To: The jaywalker westbound at Northwestern Avenue and North Grant Street on Nov. 7 at 7:20 a.m. My apologies

I didn't mean to scare you, leaving you looking like a moose caught in the headlights of a Peterbilt, when I slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting you as you ambled against the light crossing North Grant Street. The screech of my tires on the wet pavement must have been a terrible thing for you to endure. I am deeply sorry I scared you. My only explanation is this.

I was under the assumption that when the green light shines in my direction, it's my turn to go through the intersection. The light was green, the turn arrow was green, and so I followed that assumption to turn left onto Northwestern from North Grant. I was obviously wrong to do so. I must again apologize for scaring you with the awful noise of tires on wet pavement as I skidded in my successful attempt to stop a 2,000-pound vehicle from striking you down in your young tracks.

My alternative to the slight scare I gave you was to hit you, and hear your teeth scrape along the hood of my car and down the front grill before said teeth embedded themselves in the street.

That would have been a very bad thing. It is a sound I would not want to hear your teeth make. It would have sounded even worse to you from inside your head.

I cannot honestly say I weighed any choice in my conscious mind. I lacked sufficient time to balance the min-max equation. Hindsight analysis tells me that I chose the lesser of the two evils, consciously or not. I again apologize for your fright.