Near accident on Halloween night

Halloween, a night my children have been looking forward to for many weeks was almost cut short with tragedy.

While crossing North Sixth Street in Cheney, near the CHS baseball field, approximately 5:45 in the evening, a vehicle with at least two young people failed to yield to our party of 7, prompting us to physically grab our 6 year old from continuing to cross. This SUV never even tried to stop or even slow down and it truly sent a chill down my spine as to what could have happened, if the adults in our party had not reacted quickly to the realization that the SUV was not going to yield to pedestrians “in” the crosswalk.

As our evening of Trick-or-Treating continued we all had a wonderful time and enjoyed the friendly and courteous hosts and fellow revelers enjoying a very fun filled and joyous evening, then it happened again! Crossing North Sixth Street heading home, not a block from the earlier incident, another vehicle failing to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk.

At least this time I had the forethought to act as a crossing guard with respect to getting in the intersection before the children and the rest of our party. I was approaching the centerline, waving a flashlight and this car with a single driver just kept rolling through as if the occupants’ priority was more imperative then yielding to pedestrians in a crosswalk. I had chalked this up to a series of unfortunate events until I read the national news this morning (Nov. 1) concerning teenagers hit and killed in a crosswalk in Southern California last night.

Thank goodness Cheney, Wash. was not included in that article, I can attest that it missed making national news by only three feet.

William (Bill) Hanson

Cheney