So this short little local-news article, about a woman hit by a car while jogging with her baby along a road in Grand Teton National Park in Idaho, has got me to thinking. First, how is the poor woman, Michelle Benson, doing? She had to be airlifted to another hospital and usually that's not a good sign. Second, the baby was reported as being unhurt. How does that happen? Third, how the hell does a car doing the posted speed limit manage to hit what must be, at 9 am on a Sunday morning, a rather visible mama-baby-jogging -stroller combination? How?
I guess what concerns me most is my own sense of invulnerability while pushing my three-year-old in his snazzy red Baby Jogger (I actually loathe running, I truly do, but he won't keep a helmet on in the bike trailer and where I ride isn't appropriate for a trailer anyway, cars going too fast and all, so I'm reduced many days to running. Bleh). Those jogging strollers are big! And I always felt I could push him out of the way to safety if a car came bearing down on us unexpectedly, but now I'm wondering if my sense of safety isn't unfounded. Am I deceiving myself here? Are cars really that blind to strollers?
I'm not trying to showcase my own naiveté here, but I truly think that I'm not alone here in presuming safety where there isn't any. It's not like I'm taking risks: I don't run on freeways or anything, of course, and the one higher-speed road in my route has a posted speed limit of 45 mph and we're only on it for a block or two before turning on to a quieter street. And I run at midday and in visible clothing. Like, presumably, Michelle Benson was doing. It all obviously comes down to personal comfort and safety boundaries. My point is that maybe some of us (okay, me) might need to rethink those. What about you? Do you think you take risks with yourself and your child or do you consider yourself to be overprotective? Do jogging strollers provide a sense of security that doesn't exist?
