Skip to content
CityLab
Culture

What to Do When You're Hit By a Car

It’s scary and unimaginable, but pedestrians and cyclists must know how to react if it happens to them—or to someone else.
relates to What to Do When You're Hit By a Car
Photographee.eu/Shutterstock.com

One Sunday morning in March, as I was walking through a crosswalk on the way to buy groceries, a car turned left into me. I screamed as it knocked my hip, hard, and thrust me to the pavement. The driver stopped short and leaped out of the vehicle, shouting what seemed like nonsensical apologies as I cried and swore on the ground: I’m so sorry, I just didn’t see you.

Luckily, my injuries weren’t life-threatening: just a nasty bruise that smeared my hip for about a month and some very real PTSD.