Very beautiful morning earlier; sun was shining, roof was down, stereo up as me and the Mrs were on the way back from doing the weekly shop. Decided to take a shortcut through a residential area (as opposed to the busy A-road direct route) as I do very often on the same drive to and from work every day. I was driving up hill, sun in my eyes, parked cars both sides of the road, all of a sudden the car about 50 yards in front rams the breaks on spraying dust and grit everywhere but is unable to stop in time and sends a kid on a bike absolutely flying.

We got out the car immediately and ran over, by that time people everywhere are coming out of houses and looking gravely concerened. The kid wasn't moving at all and was lying at some horrific contorted angle. The woman who was driving the car looked ashen faced and utterly distraught. It really was horrible, until thankfully after the longest minute I have probably ever experienced the kid wakes up and started bawling his poor little eyes out.

The mom comes out and was utterly beside herself, thankfully she wasn't ripping anyones eyes out. He was very clearly in some distress, but people were generally sensible enough not to suffocate the situation and thanks to mobile phones there was no shortage of people calling the emergency services. The poor lad looked in a very bad way; his bike had absolutely decimated the back end of one of the parked cars and I couldn't help thinking that if the lady in front had been doing 40 the child wouldn't have woken up. Thankfully, she was taking it easy.

Although I didn't see it clearly enough to make any sort of judgement as to whether the kid was in the road first and she simply didn't see, or whether he came out of nowhere and she was utterly blameless, it really made me think hard about just what kind of danger you pose whenever you get in the car. I never drive aggressively on residential roads and it perplexes me why so many people feel it is acceptable to do so. It can all change in just a split second and it serves as a great reminder as to why we have speed limits, however over-zealously they are sometimes enforced.

 

I don't think that anyone on this board drives agressively on residential roads.

I know I don't for precisely the reason you have mentioned.

However, the Child is almost certainly to blame here.

The current theory tests includes questions about cyclists and their signals/protocols.

Do you really think a Child knows any of them?

 

I didn't say that anyone on this board does drive aggressively on residential roads. I can't make that judgement and generally the people who post here are a sensible bunch who don't strike me as the sort that would. But people do and you see it everyday, regardless of the cars they drive, or the sort of people they are.

Sorry if it was in the wrong forum.

 

Absolute bollox and you should know better than to spout stuff like that without having more details to hand.

Driving up hill, sun in eyes would also be key factors in my mind, but in the absence of any further information I wouldn't be making any sweeping statements as to who is responsible.

Just glad to hear that there wasn't a fatality.

 

Well, my g/f's dad killed a little girl who rode out in front of him. Despite the court proving it wasn't his fault, Parents lablled him as a Murderer. Was 20yrs ago and he has never driven a HGV since.

I have taken evasive action many times from wandering children on bikes.

You only have to go for a walk to see the total lack of road awareness in kids.

Yes, glad their wasn't a fatality, but feel V.sorry for the Woman driving the car - it's a sickening experience hitting a person in a car I can speak from experience on that one.

 

[QUOTE=Hypersonik,Oct 12 2008, 07:02 AM] Well, my g/f's dad killed a little girl who rode out in front of him.

 

It is, and it's one of the reasons I feel sorry for the Woman driving.

Bones heal in 6 weeks, and kids are VERY resilliant.

The poor Woman will probably replay the incident over and over again whilst blaming herself.

 

here's a question for you all:
if this accident happened 5mins earlier, and there were ample ammounts of people helping, would you stop and get out of your car? - just curious to what other people would do.

glad to hear that this women wasnt speeding or doing anything silly, and even better to hear that the kid she hit, got up!; i can only imagine what it would feel like to of hit a person, let alone making it 100x worse by speeding and knowing that by not speeding could of saved a life...

 

Co-incidental post.

My wife was doing the school run on Friday morning and a 9 year old cycled off the pavement and straight into her path. She was doing 20MPH when he clattered into the side of the people wagon and bounced onto the road. He was wearing a helment, and was very shaken but uninjured.

She trembled for the rest of the day re running it and asking the usual 'what ifs'.

There were loads of witnesses who said it was completely his fault and that things could have been much worse head she been going any faster.

Despite the fact that some d*ckhead behind her had to break violently and the blew the horn (unaware of what had happened) she got out to make sure he was ok.

Morale of the story is to amble through housing estates at 20mph as you never know when a child / dog or something else will come out into the road.

I know where Mr D*ckhead lives and 're focused' him today. Good job he wasn't the car the little fella pulled out in front of.

 

If I was a trained medical person, I might stop. But there's no point crowding a tense scene if there are plenty of people around, not flagging you down, and there's PLENTY of room to avoid the whole scene. If there's not much room, I'd probably plug the gap to avoid overtakes, assuming no ambulance was on its way.

All depends on the situation I suppose.