very nearly hit a child..

wiogs

motorguy wrote: »

Far too much of this "its always someone elses responsibility not the parents". If the o/p had milled that child, he could have ended up doing jail for it. And the parents will blame the driver.

If you have a three year old - you have to do the thinking for the child - you have to think 20 seconds ahead all the time. In this case the parent didnt even know the child was gone. How was that responsible parenting??

Genuinely infuriates me how little effort people put in these days looking after their kids then up in arms when something goes wrong.

Parents do have a responsibility to care for their children and take responsibility for their actions, not suggesting otherwise.

However some parents I believe do not watch their children 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

elliesmemory1

But should be watching them when out and about surely?
Not only could child have been killed could also have been abducted or anything as was clearly out of sight and control of parent.

TrickyWicky

I nearly hit a kid a year or two back too. I was driving up my road and this little kid (about 8 years old) came out from behind a car on his BMX. I hit the brakes and stopped with about a foot to spare but like the op it also shook me right up.

I wasn't even doing 30 either (which is the limit for our road) I had infact seen a woman and child on the right hand side slightly further up the road and slowed down to 20mph incase HER kid ran out into the road. Little did I know that decision would stop another kid getting hurt or killed.

I was taught when i was little that you never step out from behind a car because you can't see past / round it to see traffic coming. Clearly nobody had taught this young lad that and he bricked it as much as me when we both realised what he had done. I wound down the window and asked if he was ok to which he simply replied "Yes.. thanks".

To think.. if the woman and child hadn't been on the right side further along I'd have been going faster and probably killed the kid. I now drive up and down the road at about 23mph instead of the 30mph allowed. Too many cars at the side of the road blocking the view of the pavement.

Quiet_Spark

TrickyWicky wrote: »

I was taught when i was little that you never step out from behind a car because you can't see past / round it to see traffic coming. Clearly nobody had taught this young lad that...

Maybe if the TV advertising guru's bombarded us with adverts featuring mythical characters such as the "Green Cross Code" man instead of trying to sell us pointless crap every 10 minutes, more people would take care before blindly stepping out.

TrickyWicky wrote: »

To think.. if the woman and child hadn't been on the right side further along I'd have been going faster and probably killed the kid. I now drive up and down the road at about 23mph instead of the 30mph allowed. Too many cars at the side of the road blocking the view of the pavement.

That's called driving according to the prevailing conditions, speed limits are simply numbers provided to give those who aren't capable of thinking for themselves some kind of idea of how the job is done.

prowla

Quiet_Spark wrote: »

You wouldn't have been there, so nothing would have occurred.
If you want scary, then try riding a motorcycle through the City of London/West End while on a time limit to reach


Anyway, your obvious diligence kept the little lamb alive so all well and good.

That's really just ifs and buts, as there might have been some other factors which could have impacted the journey and so put them in the same spot at the same time.

The obvious meaning is that if they had arrived at that point at that instant and had been faster or less alert at that precise moment, then the outcome might have been something else.

And if it hadn't been this particular driver, then it might have been one behind them (or in front).

heartbreak_star

Funny I've seen this today - I pop to a local supermarket for lunch and there were loads of kids toddling around the car park with parents oblivious or just shouting at them instead of actually going to get them. I was glad all the drivers seemed to slow down, as if a kid had been hurt they would have got the blame.

What happened to using baby reins or those wristbands on younger kids, and doing your best to teach older kids how to be safe?

HBS x

Bollotom

Oh? You've never been driving along the road when the Mother pushes the pram out into the road in front of her so she can look around a parked vehicle? Happened to me many times. Or the one who dashes onto the crossing as the traffic is moving off again? Or, worse still, the lollipop lady who pokes her pipe into the moving stream of traffic thus causing the traffic to heavy break. Not just inattentive Mothers. The whole world seems not to learn how to cross safely and just leave it up to the driver. :cool:

hgotsparkle

Yesterday when driving through town, dropping SIL in home, a teenage girl (about 15/16) was getting off the bus and started to cross from in front of the bus she just got off of, and behind another! You would think they would know at that age, don't cross between tall vehicles. There was a pelican crossing not 15ft down from where she stood....

Also the other day driving through a small village on my usual route home from work, a mother was out with her kids, pushing one in a pram and her daughter who looked about 3 or 4, was on a bike with stabilisers, the pavement ended and the little girl just steered out in the road, luckily I was on the other side of the road because of her anyway, otherwise she would have been straight in my line of traffic. Her mother was actually quite far behind her with the pram and when I looked in my rear view mirror once I'd got past the little girl, the mother didn't even look as though she'd said anything to the girl about what just happened. Don't take a child cycling next to a road unless you're an arms length away!

Paperbird

You should come to where I live. To quote a local child " My mum says I can play on the roads now that they have changed the speed limit to 20MPH "

TrickyWicky wrote: »

I nearly hit a kid a year or two back too. I was driving up my road and this little kid (about 8 years old) came out from behind a car on his BMX. I hit the brakes and stopped with about a foot to spare but like the op it also shook me right up.

I wasn't even doing 30 either (which is the limit for our road) I had infact seen a woman and child on the right hand side slightly further up the road and slowed down to 20mph incase HER kid ran out into the road. Little did I know that decision would stop another kid getting hurt or killed.

I was taught when i was little that you never step out from behind a car because you can't see past / round it to see traffic coming. Clearly nobody had taught this young lad that and he bricked it as much as me when we both realised what he had done. I wound down the window and asked if he was ok to which he simply replied "Yes.. thanks".

To think.. if the woman and child hadn't been on the right side further along I'd have been going faster and probably killed the kid. I now drive up and down the road at about 23mph instead of the 30mph allowed. Too many cars at the side of the road blocking the view of the pavement.

hgotsparkle

Paperbird wrote: »

You should come to where I live. To quote a local child " My mum says I can play on the roads now that they have changed the speed limit to 20MPH "

Thats terrible!

One village near me, is a 30 but just a bend where it changes to a 60, some kids about 9 or 10 play football or tennis there right neat the bend, if you're coming the other way from the 60 to the 30, unless you know that it changes there and that kids do play there, its just a fatality waiting to happen. I don't know how parents can let their kids play out in places like that!
I don't have any kids but if I did, the only place I would feel safe about them playing out in the street is if we lived at the end of a cul-de-sac with no through traffic.