To the editor:

On Monday evening, Nov. 6, I just missed getting killed by a second or less.  

After an afternoon of raking and mowing my lawn, the final step of cleanup was retrieving my lawn mower from the far end of the lawn. At the north end of Washington Road in Barrington, I was pushing the mower south along the boundary of my lawn and the pavement, facing oncoming traffic, of which there was none.  I rolled it briefly into the travel lane to get around my mailbox and into my driveway.  After that brief maneuver, I immediately felt an air pressure wave and snapped my head around to see a speeding vehicle passing a foot or two behind me. It had crossed the double yellow line and was driving on the wrong side of the road to pass 2-3 other vehicles. It was a dark-colored SUV or minivan. This happened just after 5 p.m., but there are street lights, my outdoor house lights were on, and I was wearing my white painter’s pants that I use for yard work, so any responsible person would have seen me while driving in this residential area.  

Life and death are random. Enjoy every minute you have, because there are people out there who do not care if you live or die.

Norman Dudziak 

Barrington