Wherever motor vehicle and pedestrian traffic must mix, accidents seem to be inevitable, but the number of parking lot accidents just doesn't seem to make sense.

Vehicle operators need to remember that the restricted lanes and spaces in a parking lot allow no room for evasive action if speed is too high for instant stopping when impact is imminent?

Very slow driving and constant alertness is imperative wherever people are walking.

When you park your vehicle and become a pedestrian, you too must keep in mind that you should stay on walkways and not walk where you please or dart into traffic?

It's hard to tell whether cowboy drivers or heedless pedestrians are the worst offenders in parking lot accidents, but we know that the combination can provide plenty of headaches.

Other accident cases that give us grief result from blind corners that often exist where aisles empty into traffic lanes, and the countless incidents where thoughtless handling causes one vehicle to scrape another in narrow parking spaces.

About the only recourse is a continuous campaign to remind every employee of the hazards that exist in parking lots of all kinds.

The parking lot is the most common transition point for a switch in personalities. The driver becomes a pedestrian, and vice versa.

After getting out of the car, some people seem to forget that they are no longer behind the wheel. After parking, they dart out in traffic as if to make up time for being late for an appointment. As a driver, you are aiming tons of steel directly at that darting pedestrian. Can you stop in time? If your vehicle hits that pedestrian, the individual may be dead, but you too are in big trouble.

Many people are forgetful and must be reminded of the rules of safe conduct in parking lots, weather walking or driving, again and again, until the proper performance becomes second nature.

If you keep reminding yourself that proper parking lot conduct is expected--that continuous caution and concern for safety of others is the only right way--you will finally get the message.

If there is something radically wrong about the layout of the parking lot, you should report it. Changes may cut down on accidents and actually expedite the smooth flow of traffic in the lot.

Where there are a great number of parking lot accidents, however, you won't likely be able to put the blame on defective lot layout. Most often such mishaps are caused by self-centeredness--the old human tendency for individuals to be so engrossed in their own affairs that they become oblivious to everything around them. They forget the hazards of parking lots in a rush to get their business done.