History Main / LookBothWays

* In ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten}}'', Cindy tells the protagonist to dump a bucket of blood over her bullying victim Lily. If the player chooses to dump the blood over her instead, she'll run into the street ([[NoOSHACompliance which doesn't have as much as a fence separating it from the kindergarten playground]]) in a panic and get hit by a car [[KilledOffscreen off-screen]], with only her shoe bouncing back on-screen afterwards.

* [[spoiler:Pufftail's OneTrueLove Tammy]] in ''Literature/{{Stray}}'' is hit by a car the night they plan on running away together.

* Hitomi from ''Anime/{{ICE}}'' gets run over by a car, which promptly transports her mind into the body of a woman living in the near future, where all males have gone extinct.

* In ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest II'', crossing the airport street without pressing the crossing button results in your character Sonny Bonds getting hit by a speeding taxicab. Furthermore, like in ''Leisure Suit Larry'', walking out into the street will kill you off screen.

* In the first Creator/TimDorsey novel, ''Florida Roadkill'', a Satanic assassin tries to kill Serge and Coleman. Unfortunately, he kneels to pray in the middle of a poorly lit highway in the middle of the night while wearing black and ends up getting run over by a bus full of devout Christians.

** In an episode dealing with a bridge jumper, Henry nearly falls off the bridge himself. Though he would have resurrected, he points out that it's one of the least pleasant ways to die. He manages to climb back onto the bridge... only to be almost immediately hit by a truck.
** In the episode "Social Engineering", a woman is tricked by a hacked walk signal into crossing the street, at which point she's hit by a car.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten}}'', Cindy tells the protagonist to dump a bucket of blood over her bullying victim Cindy. If the player chooses to dump the blood over her instead, she'll run into the street ([[NoOSHACompliance which doesn't have as much as a fence separating it from the kindergarten playground]]) in a panic and get hit by a car [[KilledOffscreen off-screen]], with only her shoe bouncing back on-screen afterwards.

* At the start of ''[[Film/PaulBlartMallCop Paul Blart 2]]'', his mom steps forward just a bit to pick up her morning paper from the road rather than the driveway. Cue delivery truck.

* In ''Literature/TheCityWeBecame'': The primary avatar of New York runs away from his enemies across the FDR drive, and they get killed by being run over by the cars there.

* In ''LightNovel/MushokuTenseiJoblessReincarnation'', the protagonist is an otaku and hikkikomori who's wasted pretty much his whole life inside. He sees a couple arguing in the street, unaware that they are about to be hit by a truck, and shoves/pulls them out of the way at the cost of his own life. Fortunately, his act of heroism is repaid when he is reborn in another world full of magic and adventure where he resolves not to waste his life a second time. (And for some reason keeps his memories and adult mentality from his previous life despite being in a child's body.) Given how popular it was at the time, this is likely the source of trucks as one of the more popular choices to ReincarnateInAnotherWorld by in late 10s novels.

* ''Anime/MagicalPrincessMinkyMomo'' being run over by a truck (and her show not immediately ending) has become infamous among anime fans. It's quite over the top, with the truck being full of children's toys, first swerving to avoid a toddler and ''then'' hitting Momo, and the ambulance sound coming from one of the toys. In fact, it was the inspiration for the ''Excel Saga'' incident mentioned above.

Not to be confused with [[Film/LookBothWays the film of the same name]]. If the pedestrian can not only survive it, but shrug it off (usually wrecking the vehicle), it's a case of PedestrianCrushesCar.

* In ''[[VisualNovel/EfaFairyTaleOfTheTwo ef: A Tale of Memories]]'', [[spoiler:Yuuko]] gets hit by a car when she suddenly rushes into the street without looking out for traffic. This is especially egregious, since she managed to survive some pretty bad stuff before that. Not to mention you can count the number of moving cars ''in both series'' in all of ''Otowa'' on one hand. In the game, however, she's hit ''not'' because of this, but because [[spoiler:she was trying to save Miki, who was unaware of the approaching vehicle, from being run over]].

* [[spoiler:Nayuki's mother Akiko]] in ''VisualNovel/{{Kanon}}'' is hit by an SUV running a red light and traveling too fast for snowy conditions near the end, [[spoiler:but survives thanks to Ayu's miracle]].

* The entire plot of ''Fanfic/YuGiOhResurrection'' occurs because Yugi is hit and killed by a vehicle while crossing the street to meet Jonouchi and Honda at Burger World, which allows him to [[ReincarnateInAnotherWorld travel to a different universe]].

