Photo submitted.

Editor,

Someone’s misguided courtesy almost got me killed in traffic - again!

I am a pedestrian on the blindness spectrum. When I’m walking alone I carry a white cane to increase my visibility and ideally, to communicate the fact that I have some degree of blindness.

I was about to cross Bruce Street which was quite busy. I had the stop sign, so I stopped to await a lull in the traffic.

A driver on Bruce Street in a large white vehicle approached slowly and then stopped.

Since I didn’t know why this car was stopping, and I did not have the right of way, I continued waiting.

The car behind the white one passed.

I presume that the white car driver was waving me across, thinking they were doing me a favour. Thank goodness I knew better than to go because the car behind them would have struck me.

This is not the first time this scenario has happened to me.

People with blindness are trained to follow the rules of the road, and not to go if someone who has the right of way stops.

Don’t break the rules of the road in an attempt to do someone a favour, and never try to wave a blind person across the street; they can’t see you waving!

Libby Thaw,
Saugeen Shores