Sorry for the title of this thread but unfortunately its true.
Driving along the road at the end of my estate, the one that is 30mph limit but most people do up to 40, its wide, there are no houses on it etc.
Last night I was in my Scenic and driving along but only doing 31mph, purely because I was travelling in front of a police car (which seemed annoyed by my low speed). Just prior to this incident, it pulled off into a side street.
I noticed on the left hand pavement a group of girls, maybe aged 12 and 13 walking along. Literally, just as I approached them, from within their midst, a toddler ran out, straight off the kerb and half way into my lane. I stamped on the brakes and swerved to avoid him. I ended up with my front on my side of the road and rear across the white lines.
The toddler was frozen with fear and was still standing a good couple of yards into the road.
Now, being honest, I am one of these guys, "it will always happen to someone else" etc. But I was shaking last night. The "what ifs" then started.
What if I had been doing my usual speed on this road?
What if I had been driving the Saxo which doesn't have ABS, EBD etc
Does my child know how to keep safe on pavements at side of road?
Through no fault of my own, I could, quite literally, have taken a young child's life and that really got to me.
I have watched that advert where it shows if a car wasn't speeding it wouldn't have knocked the boy down. Now I know how true it is.
I am not going to preach to anyone else or beg you to drive safely, I have read such comments in the past and it has not affected my driving.
What happened last night, however, has.
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I had a similar sort of experience in Leyland when a youngster riding a bicycle along the pavement suddenly turned straight onto a Panda crossing - lights at green in my favour - and I hit the brakes.
Fortunately I stopped in time but the youngster just carried on as though nothing had happened.
My son, who was following me in his car, couldn't believe how I had managed to stop in time. Sixth sense I suppose.
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i cant think of anything to say to you.
but he was watching over you and/or the toddler
it scares the crud out of me, but when i drive in 30mph speed limits, i must admit, i only do 30-32
just shows you how right that advert is, another 10 mph and there was a 50/50 chance of when you hit the toddler, he/she could have died.
how the hell could you go thru life with that on your shoulders?
i know i couldnt.
also, just taking your eyes off the road for 5 seconds, geting a drink or changing station, and !wham!
scary stuff.
but education of young children is paramount also.
i dont let my 8 year old daughter out at all on here own.
and we live in a cul-de-sac.
she can ride her bike to the lampost and back when im out washing my car. but i worry like mad when i see someone whizzing round the corner. ( its a horseshoe cul-de-sac)
(if there is such a thing, dont think so, never mind!)
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"i dont let my 8 year old daughter out at all on here own."
Sorry VTiredeyes, but I think you're coming at the problem from the wrong end. You are protecting your daughter from danger rather than teaching her how to live with it.
Let the car go dirty occasionally and take your daughter for a walk along the High St. Show her the dangers, teach her the safest places to cross the road and drum into her the penalties for getting it wrong!
Chris M
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Stop dwelling on it and give yourself a very large pat on the back! Thanks to your safe driving, observation of speed limit and reaction time, a kid is alive when he could very well be dead. You should be proud of that.
Baz
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Unfortunatly, these are the things which should be running through a motorists mind quite regularly. If you become ignorant of the fact, then you tend to think, as you say, this wont happen to me. I know someone who had the very same thing happen to her, and it really shook her up too. If she had struck the child, then she admitted it would be hard for to ever drive again.
I once had a close call on a major roundabout : I went to pull out but the car sputtered and lost power [dodgy distributor] which meant I kinda crept in to the first lane of traffic, and by the time the car decided to go, it was too late, and an Astra sped right up my chuff, tooting and swerving around me. It played on my mind for months after. No doubt this will too, and there is not alot you can do, apart from reassure yourself that you obviously did everything right.
Even if you were driving the Saxo, you'll be surprised how well you can stop. My Polo is the same, and I too thought that when I come to an emergency stop, i'll probably lock up. But, not so long ago, I had to do an emergency stop to avoid a taxi and amazingly, i managed to pull it up straight and true without locking up.
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Something very similar happened to me a few years back - after going from a 30 to the NSL, I noticed the number of new houses built beyond the NSL sign (one side of the new estate backing onto the road) and decided to wait till I was clear of them before getting up to full speed. I think I got up to 40-45 in a 60.
