Crossing The Intersection Of Victim and Offender:
Why Street Safety Is An Important Issue at Rowan
If you jaywalk or cross illegally while on Rowan’s campus, you may think the worst thing that can happen is you will get lectured by a cop or get a fine…Think again.
One of the worst things that can happen to you is: you’re crossing illegally, the stoplight turns green in the opposite direction, and the driver of the car (that seemed to come out of no where) speeds up for the light and slams on the brakes once he sees you in the crosswalk, but it’s too late. He hits you anyway.
And on the night of September 6th, on the intersection of Route 322 and Main Street, it happened to me.
The whole scenario plays over in my mind like a filmstrip; it did not seem real. The police coming up to me, the ride in the ambulance, the x-rays in the emergency room, the sling over my right shoulder. But the biggest shock of all came to me a few days later, when I picked up the accident report at the police station. It turned out that the driver was not being the one charged in this accident, but rather I was charged with illegally crossing a roadway, and was told I would have to appear in court. I was so frustrated, angry, and upset all at the same time. How could it be my fault? The light was not green at first, so shouldn’t I have been given the right of way? I already sustained an injury, haven’t I been punished enough?
After explaining the accident report to my dad, who works at the court offices in Burlington County, he told me as much as I didn’t want to hear it, I was the one at fault. Even though all the stoplights were red at first, so were the crosswalk lights. It didn’t matter that the car wasn’t visible to me. I should have waited. But as angry as I am, and as much as I disagree with this law, I have to respect it.
By writing this article, I want every student to be aware of this lesson I had to learn the hard way. No matter if a car is approaching or not, you cannot cross at a crosswalk if the image red hand is staring back at you. Because we live in a world where we can get news updates with the click of the refresh buttons on our phones, we all lack the patience we need to wait for a single light to change colors. But I promise you, it is worth the wait. Jaywalking and crossing illegally might seem like silly reasons for cops to be writing out tickets, but they are doing it to protect us.
It might cost you a fine if you get caught, but if those police officers aren’t looking out for your best interest, it might cost you something a lot more valuable: your life.