Friday, October 23, 2009
From Craig's List: The Child You Almost Killed Today Could Have Been Yours! (Boro Park)
Sent in by a Chaptzem reader
I was driving westbound on 17th Avenue this morning, through the usual morning traffic, mainly caused by the abundance of school buses at that time, when an eastbound bus stopped in front of me to pick up his precious cargo. He stopped the bus, activated the flashing lights and deployed the flip-out stop signs. Since it was alternate-side-parking this morning on that side of the street, there was a long stretch of space to the right of the bus with no cars parked.
I saw a mother and child start walking down their stoop walking towards the bus. What a great day the child must have been looking forward to. A half a day of school, with a shabbos party to boot.
How flabbergasted was I to see that a car driving behind the bus squeezed himself into the right side of the bus, and slowly inched his way forward on the right side of the bus, savoring the view of all the stop signs and flashing lights before him, then proceeding to pass the bus, ON THE RIGHT SIDE, narrowly missing the unwary mother and child.
The street was clogged with cars in both directions. Many of the drivers, including myself were in a hurry to get to our destinations. We accept the morning traffic as a reality we have to contend with. Nevertheless, we all froze in our places when we saw the bus stop and announce to the world that it was in the process of its noble mission of ferrying precious children to school. I my lifetime I have seen cars pass buses on the left side from time to time. Perhaps a little cautiously and perhaps they were engrossed in their driving along and didn't notice the bus. That is bad enough. But this guy deliberately proceeded to squeeze his way into the right lane created by a row of vacant parking spaces, took note of the myriad of flashing lights around him, and proceeded with malice to recklessly endanger the life of innocents. People go to jail for such things.
Witnessing this scene I lost it, and swung my car into the oncoming lane and blocked the way of this would be assassin, and gave him a piece of my mind. His only reaction was to show contempt for my gall in delaying him from getting to his destination. After all, the whole world does revolve around him.
As he squirmed himself past my roadblock like a rat scurrying into a hole, I managed to snap a picture of the rear of his car. If this message ever does get to him, I only hope that the little drama from this morning will evoke in him a small dose of common decency. If that happens this all would have been worth it.
BTW, a shout out to all my fellow commuters who cheered me on this morning. It appears that decent people are still the majority in our society.
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/vnn/1434083830.html
I was driving westbound on 17th Avenue this morning, through the usual morning traffic, mainly caused by the abundance of school buses at that time, when an eastbound bus stopped in front of me to pick up his precious cargo. He stopped the bus, activated the flashing lights and deployed the flip-out stop signs. Since it was alternate-side-parking this morning on that side of the street, there was a long stretch of space to the right of the bus with no cars parked.
I saw a mother and child start walking down their stoop walking towards the bus. What a great day the child must have been looking forward to. A half a day of school, with a shabbos party to boot.
How flabbergasted was I to see that a car driving behind the bus squeezed himself into the right side of the bus, and slowly inched his way forward on the right side of the bus, savoring the view of all the stop signs and flashing lights before him, then proceeding to pass the bus, ON THE RIGHT SIDE, narrowly missing the unwary mother and child.
The street was clogged with cars in both directions. Many of the drivers, including myself were in a hurry to get to our destinations. We accept the morning traffic as a reality we have to contend with. Nevertheless, we all froze in our places when we saw the bus stop and announce to the world that it was in the process of its noble mission of ferrying precious children to school. I my lifetime I have seen cars pass buses on the left side from time to time. Perhaps a little cautiously and perhaps they were engrossed in their driving along and didn't notice the bus. That is bad enough. But this guy deliberately proceeded to squeeze his way into the right lane created by a row of vacant parking spaces, took note of the myriad of flashing lights around him, and proceeded with malice to recklessly endanger the life of innocents. People go to jail for such things.
Witnessing this scene I lost it, and swung my car into the oncoming lane and blocked the way of this would be assassin, and gave him a piece of my mind. His only reaction was to show contempt for my gall in delaying him from getting to his destination. After all, the whole world does revolve around him.
As he squirmed himself past my roadblock like a rat scurrying into a hole, I managed to snap a picture of the rear of his car. If this message ever does get to him, I only hope that the little drama from this morning will evoke in him a small dose of common decency. If that happens this all would have been worth it.
BTW, a shout out to all my fellow commuters who cheered me on this morning. It appears that decent people are still the majority in our society.
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/vnn/1434083830.html
Comments:
You did the right thing!
A Boro Park mom
A Boro Park mom
Comment Credit ---This article posted by 
: October 23, 2009 11:05 AM
: October 23, 2009 11:05 AM
I'm sooooo proud of you!! You did a great job!! I would've done the same thing!! perhaps pass on the message to the police with the license plate number?
I had a very similar story last year that could've C"V ended bad....B"H my daughter was between the doors of the bus having just stepped off the bus when the maniac of a driver parked his car. She never ever waits a second when getting off and I saw with my own eyes how true it is that every child has two malachim watching over them constantly.
