When you play chicken with an automobile, you will lose. If there is a collision, the passengers in the automobile have a thousand pounds or more of metal and plastic in which to cocoon themselves. You do not. If you and the car run into one another, you might dent it (or you might not) but the car will definitely dent you. If you swerve, then you wind up off of the road and you have lost. Try not to twist an ankle. If the car swerves, then they will hopefully avoid colliding with anything else. In my experience, though, the car will rarely swerve.
You may not have intentionally wanted to play chicken with the car. Maybe you just weren’t paying attention, and ran a little too far into the road. Or maybe visibility was poor, or the driver wasn’t paying attention. Just remember that no matter who is at fault, the runner will always lose.
At lunch time today, I played chicken with an automobile. Visibility was poor, but if you ignored the law requiring headlights with windshield wiper use then it was not so poor that headlights were required to see. None of the other drivers had any trouble picking out my bright yellow reflective jacket. The driver quite obviously had no idea that I was there, though. Between not paying attention to me, and tailgating the person in front of them, they did not see me until I jumped off of the road into the snow. They also decided to swerve, but had I not jumped they would have still hit me anyway. Thankfully, nobody was coming in the other direction at the time.
Nobody believes that they can get hit by a car until it has happened to them. This is one of the reasons that I never wear headphones when I run on public roads. I just can not afford the distraction and I am always going under the assumption that every car that I come upon is going to hit me. If you were smart, you would also operate under the same assumption. It could help you to save your life.
One of my newsletter articles specifically describes how I avoid getting hit by a car and the steps that I take when I go out for every run.
I’m glad your OK Blaine! Just goes to show you that even doing everything right, you have to be careful.
Thanks, Wes. I figure that if I mention how easy it is to be hit by a car enough times, then somebody who hasn’t been hit might actually believe they can be, and will never have to be. That’s what makes writing my warnings worthwhile.
Scary. Glad you’re ok.
I generally assume that each driver on the road is still half asleep, which is not an unreasonable assumption, considering I always run early in the morning. I’ve had one close call in the last 3 years, but nothing as close as the one you just had.
People tell me I’m crazy, but when I run in our neck of the woods north of Chicago, I always run against the traffic.
I’ve had a few really close calls that I’m sure would have killed me if they’d come up from behind.
Does anyone else do that … or am I indeed nuts?
Rob, not only is it a good idea, but you may be legally obligated to do so.
I think that unless legally told to run with traffic at your back, you should always run facing traffic.