Cross At Your Own Risk!

I was almost hit today... a near miss if you ask me... and had me on edge for a few minutes after, in shock and anger.

So Costa Rican motorists are notorious for running red lights. Some don't even slow down when they do it... they just zoom right through them as if the traffic signal 'red' means nothing... red here means go anyway, not stop!

That's why no matter what color the signal says, I am always cautious when I cross because drivers here HATE to stop for pedestrians. God forbid they should stop for someone crossing the street (I've had cars pass right by me while standing in the middle of the road waiting to cross with my baby in hand). And the few times someone has stopped courteously to let me cross, the car behind them will just go around and zoom right past, totally ignoring the fact that a human being is crossing the street, not some damn animal (who they rarely stop for either).

So I was crossing. There were no cars coming from the left and a few ways from me is a cross walk. The light was red. I assumed since it was red, I could just cross as the cars were stopped and no cars were coming for the opposite direction. WRONG!!!

Here comes a car, speeding through the red light like a bat out of hell. He saw me, I saw him. I stopped and he had to slam on his breaks so hard he left skid marks and a cloud of smoke behind him. He looked pissed. Arms folded, he looked as if it was my fault. I stared him down, shook my head and proceeded to cross the street. My goodness, excuse me for crossing the street when you had a red light. Sorry I made you stop so dangerously. My fault because you had to slam on your breaks for almost hitting me and my precious cargo.

I swear, the laws here are so lax I saw a car run a red light with a cop car in the next lane waiting at the stop light and the cops did not a thing. I've had to stop crossing on the cross walk even though it was my turn because a car came zooming through.... mind you it's a cross walk, a stop signal and I was half way through it.

I guess lesson learned. I will just have to be more careful next time. If (almost) everyone, even my mother in law, is running red lights, it's cross at your own risk. So watch out.