you points on your licence as a reward?

Di

Well, you could have been "dead right".

In my old job I used to direct traffic at times. I have 1) Pounded on car hoods and 2) the most extreme case, I dove into a ditch (damned drunk drivers!).

Well, I've kicked cars.. If they are close enough to kick, they are too close! I've yelled "way to go!" "hey, pedestrian here!" and the like. It's disgusting to me how many people just look at you like you are the one in the wrong.

They must think there is a point system. Jerks, all of them.

Alli

I drive 60 miles round trip each day to the clinic. About the only stress in my life now aside from the rare mig is the traffic. Not the bumper to bumper kind, just the morons, jerks, drunks and slow drivers.

About 20 years ago I was a volunteer firefighter. I was on a minor blocking accident with no injuries. So I grabbed a portable stop/slow sign to help the officers with traffic control. This dude was blasting towards me and not slowing down. I waved the sign and hollered at him as he went by to slow down. Just past me was an officer lighting flares and putting them down on the road.

These flares were the ones with the metal spike at one end to stab into the ground to hold them up. The officers saw and heard me yell at the speeding guy so he stabbed a lite flare into his hood as he passed the officer.

Then he used his portable radio to tell the cop on the other end of the accident scene to "pull over the car with the flare ". I will never forget seeing that car going down the road with the burning flare and smoke trailing off of it.

And even after the other officer pulled him over he left the flare burning still stuck in his hood while he ran his plates and wrote the citation.

I would have paid serious money to have had a camcorder then. It was a scene right out of a low budget "Smokey and The Bandit" type movie.

Now the cop probably would have been suspended or canned for doing that.

In the neighborhood of Los Angeles where I grew up, the behavior of the driver could get her shot. I don't know how it would work out in court, but it seems like a sharp lawyer could make a strong case for self defense. I can just hear it. "Your honor, my client has a knee injury and cannot move quickly. When she saw the fast approaching driver she feared for her life and acted in self-defense."

Chris

i would have jumped on the hood of her car....big dent.

I seem to have a problem walking across the pedestrian walkway in front of retail stores. There's always someone driving too fast that doesn't want to stop. I've yelled and had them come to a dead stop at my knees. I once had two teenagers driving really fast , maybe 30 or 40 mph through the parking lot, who weren't even looking at myself and the little lady who were crossing. I screamed at them and they hit their brakes and screeched to a halt at my legs to where their bumper touched my leg. Out of anger I pounded my fist into the hood making a huge dent, at which point they rolled up the windows while saying they were sorry sir. There's just no excuse sorry.

I don't know how it would work out in court, but it seems like a sharp lawyer could make a strong case for self defense. I can just hear it. "Your honor, my client has a knee injury and cannot move quickly. When she saw the fast approaching driver she feared for her life and acted in self-defense

If I was the judge, I would yell: " I accept!!!!!!!!!"

or something like that whatever the judges say in such instances.


Risa

Always wear flares just in case so can take them off, set fire to them and dump them on the bonnet of offending vehicle. Brilliant!! Not so sure about taking trousers off in public.

What a fantastic bunch of ways to deal with idiots. Wish I'd had more time to be creative rather than just panic. At the time I was outraged by this incident but she didn't get any of it realy did she. I mean she thought she was so important that my safety wasn't worth her waiting a minute.

Di