Quote Originally Posted by Crankin View Post
The driver's initial defense was that she sneezed and it blinded her momentarily.
A couple of weeks ago I very nearly hit a cyclist. After I had dinner with a friend at a restaurant I was leaving the restaurant parking lot, about to make a right turn onto the busy street. A behemoth SUV was parked along the curb to the immediate left of me, and I could barely see the oncoming traffic. It was nighttime so I could see approaching headlights on the road and thru the windows of the SUV. I waited until I could see no lights approaching and started to pull out. Just as I was turning right onto the street I saw a bike approaching on my left, alongside the SUV. I did not see him coming. The headlight on his bike was aimed too low to see thru the SUV windows and the beam wasn't strong enough for me to see it approaching on the street. He must have seen me about to pull out so he managed to slow down enough so we didn't collide.

I was appalled that I came so close to hitting him. I did not see him coming.

If I did hit him, I think I can safely say my life would have been ruined. I can imagine sitting in a courtroom saying "I did not see him coming", and people glaring at me in that courtroom wanting vengeance. Except I would have probably killed myself before it came to that.