I have been worrying recently a decent amount about running over a pedestrians foot without noticing especially at faster speeds. I think I would notice if i hit them anywhere else but I worry that i if i hit someones foot I might never find out. I know there is a good chance I would feel it or here someone yell but what if neither happen and i never find out. I have been feeling a little better recently but i have seen some people online say you might not feel it which has made me more worried although most people think you would. I probably wouldn’t be worrying about this fear as much if I didn’t used to have bad habits that included looking down at the radio/time for a few seconds a few times a trip. My parents also told me that i drove to much on the line of the shoulder or a little over it while i was driving too much. With those two things combined I’ve started to worry if it was possible that something could’ve happened and if i may never know. I worry too much about a lot of things but I’ve barely been able to get my mind off of this lately.
It must be so stressful having those thoughts keep playing over in your mind and constantly worrying about hurting others and not knowing.
I hope I can help put your mind at some ease. Whether it’s driving close to the lines or out a drive way area or supermarket area, the person has to be standing very close to the car. The tires themselves are positioned under. If you stand next to your parked car and place your foot in front or behind the tire, you may see how close you have to be to the car for it to go over your foot. Chances are that if they are that close, they’d also hit the rear view mirror.
Sometimes I worry that someone will run past the drive way or a drive through area where you can’t quite see, you can always give a little beep as you drive out so people know there’s a car approaching if that helps put your mind at ease.
I hope you’re going okay. Have you ever been able to talk to someone about your concerns besides your parents?
You’re not the first person who glances at the clock or radio ect. I often do quick glances and the speedometer because I’m always paranoid I’ll just not think to and not notice myself speeding up, so try not to be too hard on yourself.
I’ve only really told my parents. I think about the wierdest circumstances too where someone can be sitting on the road and I’ll only hit their foot because of that.
I’ve been feeling a little better recently because I think the chance of it happening in the first place aren’t high and it’s probably pretty unlikely I wouldn’t feel it or hear the person yell. But i always worry that somehow neither will somehow not happen.
It’s not an uncommon thing for people with anxiety ect to have these thoughts. My fear is when I’m holding a baby I’ll just drop it and not be able to save it. But I know I have control over myself and know that realistically the likelihood of that happening is very small. There’s things I can do to prevent that. Sitting down, not reaching for things with one hand, ect.
While you may have a fear of running over someone’s foot, you know you can slow down if there’s people who look like they’re about to cross. Make sure to keep a reasonable distance from them. That sort of thing. Working yourself up to feeling like it will happen often prevents us from living life. Some people become to crippled by fear they don’t do anything.
I’d hate for you to feel like you can’t keep driving from the fear! Which is why sometimes seeking professional opinion can help because they can explain to us how to rationalise our fears and overcome them
Tbh I’m not really afraid of it happening whenever I’m driving. I just started thinking recently if it was possible that my my old bad habits could’ve caused something that I don’t know about.
I just can’t stop thinking about the worst outcomes. Especially since I’ve seen some people say u might not feel it or that someone might not yell.
I wouldn’t worry about this if I were you.
Consider this:
When driving and you see a pedestrian, generally people will scoot to the opposite side of the lane or to the next lane entirely in order to give too much space to said person so that stuff like this doesn’t happen. Usually in this case, other drivers ahead of you would do the same and so you would know far ahead of time if someone is near the road.
The likelihood that something happened without you realizing is extremely low when you think about it.
Has anything ever happened that logically made you believe you ran someone over or is this simply just a hypothetical in your mind?
Also, if you you are this worried, I think the best thing you can do is practice better driving habits. Don’t worry about the time - it will be the same whether or not you look at the clock and if you’re late for something it doesn’t matter anyway because that will just cause anxiety and you won’t be able to do anything about it anyway.
As for the radio, most newer vehicles (mine is a 2012) have buttons on the back of the steering wheel for volume and changing stations to avoid this very problem. Otherwise just play a CD or put Spotify on your phone before you start driving. Bad music is NOT worth the possibility of running someone over.
You might try instead to focus on what you see while you’re driving until you feel more focused. What color is the light you’re approaching? What color is the car in front of you? Are their brake lights on? Etc.
I agree with you that people would move out of the way in front of my but sometimes you can’t really see everything in front of you tho like when you go around a curve.
That is true, so you need to be extra cautious.
Agreed I’m just so freaked out that something might’ve happened and I’ll never find out even tho i have no proof except some old bad habits.
The uncertainty is just killing me i feel like I can’t even live my life at this point.
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