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%%* This has happened a few times on ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' (Master Shake, Major Shake and Meatwad). (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)

* In ''Literature/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'', the [[NoNameGiven "monkey girl"]] was killed in a traffic accident while rushing to school. Given that she died so young, her primary goal as Catarina Claes is reaching old age.

* "[[NoNameGiven The monkey girl]]" from ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' was killed in a traffic accident while rushing to school. Having died so young, her primary goal when her memories reawaken as Catarina is to live to a ripe old age.

* The trope occurs ''hilariously'' -- twice -- in ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}''.

* The ReincarnateInAnotherWorld version is mocked in ''LightNovel/KonoSuba'', where the plot is kicked off by the LoserProtagonist dying of a panic-induced heart attack after heroically [[StupidSacrifice pushing a girl out of the path of a slow-moving tractor he mistook for a truck]]. He then [[NoDeadBodyPoops soils his pants as he dies]] and [[HumiliationConga gets laughed at by both his family and the hospital staff]] for dying so embarrassingly. This all happens ''[[EstablishingSeriesMoment within the first five minutes]]''.

* ''Anime/{{Monster}}'':
** An incarceree's brother practices a StagedPedestrianAccident on a road while awaiting the prison van transporting [[spoiler:Tenma]] and the aforementioned. While talking to his girlfriend he steps out backwards into the road, only to be hit by said prison van in a manner far more real than he could have intended. [[spoiler:Though Tenma does manage to save his life.]]

* The [[NoNameGiven "monkey girl"]] was killed in a traffic accident while rushing to school. Given that she died so young, her primary goal as Catarina Claes in ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' is reaching old age.

* Narrowly averted twice in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''. In ''Sun and Moon'', Sandy is nearly hit by a car in a busy street and has to be rescued by Shaymin. Chloe's Eevee reminds Grookey about this in ''Journeys'' when running an errand, then wait for the crosswalk to turn on to safely cross (but look both ways again to be safe).

* [[SoBadItsGood Inexplicably, unfathomably, illogically, and]] ''[[SoBadItsGood hilariously]]'', M. Bison tries to do this to Ryu at the very end of the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' [[Anime/StreetFighterIITheAnimatedMovie animated movie]]. Why an international crimelord with near-unlimited Psycho Power, an otherwise brilliant tactical mind, and martial arts expertise would try to run down someone with a truck will [[MST3KMantra forever be a mystery]].

* ''Anime/WeissKreuz'':
** The first episode opens with a girl named Michiru waving goodbye to her boyfriend, who gets on his bike and is suddenly run over by a van. "Run over" as in ''it falls on him from an overpass, on fire, covered in ninjas''.
** Averted in the case of [[spoiler:Ran's ill little sister Aya-chan]], since it turns out [[spoiler:it was intentional]].

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Constantine}}''. A Mexican man finds a spear point and walks out into the street, where he's hit by a car. Not only is he not killed, he runs away completely unharmed. We later find out that he survived because the spear point he's carrying is from [[spoiler:TheSpearOfDestiny]].

Interestingly, the driver almost never slows down (if they try, they will brake so hard that their wheels lock up and they end up not slowing down anyway) and never swerves, even if the person was in the street long enough for them to react. If the victim is "lucky" they might just honk (might). This, however, can be often a case of TruthInTelevision. Drivers are humans, not automated machines, and a quick and unexpected obstacle that shows up in the car's way, such as someone running, may not give the driver time enough to react and cause a traffic accident.

* Subverted in ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm''. At first, it appears that Urano (the girl who would become Myne) is about to get hit by a speeding truck, but she safely makes it across the street despite being nose-deep in a book at the time. It's not until she gets home that she dies and gets reincarnated after being crushed under an avalanche of books.

* In season 1, episode 9 of ''Series/{{Ozark}}'', real estate agent Sam Dermody is arguing with his overbearing mother Eugenia about the placement of an open house sign. While standing on the road, a truck speeds past, [[spoiler:hitting and killing her.]]

Among other popular death tropes, Japanese media ''really'' likes this one, whether it be for setting up a sudden drama arc or killing some poor sap so they can ReincarnateInAnotherWorld. Calling the vehicle in question "Truck-kun" (or its local vehicular equivalent) has become [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/truck-kun a meme]].

[[FridgeBrilliance The incredibly dangerous roads in Fictionland might explain why]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Jaywalking is considered as serious as Murder and Arson...]]