Bunch of kids to my left ahead. Drawing closer, I feel a bit cautious and hover my foot over the brake. Just as I reach the kids, most of whom are on rollerblades, one of them trundles backwards off the pavement right into my path. Can't swerve round - that's a head-on collision. I hit the brakes and stopped in time, just, but only because by that stage I was probably doing around half the speed limit.
After he got back on the pavement, I went to move on but then stopped, got out and shouted all sorts of abuse at him. I know I shouldn't have, but it really shook me up. Even after driving on, I only made it another few minutes before I had to stop and get out of the car, I was shaking so much.
Have to say that bazza's comment provides a welcome new perspective for me - I honestly never thought of it in those terms. Hopefully next time I remember the event I won't have that "what if?" feeling.
--
andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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I can only echo the concerns expressed here. A few years back when my lad was around 3 or 4 years old, we left a friends house and he was in a playful mood. As I was closing the gate, he decided to run straight out into the road (once a main road, now a by-passed village high street but usually fairly busy). Fortunately there was no car coming but the shock was immense and it will always live with me that, had a car been coming, that would have been the end of him...
You have to be so careful but even then sometimes horrendous accidents happen which you cannot help.
Splodgeface
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Roberson, thanks for your words and reassurance.
Re the point regarding the Saxo, I was trying to say that if I was driving the Saxo, I would have hit the child as the car would have went straight on. The Scenic had ABS and I swerved round him, in effect taking a semi circular route round the child.
Thankfully, no one was hurt which is the main thing.
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Yeah, get what you mean BobbyG.
But if you can get away without locking the wheels in the Saxo, you would have been able to avoid child in the same way. But I fully understand, that in total panic, you can quite easily lock up if you dont have ABS.
You should also be praised for taking avaisive action. I think alot of people, me included, would freeze in this situation and continue in a straight line, not being able to steer, through sheer panic.
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The 20 mph speed restrictions on some suburban estates around here are very irritating when I'm taking a short cut to work. But, I'm very much in favour of such a restriction on the country estate on which I live. There are a large number of young children who play together on the avenue, in and out of parked cars. I'm always aware of them and creep through - 20 mph is far too fast in the circumstances.
There are, however, a number of drivers, mainly women, who don't give it any consideration at all and whiz by at 30 mph.
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>> There are, however, a number of drivers, mainly women, who don'tgive it any consideration at all and whiz by at 30 mph.
So that was an scientific piece of road traffic research then?
Splodgeface
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The 20 mph speed restrictions on some suburban estates around here are very irritating when I'm taking a short cut to work. But, I'm very much in favour of such a restriction on the country estate on which I live. There are a large number of young children who play together on the avenue, in and out of parked cars. I'm always aware of them and creep through - 20 mph is far too fast in the circumstances.
Given the insight of most of your other posts I guess the irnoy switch has failed in the off position.
You you cannot be saying lives on suburban rat runs are worth less than those on the estate in the country where you live.
Kind of reverse NIMBY?.
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Sorry carp typing; hit post not preview.
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A report came out a year or two ago that in an emergency braking situation it has been found that drivers often simply don't press the brake pedal hard enough.
I can understand this completely. Having driven well over 40 years and luckily never recall having to resort to emergency braking this set me thinking would I be in the same position in such an event.
I think that because all our braking is done in simply a slow down manner it would fractionally deter us from standing on the brake pedal. This report has made me conscious of this and hope that when the worst happens I would not have that problem.
Anyone have experience of this......
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Regarding not braking correctly in a emergency, I had first hand experience of this a couple of months ago when a cat ran out in front of me. I was doing 30mph in a 30 limit. It was sitting on the pavement looking across the road, but when I got within about six feet of it, it bolted out. I felt the sickening thump as I hit the brakes, but for some reason in the heat of the moment, I let the pressure off the pedal again, maybe thinking it would have time to escape my rear wheels. Then came a second thump from the back. Maybe I should have kept my foot hard down. I was pretty shaken up by this experience and kept thinking about it\'s poor owner. But what if it had been a child that ran out? No chance...
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Hillman, I think you need to explain you rposition more clearly.
At the moment, it appears that you are saying you agree with speed limits which protect you and yours, but disagree with those that protect others, but inconvenience you.
