"Responsibility" should have "self" in it

I get quite peeved at other people some times. Mainly over failure to take responsibility for themselves.

Today was the second time in 2 weeks or so that, as a driver, I found myself coming dangerously close to pedestrians that ought not be where they were. Today's incident was me backing out of a shopping centre car park spot, and turning since you can't go straight back (unless there's a vacant spot behind you... but even if you do that, you end up having to turn as you drive forwards out of the other spot, and that's just a waste) - and a bunch of pedestrians who were a long way off and walking quickly towards the shop simply walked into the back of the car when I stopped to drive forwards again to leave the car park complex. And then had the nerve to abuse me for "hitting them".

The incident a couple of weeks ago was at the same shopping centre. I'm in the car, engine running, and do my checks to make sure there's no one around. But between my looking and moving off, a woman then tried to walk between my car and the next, and banged on the roof of the car when she got squeezed between the side of my car and the one in the adjacent spot. So, I got abused for "not looking" on that occasion, too.

The question I have is this: how responsible for other people are we? Where does the line between my responsibility for them end and their responsibility for themselves take over? Quite clearly, IMO, in both these cases the other people involved ought to be making themselves aware of what's happening in their immediate vicinity... as a driver I cannot look in all directions at once and so there are clearly going to be points in time where particular directions will not have had me looking there for a small bit of time.

It bugs me that driving is an operation that seems to require more and more good peripheral vision (mainly for other drivers than pedestrians, I haven't told you about the 2 complete tools I came across today that came so very close to having accidents that would probably have written off the car, and both of them because they failed to give way - just as in the two accidents that have written off my last two cars). Unfortunately, optical tests for driving only require the checking of vision by an optometrists' eyechart which only checks straight-ahead vision. For people like me with glasses, peripheral vision is a major concern - and all the more so with me since I have to wear big, chunky contact lenses along with my glasses (yes, both at once, not one or the other). My streaight-ahead vision is fine, but don't ask me to count fingers if you hold your hand near the edge of my vision - I might just have trouble seeing your hand! ;-)