I had a very similar story last year that could've C"V ended bad....B"H my daughter was between the doors of the bus having just stepped off the bus when the maniac of a driver parked his car. She never ever waits a second when getting off and I saw with my own eyes how true it is that every child has two malachim watching over them constantly.
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 23, 2009 11:18 AM
: October 23, 2009 11:18 AM
Pretty impressive that the author did not mention the driver's ethnicity or creed. Unless the author belongs to the same group?
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 23, 2009 11:34 AM
: October 23, 2009 11:34 AM
You are my Hero!!!
I would have done the same thing. Some Jews, if you want to call them that, believe they are invisible. Passing stopped busses, double parking, not paying for meters etc....
Don't you love it when you see a guy/woman running out of a store to their double-parked car yelling at the cop not to give them a ticket? Why shouldnt you get a ticket? Because you only broke the law for 5 minutes to run in and get some challah?
The chillul Hashem that goes on amongst Jews and their beliefs they are above the law is ridiculous. I wish there was a way to put an end to it.
I would have done the same thing. Some Jews, if you want to call them that, believe they are invisible. Passing stopped busses, double parking, not paying for meters etc....
Don't you love it when you see a guy/woman running out of a store to their double-parked car yelling at the cop not to give them a ticket? Why shouldnt you get a ticket? Because you only broke the law for 5 minutes to run in and get some challah?
The chillul Hashem that goes on amongst Jews and their beliefs they are above the law is ridiculous. I wish there was a way to put an end to it.
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 23, 2009 12:13 PM
: October 23, 2009 12:13 PM
Don't make assumptions as to why he was breaking the law. He could have had an emergency. You say he was inching past, in which case he was at least making sure no one was crossing. Not everything is black and white. Don't take the law into your own hands.
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 23, 2009 3:05 PM
: October 23, 2009 3:05 PM
Don't make assumptions as to why he was breaking the law. He could have had an emergency. You say he was inching past, in which case he was at least making sure no one was crossing. Not everything is black and white. Don't take the law into your own hands.
Are you kidding me!?? Even a Hatzalah car with lights and sirens flashing, rushing to a code 1 emergency, would not dream of passing a flashing school bus on the right side.
Maybe you were the driver, and youre trying to answer for yourself. Perhaps you can tell us what the big emergency was.
Are you kidding me!?? Even a Hatzalah car with lights and sirens flashing, rushing to a code 1 emergency, would not dream of passing a flashing school bus on the right side.
Maybe you were the driver, and youre trying to answer for yourself. Perhaps you can tell us what the big emergency was.
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 23, 2009 5:42 PM
: October 23, 2009 5:42 PM
Can anyone read the license plate?
I got EJH- 3 ? ? 9
I got EJH- 3 ? ? 9
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 24, 2009 8:26 PM
: October 24, 2009 8:26 PM
Who knows, maybe this guy needed to find a Toilet ASAP. Stuff Happens.....
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 24, 2009 8:30 PM
: October 24, 2009 8:30 PM
"Even a Hatzalah car with lights and sirens flashing, rushing to a code 1 emergency, would not dream of passing a flashing school bus on the right side."
Right, because the bus driver, seeing the flashing lights would wait for the ambulance to pass before signaling people to board, and extending his stop sign, precluding the necessity to pass.
What the OP SHOULD have done was just let the guy pass, note his license plate, and inform the police. He would then have had to answer for his actions.
By blocking him, the OP who is presumably not a cop, just escalated the situation.
BH no one was hurt.
Right, because the bus driver, seeing the flashing lights would wait for the ambulance to pass before signaling people to board, and extending his stop sign, precluding the necessity to pass.
What the OP SHOULD have done was just let the guy pass, note his license plate, and inform the police. He would then have had to answer for his actions.
By blocking him, the OP who is presumably not a cop, just escalated the situation.
BH no one was hurt.
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 24, 2009 10:24 PM
: October 24, 2009 10:24 PM
I don't understand. Isn't there such a thing as a citizen's arrest?
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 25, 2009 11:01 AM
: October 25, 2009 11:01 AM
Wow. You are to be commended big time. I challenge you, Chaptzem, as your name says, be the forum to accept names, license plates etc., and this may be the answer to what has gone way too far. If you don't wanna see yourself in lights, behave!
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 25, 2009 7:22 PM
: October 25, 2009 7:22 PM
who buys a car at "Comfort Auto"?
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 26, 2009 6:26 PM
: October 26, 2009 6:26 PM
i heared the story from the bus driver and the mother from the littlle boy and it was very scary
Comment Credit ---This article posted by : October 26, 2009 8:13 PM
: October 26, 2009 8:13 PM
Even though this happened in the middle of Boro Park, I can tell you that not every driver who drives around New York City (even BP) with a sense of entitlement is necessarily a Jewish driver.
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Comment Credit ---This article posted by : November 05, 2009 9:32 PM
: November 05, 2009 9:32 PM