I'm sure that's not the case, but can't work out exactly what you do mean.
Why do you think suburban estates are less in need of a lower limit than country estates? Surely they're as prone, if not more so, to have children playing in them?
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Hillman said that the limits are irritating, not that he agreed or disagreed with them.
Which bit of that is hard to understand?
I suspect we all feel frustrated by some of the seemingly artifically low limits on large open roads which pass through urban areas don't we?
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Hmm...
I'm not sure I read it exactly the same as you smokie.
While it is admittedly not explicit, there does seem a pretty strong implication that he agrees with the limit where he lives, but disagrees with it elsewhere.
As for frustration, I have felt it in the past where a 60 has changed to a 40 for no apparent reason, but I certainly don't get upset about urban speed limits, that's the place I'm most likely to approve of them.
For that matter, none of the estates I have to regularly drive through have a 20 limit, but in several cases that's about the speed I do anyway.
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BobbyG, you did well and saved a life. Well done.
I suspect that you learnt something, the toddler learnt something, and that whoever was looking after the toddler learnt something.
It is a great shame that so many 30 and 20 limits are ignored; the respect is no longer there.
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I NEARLY DID AS WELL
drove up my road and one came shooting out from the path into the road didnt even look, no brakes on his bike, put the window down and called him a stupid dozy Person. ;o) ND.
as for actually hitting one touch wood i havent
im sure evrybody has had a boy racer moment or two in the past.
i know i have. you sail a bit close then you think \"ooh shouldnt have done that\"
i think as well when you have children you drivng habits completely change, at three o clock an 18 year old nova driver doesnt think that all the schools are chucking out, he just wants to get round to his girlfriends because their mum and dad arent in.
whenever im out and about at that time i take extra special care.
my daughter is 6 we let her play on the access roads at the back of my house, they lead to gated back gardens, but we stay with her, i make an excuse about washing the car so i can keep an eye on her and her friends. at the front, the road is wide enough for a parked car on each side of the road and enough space for a car to get thru as well. our car got crashed into last week there. so, if people are stupid enough not to see a vectra a six year old hasnt got a chance. i dont even have her with me on the front when im cutting the grass in case she dashes off .
we also try and dress her in as brighter coloured clothes as possible and her school uniform is bright red which is a grat idea. jsut in case
you dont seem to see cycling proficiency tests anymore are they still going?? it strikes me that the 8-16 year olds have absolutely no road sense. you know the scary bit of that though... THEY WILL BE DRIVING IN TEN YEARS TIME !
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you dont seem to see cycling proficiency tests anymore are they still going?
Yes, they are. To its credit, LB Camden offers training, and both my sons took the test. But many of their peers consider it pathetic and sneerworthy, like anything that involves learning rules and behaving according to them.
You'll have noticed this type of urban youth sauntering en masse across the street without so much as a glance over the shoulder to see if any traffic is coming. It's the same mentality. It is so provoking that sometimes one actually does feel like knocking them down.
But I guess resisting that provocation is what qualifies us as 'improving' drivers?
MH
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>THEY WILL BE DRIVING IN TEN YEARS TIME !
Presumably like the person driving the large 4x4 that I nearly hit this morning. I was taking my little lad to school in the next village to ours. Just as we nearing his school a car started to reverse out of its driveway and into my path on my left hand side. Fortunately I was just slowing down to stop at the school as this idiot reversed and I was able to stop just a few feet in away of him. The road is quite narrow and there was no chance to swerve around him due to the mother and child who were on the right hand side. Not a pleasant siutation to be in; I was actually quite shaken and nearly taught my son some ripe language. The reason this bloke did not see me was the large tress outside his house which obstruct his view of the road.
Well, just had to get that off my chest.
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>>was the large tress outside his house
Buy him a hair ribbon to hold it out fo the way then.
Sorry, I'll get my coat.
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yes ive seen them all in black clothing with that cocky swagger of a walk. i blame all thes rap videos
it doesnt sink into them does it hooded teenage pond life burberry on, nike trainers and a baseball cap vs vauxhall vectra
their will be only one winner.
can you imagine when the police accident investigation turn up
"yeah mate you did us a favour he was a scrote anyway"
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