The
smell of burnt rubber lingers in the air. There’s a dent where
headlight of the car should be, and there’s a puddle of blood where
the pedestrian’s head was. The morning trafficers and speeders and
go-toworkers who were usually honking their horns were quiet now. The
other cars stop in horror. No ones moving or saying anything. No one
had been watching as the old woman started jogging across the
sidewalk.


There
is an importance to those three seconds, the three seconds to stop
your car before you proceed across and unmarked intersection. Take a
second, or three, look around you. Look very meticulously. Look to
your left and look to your right, because there might be someone
trying to cross the street. It can all happen so fast; a pedestrian
crossing the street, a car speeding through the intersection, an
animal jumping in front of your car, things that happen in three
seconds or less that can ruin your life.

Next
time you’re at an intersection look left and right, even if you
have the right of way, because something could happen in those three
seconds.