It was a close call this morning. While heading for the office I almost got hit by a moped while crossing the street!
Luckily the moped wasn’t going fast anymore, so I could step aside and let it not hit my feet… The young girl who was riding the moped was less lucky, because by that time she was skidding on her behind over the asphalt…
It all happened when I was crossing a 2-lane street at a zebra crossing. Cars in the first lane had nicely stopped but traffic in the second lane usually does not see pedestrians very well (and for some reason they do not realize that if traffic in the lane next to them has stopped that there is a reason it did…)
Anyway… By the time the girl noticed me (I don’t think she was 100% focussed on traffic…) it was almost too late and her reflex caused her to make a mistake and brake on the wet asphalt. The expected happened, and the scooter moped slipped almost at once on its small wheels and skidded over the road, the girl falling.
Her speed was not that high and she, being a smart girl, was wearing a good helmet. Because of this it appeared she survived without so much as a scratch: no sign of blood and no torn clothes as far as I could tell. She immediately said she was fine, so all I could do was give her a hand in picking up her moped which, after a couple of tries, purred like a kitten with bronchitis again. 2 seconds later she was on her way again.
I hope we both learned a lesson from it: my lesson being that I should not rely on other people to pay attention to me when I cross the road, and I hope she now knows how easy her moped can slip on its small wheels when the road is wet…