very nearly hit a child..

aileth

Bollotom wrote: »

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?

I have seen this so much, it makes me wince every time.

Around here the kerbs must be made of molten lava or something, the amount of parents with prams or young children in tow that MUST step off the kerb a few inches into the road before stopping to check, in fact I'm sure a lot of them do it to scare drivers into stopping so they can cross the road quicker.

It isn't only kids running out suddenly though, my commute goes past a large bus stop where every day it is like playing Frogger with clueless adults who just appear between buses and then try and leg it between traffic doing 30, rather than walking 10 seconds down the road to the crossing.

What happened to the green cross code?!

Richard53

OP, don't beat yourself up over this. You were driving safely and nothing bad happened. Just use it as a reminder to keep doing the right thing, driving according to the conditions, and being aware of potential hazards. Don't dwell on it.

You sound quite distressed about it, so sit down, have a drink, and talk it over with someone. The forget about it.

mad_rich

A family friend once hit and killed a child, many years ago. No blame was attached to him - either by the police or the family - but it absolutely destroyed him, as I can imagine it would destroy any of us.

The closest I ever came was driving through a small village in North Wales. Like a scene from an accident prevention video, I saw a brightly-coloured beach ball, hotly pursued by a small girl holding an ice cream. I stopped, and so did she, but with a lot less room than I would have liked.

The only thing to do is keep slow and keep alert.

Idiophreak

Remember a year or so ago I was jogging along and passed a little boy (3, 4?) walking with I guessed his sister (16/17?). As I passed, the boy starting running along beside me, so I had a little laugh with him, made like we were racing etc. Then after a few yards set off again on my way...I was vaguely aware that he was still running along behind me, but figured he'd lose interest - or that his sister (?) would call him back eventually. Then, around 100 yards later, I caught a car pulling out of its driveway in the corner of my eye, just after I'd passed.

I turned back, sprinted, and put my hands up to stop both the car and the child. The car stopped about an inch short of hitting me. The child stopped about an inch short of hitting the car. Child turned back unbothered and started running back to its sister (who was chatting on her phone and completely oblivious to the whole thing). Driver and I just stared, mortified, at each other for about 15 seconds then went on our way.

To this day, I regret not running and asking the girl to actually pay attention to where the child was. Really horrifying to think how it could have turned out.

Robisere

A similar shock happened to me years ago when I was a workshop foreman. I was road-testing a car in my old village, part of the road test included a hill stop-start. At the top of the hill, over the brow, was a school. Knowing it was time for the kids to go home, I crawled slowly past the school. A lad of 9 years ran out straight into the side of the car, pursued by a bigger lad. A teacher was supervising, fortunately the boy was not hurt but the teacher grabbed both kids and read them the riot act, then made them apologise to me. I drove back to the garage and the car owner was there. I explained the incident and the small dent in his wing. There was a good reason for the explanation: the owner was a policeman! The car was his "fishing van" - an old Viva estate. He saw the irony in the situation and told me not to worry, as he could see I was upset. All I could think of, was that the child could have gone under my wheels.

The stories one hears nowadays, concerning "hit and run" drivers who kill and injure people and then leave the scene, are what I cannot understand.