Near miss

"Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Oh My God I'm Going to Die!"

My life flashes before my eyes as the car accelerates towards me before screeching to a halt just as the bumper touches my knees.

"Oh My God!! What do you think you're DOING?" I shout at the driver of the Vauxhall Astra. He has opened the door, surveying me with a stunned expression on his face. I am shaking with shock at how close I came to being knocked over. "I'm on the bloody ZEBRA CROSSING!"

"Sorry, the sun was in my eyes- I couldn't see you" he mutters.

He didn't even have his visor down.

"Yeah, well, if you'd have been going any faster you wouldn't have been able to stop in time. You could have killed me! Do you get that? Killed me! Jesus!"

He slams the door and drives away.

I lurch up the road, still stunned. That Zebra Crossing is clearly marked and worse, put there for a reason: there is a school next to it. That Zebra Crossing is not there for students (although we all use it to get to the uni library); it's there for the kids. If that had been a kid crossing when that stupid man driving was there they wouldn't have stood a chance.

I have dark purple bruises beneath my knees this morning and it didn't even knock me over; the bumper just touched me. In a fight between a pedestrian and a car it is no contest as to who will win.

Idiot drivers.