Voice

I just got back from a walk this morning coming from the Woodside bridge back into Corvallis along Woodside Cutoff. I’ve been taking this walk in the mornings for a bit now as the weather is warming up. Today, I was about a quarter way into the walk and saw that something was in the way of road traffic not far ahead. Traffic cleared up quickly, but I could see as I approached that something large and brown was laying in the eastbound lane.

I got closer and could see that it was rather large and still moving some, with some people around. It was a horse. I recognized it as one of the two horses that lives on a property on the south side of Woodside about midway between Woodside and Corvallis. A white horse and this brown one. I could see a man help the injured horse get up and off the side of the road and helped it limp back to a pasture gate. The horse fell there and couldn’t get back up again. That’s when I passed by. I asked if I could help, but a lady there said they just had to get someone to put the horse down. The white horse was at the gate in the pasture looking at its wounded companion, obviously very upset. As I came closer to town, I heard a siren behind me and turned to see flashing lights approach the people and their wounded horse.

As I opened the door to my house, I continued thinking about what had happened. I had seen, as I approached the horse, everything but the actual impact. The vehicle that hit the horse wasn’t there. It had left. The sun was coming up and not yet dawned, but there was a lot of pre-dawn light at the time. How does someone, on a straight, flat, 45 mile-per-hour stretch of road, not see a large brown horse on the road? Maybe it ran out on the road and caught someone by surprise. But, that portion of road is very clear even off to the sides; no brush to hide behind on the sides of the road, and open pasture beyond that. How could someone miss a large brown horse off the side of such a road? Stuff happens, no doubt, and we all get caught inattentive at the wrong moment. I have and thank God that most of such moments for me didn’t converge with a large brown horse as it did for someone today.

I also do wonder about that inattention. This certain kind of inattention that may have been a part of what I saw today. I see too many drivers looking down attentively and for far too long at the lower portion of their steering wheels. This is a common posture that we all see, as common as anyone standing or walking with a phone in their hands, holding it about lower chest level, neck bent down and eyes fixed downward on a screen. I don’t ever see exactly what the driver in such a posture is looking at, but it’s not farfetched to say that the focus of the driver’s attention in the vehicle is not the lower portion of the steering wheel, but rather at the screen of a phone resting there. I see drivers doing this all the time in many places; we all do. In Hamilton, in Corvallis, and walking along the path on Woodside Cutoff. Drivers here, slinging along at 45 to 55 miles per hour. I have known people who, on a straight, flat stretch of road such as Woodside Cutoff, figure they can take that as an opportunity to take their attention off the road to text. What can happen? Likely nothing will, right?

Could be that horse died today because someone decided they needed to, right now and not later, as they were driving, text a friend to see if they were available for lunch. Who knows? Maybe this accident can’t be blamed on that. I just see so many people driving, responsible for their actions, responsible for the vehicle they are driving, responsible for the safety of others on the road and nearby, with their eyes looking down attentively toward the bottom half of the steering wheel in front of them. That was a sad thing to see today, and at least for me, I will take this as an encouragement to be as attentive to the road as I can as I drive and put aside any distractions, and there are many distractions in many forms, until I reach my destination.