I Witnessed A New Level of Dumb In Southern Utah

What is going on in Southern Utah with pedestrians? There was the recent story where siblings died crossing Bluff Street a week apart that made national news. The chances of it happening was so rare that it left many of us wondering what was going on. 

An article on KDXU written by Andy Griffin reviewed statistics in Utah involving auto pedestrian accidents and shows they are slightly down this year compared to the last two. 

In 2018, there were 37 pedestrian fatalities. In 2019 there were 42. In 2020, 36 pedestrians died in Utah and that number was 45 in 2021. Finally, the number jumped to 53 in 2022. So far in 2023 there have been 34.

With this fresh in my mind, I was driving home yesterday when I saw something I have never seen before in St. George or anywhere.  

This time of year, there is a lot of traffic in town due to baseball tournaments, temple open houses and whatever else is bringing people from the colder parts of the state. I was driving home in busy traffic around 5 p.m. 

I was coming through the intersection at Telegraph and 3050 East in Washington. This is the intersection with Hart's gas station on the corner and I was headed towards Costco. The light was green and a young man, probably in his early 20’s walked out into the first lane of traffic about 15 feet back from the crosswalk.

He stood on the white line between the lanes as cars zoomed past on both sides of him. We’ve all seen people cross in the middle of the road and stand in the turn lane, but this was the first time I have seen someone stand on the dotted white line between lanes. 

I would have got a picture if I hadn’t been so worried about hitting him or someone behind me not seeing him. He could have easily waited for the light to turn red and walked in the crosswalk. It was stunning to witness such stupidity. 

I just wonder if others have seen this kind of behavior. Have you recently seen people doing things in traffic that are outside of past experience? The guy seemed normal enough. He stood there in the middle of traffic like it was the most natural thing ever.  

Maybe it was a social media challenge of some sort or maybe they are teaching new traffic rules in school. Perhaps this is far more common than I think. I would love to know if you have seen anything similar.