Remember in school when we all learned about certain laws of physics? Me neither. I never took physics as long as an excellent study hall classroom was available. I did love to excel, as long as it didn’t take much effort.
Regardless, certain laws of physics have always applied and still do today even if we don’t know what they are.
For example a moving object like a car striking, another object — say a person in a crosswalk- will almost always win. We can argue right of way, rules of the road etc., but in the end, it won’t change the outcome — thousand of pounds of steel versus mostly water and tissue? No contest really.
Even though I’ve never sat through an hour of physics, even I understand that and man’s right-of-way arguments won’t change it.
This past week I witnessed in my rearview mirror this scientific principle in action when I saw a car strike a glancing blow to a pedestrian in Chehalis. The pedestrian was clearly in a crosswalk, and clearly had the right of way when the car appeared to strike a glancing blow.
So even though man’s law was clearly on the side of the pedestrian, the laws of physics were not. Lawyers could argue for years about this-but even the most robust legal argument won’t change the simple fact that a car is big and a pedestrian isn’t big enough and will lose every time.
Thankfully it appeared in this case no serious harm was done to the pedestrian, but a step either way could have changed everything.
We may not like the laws of physics, or feel that those laws are fair or just, but those laws don’t care…they will prevail regardless of race, creed, all the rest regardless of our “feelings.”
The moral of the story is simple; pay attention, especially during risky activities like crossing the street, which shouldn’t be. Drivers today have many important tasks other than driving like texting or changing the radio station and you aren’t always their priority.
So a crosswalk, while helpful, will not stop anything or make drivers pay better attention no matter how many man-made laws there are.
Look up, look around and be aware.
Many years ago I arrested a man in Napavine for drunk driving – not that unusual really, but he was on his bicycle, ran into my patrol car and ended up in the open trunk of my car.
After I arrested him, he explained he was first escaping space aliens, then a gang, and finally a pack of coyotes, and we should leave immediately.
He was right of course - because any of those things could be trouble although I never saw any evidence of any of them.
OK, to be fair space aliens are hard to see especially at night when their cloaking devices are activated — everyone knows that. Plus it is entirely possible the pack of coyotes with their reflective eyes could have been mistaken for aliens…
Or it was simply too much beer.
Regardless, it was with great concern I read about a recent DUI arrest where once again a pack of marauding coyotes might be involved after the fact. Now I’m not saying the driver in this alleged DUI accident was not attacked by the roaming bands of coyotes he claimed to be– goodness knows all of us living in rural Washington must be vigilant for such things, and should also be wary of snipes and sasquatches, etc.
But something Sheriff Bill Wiester told me years ago seems to apply here; if you do swerve to miss the “deer in the road” there better be some hair.
So remember, if you are attacked by a pack of whatevers, after being arrested for alleged DUI, make sure you have some hair.
Unless it’s really space aliens which don’t have hair… that’s gonna make it harder.
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John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis, and can be contacted at
musingsonthemiddlefork@yahoo.com.
