I Saved Someone’s Life… Twice

On my commute into work today, I save a person’s life… twice! Okay, it was definitely once, but probably twice.

A young lady stepped ahead of me, about five feet into the street while waiting for the light to turn green so she can walk the rest of the way. Mind you, cars were whizzing by ahead of her, and she didn’t even notice. A bus was trying to drive in the lane that she stood in the middle of, and it began honking. She didn’t notice that either. I cleared my throat loudly just as she stepped back. The bus had to drive down the middle in both lanes to make it past her.

After the bus passed her, she stepped back into the middle of the lane and began ignoring traffic again. This time, a second bus came down her lane and began honking. Cars were in the other land, so straddling the middle wasn’t an option this time. And clearing my throat didn’t work. By now, a crowd of commuters were with me, but didn’t say anything. So I shouted out to her, “Miss!”, and pointed down to the bus, and she caught on and stepped back away from it.

Now, it’s quite common for pedestrian commuters to risk life and limb for getting to work a few seconds – no more than a minute – earlier than taking it safe. But never before have I seen a woman stand in traffic – twice! – without noticing how far she stood in the middle of it. Shame also is upon my fellow commuters, who watched this absent-minded woman and failed to do anything about her.