And Just Like That, We Could've Killed Someone.

On the way back from Calgary this afternoon, she wandered without a care right into our path on Highway 2 just north of Red Deer:

Thankfully the GM of our office, who was driving, was alert and had enough control to brake and swerve so that we didn't hit her.

Unfortunately, the truck behind us tried to brake and swerve too but hit us.  Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt.

What's really messed up: The woman just kept right on walking across the road, even after she caused an accident and even after I yelled at her to stop and come back.  

It was one of the weirdest and eeriest things I have ever seen in my life, someone not caring like that.  Maybe it was dementia or drunkenness or depression. She didn't do the drunken stumble though.  It was a creepily smooth, slow walk.  My memory tells me she is a woman in her 60s or 70s with bags and a water bottle filled with yellow liquid. Piss ... Liquor ... Who knows?  I just vividly remember her water bottle for some reason - maybe because water bottles are supposed to be filled with water and the yellow liquid looked out of place.

The police came right away and took her away after making sure that everyone was physically ok.

I was coming back from a women's forum luncheon filled with ideas and thoughts about women in the changing modern engineering workplace and now I have this seemingly crazy and suicidal elderly woman on my mind.