Used in a sentence: "Today, I experienced my 'Florida Baptism (Pedestrian Edition)' when that guy in this picture used that car in that photo to hit me as I was in the crosswalk crossing the street."
Walking two hours a day, six days a week, it was bound to happen (half of those are supposed to be on a bike, but it's always in the shop with a flat tire from all the debris on the side of the road that I have to drive through) ... and I shouldn't go any further without clarifying that I am just fine. "Hit" was more like "clip" or "swipe" -- a distinction said driver was trying to make with the policeman, who instead correctly focused on the fact that his car made contact with my body.
Long story kind of short -- I had the right of way, was halfway across the street IN the crosswalk with the little flashing white man on the pole egging me on and the driver turned left behind me from the road to right, cutting me off in such a way that his driver's side back door hit my shoulder. I kept on going on my walk, originally intending to just chalk it up to "damn Florida drivers" ... but it turns out that his contact with me happened in front of a school bus, and the bus driver was a witness. She got his license plate number and tried to get my attention. When I didn't respond to her (I had noted his car had turned into the parking lot of the ESOL school, and I assumed him to be some kid, so I was watching to make sure it wasn't waiting for me a block away), she then went to the security guard on the other side of the street at the high school and gave HIM the information and had HIM wait for me to pass by on my way home.
I told the school security guard that I was shocked, but okay, and he said that "right is right" and that I should consider calling it in, especially since it was a high traffic intersection full of school kids many hours of the day. On a hunch, I went to the parking lot of the ESOL school and matched up the license plate to the car in the picture. Having not yet decided if I was going to report anything, I took a few pics of the car (including my "smudge" mark on the door where it hit me, what with how much I sweat when I walk), and someone went in the building and alerted the driver. He came out ... we exchanged some words ... and he wasn't taking accountability for his actions. When his reply to me was "so what", I knew then I'd be calling the police.
The bus driver witness showed up shortly before the policeman did, and all parties were interviewed. I insisted I was fine, with just a sore shoulder, but that I wanted to make it official so that he understood he had to change his ways in order to save a future kid from being run over. The driver's defense was that he didn't hear the act of running into me because he was playing music loudly, that he didn't "hit" me but he just "swiped" me, that he didn't see me (despite the police person saying I was kind of a big guy and despite him having told the security guard that he had "calculated" for me a bit earlier in our conversations), that the light was green (as if he had the right of way) AND that he had driven to school five years without hitting anyone (as if that was something for which he should be congratulated).
Bottom line ... I spent the morning in a way I didn't expect, and he ended his morning with a citation for hitting a pedestrian in a school zone.
Or, in other words, I have now had my Florida Baptism (Pedestrian Edition). And I lived to tell the tale (for now)!
THE LAST TIME I DISCUSSED FLORIDA BAPTISM:
http://capcognition.blogspot.com/search?q=baptism
IF I WERE THE SUING TYPE:
http://www.justinziegler.net/does-a-pedestrian-hit-by-a-car-in-florida-have-a-case/
IT'S A DANGEROUS WORLD OUT THERE:
http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2016-03-08/early-data-suggests-pedestrian-deaths-surged-in-2015
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