Broken Image

Fuji XT1 Down

This image might have been a more appropriate intro image for this post as I had a little mishap yesterday walking home from the lab.  Crossing the street, a white Ford pickup felt he did not want to wait for a pedestrian, so he gunned the engine and failed to stop.  The guy behind him in a Honda stopped, but then did not see me walking in the cross-walk. I tried jumping out of the way, but the Honda tire rolled over my foot and the car slammed into me. Right arm and left foot is a bit sore, but everything seems to work.  My poor Fuji X-T1 and 50-140 lens however got the short end of the stick with the lens shearing off and the camera flying to the pavement, breaking the handgrip off.  The camera body appears to be pretty beat up and non-functional and the lens is clearly hosed with lots of loose bits inside.

The driver stopped and he seemed like a truly good guy.  The interesting thing: my initial anger towards him was cut short by the woman behind him who got out of her car, came up and wrapped her arm around me, immediately diffusing any and all anger I might have felt.  Human touch is a phenomenal thing…

The driver who hit me clearly felt bad and said he would replace the camera gear, but it looks like I’ll be without this camera set up for a little bit as the weather warms up and the birds come out.  I was also hoping this weekend to get out and photograph the bald eagles up at Farmington Bay, but that trip is on hold for now.  The good news of course is that while I’m sore, nothing physical on me appears to be broken and from the drivers perspective, Fuji is having a screaming sale on cameras and lenses right now that will save him almost $1000 over what I paid for the gear to replace it.

Lessons: What we should practice as adults is what we learned as kids, right? You don’t think about adults getting hit by cars so much as you think about it happening to kids who are not paying attention.  But things happen fast.  Wear bright clothes at dawn/dusk, make sure that drivers make eye contact with you, practice defensive walking/bike riding and slow down.  And… accidents happen.  Be a good human being when they do.

One Reply to “Broken Image”

  1. Double ouch for you and the camera. I hope you heal quickly.

    A woman in a grocery parking lot almost hit me last year while I was walking to the store. She was driving in the wrong lane and screeched to a stop about 6 inches from me. Once I moved she drove on by and I yelled angrily at her without using obscenities.

    You are to be commended for your response and composure. I know from experience that I would not have handled it as well as you did.

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