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Monday, August 28, 2006

Well, that was close

For the second time in my life I have been missed by a fast moving car by just milliseconds. The first was a harrowing encounter with a massive white truck that failed to see me when pulling out of a parking lot. Had it not been for my quick reflexes he would have hit the driver side door about TPgal face high with his massive front right bumper and that would have been the end of TPgal!

Today, Thomas, Leanne and I (aka - please give us light) left the building for an outdoor lunch as Porch del Taco or something around the corner from our office that is connected to the Seattle Art Museum. We stepped outside and started walking south towards the corner of 2nd and University. There's still a lot of construction taking place due to the enhancement of the museum and the finishing of our building and the sidewalk is tore up for about 20 feet or so before it clears out to full sized walkway. We were about 1 or 2 feet from the end of the caged walkway when a white SUV careened onto the sidewalk from the street. He was going approximately 20-30 miles per hour and he managed to swerve onto the sidewalk and missed a huge light pole, three newspaper boxes and then swiped the museum (crushing and breaking but not bursting a massive window) before swerving back across the sidewalk and was headed towards three very fast and very lucky people who scattered into the street before the parking barrier (you know those big concrete things that stop your wheels) that was lodged under his car locked up the front right wheel and stopped the SUV from jumping into a crosswalk full of people who were at a dead stop watching the action.

Thankfully no one was on the sidewalk walking away from the car or they would surely be dead, and that the man on crutches in front of us (one leg!) was not 2 more feet ahead of us as his "run" factor is pretty low.

Thomas, who is always in charge, yelled to us "careful he may come out shooting!" and then moved toward the vehicle anyway. It's good that he didn't hesitate as the driver was starting to want to go. Thomas helped the passenger (a white female about 25) out of the car and then moved over to the driver. Joe-Bob, also white/25ish could NOT STAND. He appeared and smelled to be DRUHHNK - like "whoherethingsI'mpretty?" drunk. He too was helped to the curb as the police were called.

The lucky and spry jumping pedestrians moved to the curb as well and lit up cigarettes to calm their nerves. I hate smoking, but I think in that situation - "I've just cheated death so now I'm going to taunt him" smoking is acceptable.

The police arrived very quickly and spent more than an hour with Joe-Bob, the Seattle Art Museum people and us witnesses. Joe-Bob got a ride with Officer Chen and his white SUV got a tow.

This is the Google maps version of the street - the buildings have changed, but the street is the same:



Just so you know, they never did come fix the light in our space, but for the rest of the afternoon, we didn't care.

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