As the ice slowly melted off University grounds, students’ worries of getting injured outside seemed to melt as well. However, the warmer weather brings an increase in pedestrian traffic, which has proven to be a recipe for disaster.

Jenny Target ’22 was in for a rude awakening on the way to her 8 a.m. lecture on March 20.  As she made her way uphill, she was brutally trampled by a group of cross-country runners. While her gashes and bruises were relatively minor, Target ended up fainting from the shock and was driven to the hospital by a bystander who witnessed the accidental stompling.

“I splashed some of my coffee on her face to get her to wake up,” Sally Pass ’21 said. “Even though her physical injuries didn’t look too bad, I thought she should get checked out by a professional.”

With tears in her eyes, Target described how quickly and ruthlessly the pack of runners plowed over her.

“I was looking down at my phone, checking Snapchat, and didn’t see them coming,” Target said. “Next thing I knew, the wind was knocked out of my chest, my backpack flew off my shoulders, and I fell backwards onto the sidewalk. It all happened in slow-motion.”

The group of runners responsible for the collision has come under fire from the general public after it was revealed they did not stop to check if Target was okay until their 19-mile run was complete.

“We only had one mile to go, so we figured four minutes wouldn’t make or break her condition,” Jack Rabbit ’21 said.

“She ended up being fine, and we made sure that her absence was marked as ‘excused,’” Dash Jones ’20 said. “A freebie on an 8 a.m? Consider me jealous!”

After this harrowing incident, the rules of the roads have been made clear: nobody is safe. The community is advised to not let its guard down just because the sun is finally out. In fact, based off of Target’s experience, students may need to be aware of their surroundings now more than ever before.