be safe, friends!

Last night I was running an errand with my friend Purba in New Brunswick. The light turned green, I put my car into gear and started to move, only to hear her yell out-- as she did I noticed a kid sprinting in front of my car. Not someone out to exercise, just someone in a hurry. He didn't appear to look at all, just ran full speed into traffic and kept going down the street. I probably would have hit him if Purba didn't notice him and yell. Granted, I wouldn't have been going very fast, but still.

I subscribe to the headlines of NJ.com in my Google Reader, and have noticed a ton lately about pedestrian and cyclist accidents, often resulting in death. The most recent one was yesterday afternoon on Route 1 near Rutgers, before that was actually a Rutgers student killed while biking last week. And actually, just now searching in my Reader to see just how many articles about such accidents have come up in the last few weeks and month, another one came up-- a guy my age from Toms River was hit in Brick earlier this week, and died this morning.

Obviously, sometimes pedestrians aren't paying attention (like that kid last night), and obviously, sometimes drivers are not paying attention. I feel like I see people running red lights way more now than when I started driving. What is with the general attention deficit on the roads lately?

We all have our moments. I drive quite a lot, and I think I'm pretty good at it, but I have my moments too. However, I'm constantly checking out what's going on around me, trying to be aware of other people's moments, because sometimes I feel like no one else is paying attention to anything else on the road.

Please walk, bike and drive safely. Be careful. I like you and don't want to read about you next.