Hi all,
There have been a couple of recent threads on cars hitting young kids which l glazed over not wishing to get too involved lest l pulled back a bloody stump. (Feelings run high on these issues quite rightly).
In Norwich, especially in the immediate suburbs there appears to an increasing trend of bored young kids ranging from angry 8's to furious 14's to taunt and obstruct cars that are already going slowly due to the kids presence.
Two tricks:
1. Run up the road in front of the car eventually slowing to a stop in a crowd in front of the car where they subsequently taunt and hurl abuse at the occupants.
2. This is the especially good one: Crowd of surlies walking on/off curb as car attempts to get past. You can tell by the body language that there's more. They eventually give enough space for the car to pass. As the car picks up speed to pass, one or more (timed by furtive over shoulder glances) dart out in front of the car forcing an emergency stop (proper slam on brakes or hit kid). Off they run cackling like @!#$ gremlins.
And repeat.
Not only is this dangerous to all concerned but as l have witnessed can be very intimidating for the drivers. Perhaps their responsible parents who didn't want the mewling little brats in the first place, told them one too many times to go 'play' with the traffic.
Personally if this happens to me, l make sure l clip one of the little gits. A mild fracture might well save his life by teaching him to respect the dangers of cars/traffic in future. (Of course l jest).
...
dan
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This is a growing problem certain areas. The last time it happened to me one night last year was when a group of youngsters strolled across the road in front of the car and stopped, blocking my way. It was obvious they had no intention of moving, so I flicked the lights completly off, floored the clutch for a second and spun the needle almost to the redline. This is not what they were expecting and thinking they had a homicidal nutter on their hands they made a panic stricken bolt for the kerb. When they were safely clear I made a big show of spinning the wheels as I accelerated past. With a bit of luck I scared the stuff out of them so much they would think twice about doing it again. Had they called my bluff of course, I would have looked a total pratt and probably invited more trouble.
Phoning the police to bring their attention to the problem when I got home was a complete waste of time, they were offhand and showed no intention of even sending a patrol to check out that particular road. They even asked me if I had got the names and addresses of any of them! Stupid of me not to think to stop and ask, of course.
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Walking home from the local shop tonight (responsible motoring link), I saw something similar but less aggressive.
Group of 12-15 yr olds mucking about in the street. Paid no attention to approaching cars, didn't even look, just in and out of the road willy-nilly.
If a car had to slam on its anchors or sounded its horn, it was looked on as an excuse for much swearing and jeering.
The other day as I looked out of the window, I saw the bloke opposite fiddling with his car. His little daughter, no more than 4 years old, was allowed to run around on the pavement with no supervision whatsoever. This despite the road in question being a busy B road and the house having a properly fenced and gated garden where the child could have played in safety.
Drivers are constantly blamed for the accidents on our roads, but if the government want to see genuine reductions, they should take a look at the way kids treat the streets these days.
I wasn't going to post this due to the warnings against 'rants', but your post has given me a good excuse Dan.
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It's not a rant, Andy, but a serious issue which effects us all. Road safety Education is left for parents to teach their childeren, and from the actions of a lot of them many don't bother, so their offspring grow up with no respect for the dangers they face every time they step off the pavement.
I have often said it before, but the Highway Code should be an important part of the school curriculum from day one. Every child should know the difference in the various types of pedestrian crossing, how long it takes a car to stop and the damage that can be done to the human body if it all goes wrong.
We apparantly have the highest child road accident rate in Europe, despite having one of the most thorough training and testing systems for drivers. Somebody in power should take a serious look at why this is, and try and solve it at source instesd of wasting money on things such as road humps which have not made a jot of difference to the problem anyway.
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Be aware that in Manchester this technique has been used as a prelude to a smash and grab from your car, or even of your car.
You are left with no option but to slow or perhaps even stop.
Do not leave bags on the passenger seat, the boot or doors unlocked.
Came across a deathwish golfer today outside a city centre hotel (?why?), who chose to walk into the road to put his clubs into the car from the rear offside.
Didn't look, opened the door, stepped back directly into into my path, swinging his golf bag even further out.
I (just) came to a complete stop from about 15mph while sounding the horn.
No thanks, no sorry, he told me to **** off. May his future be full of bogies, if he lives to tee off again.
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More innocently, last Saturday:
Entering our local Sainsbury's at Forestside, using the entry ramp from the ringroad, some youngsters materialised on the left and, next thing you know, an escaped skateboard is just about to leave the footpath heading into the ramp.
I have to congratulate the driver of the rather attractive new Astra convertible who was following me. I reckoned that if I kept going I'd be past in time and I have an image in my mind of the Astra in my mirror halting with the board drifting past in front of it - well done.
20' later that day I was passing by the same ramp and, sure enough, the kids were travelling down it (it's got a fair slope) into the car park - the ramp is 2-way. All I could do was to advise the store when I got to the house.
BTW, further out on the Saintfield Road, there's going to be strawberry jam from deathwish adults. It's a 50mph 4-lane undivided road. Very comprehensive store/filling station on one side and various workplaces on the other. No lights or crossing anywhere near - it's now very common to see employees risking life and limb crossing over to get a lunch to carry back.
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About ten years ago on a Friday night I took my then very small daughter out in the car in an attempt to get her off to sleep and relieve my long-suffering partner and allow her some rest. A trip in the child seat can work a treat on such an occasion, though the motion-induced sleep is normally temporary and stops as soon as you come to a halt .
Drove to and round the south-west quadrant of the M25 with daughter snoozing peacefully and then made a bad decision and came back through Kingston town centre & its one-way system.
Stopped at a traffic light and a youngish drunk dropped his trousers and proceeded to drop his fully-exposed behind onto the bonnet of the car, waving and gesturing away. A new from of back-end shunt? Hmmm..... daughter still sleeping peacefully in the back, however. Lights changed but no sign of movement from my "passenger" so I started forward gently and stepped on the brake pedal, to gently tip him off.
Drunk picks himself up and wanders off in an unconcerned daze, allowing me to head for home. Don't think I'd be so lucky nowadays..... maybe it helped that I was driving a Fiat Panda and not a BMW.
David
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UKC32 wrote:
> May his future be full of bogies
Ok, as my cage has been rattled I'll join this thread as well....
Nah, it's full of real (world) motorists, not sandal wearing, sports car driving, speeding hypocrites.
My work here is done!;-)
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TG - we have a bypass around the town centre, and the roadway is separated from the pavements by barriers. Pedestrians have a crossing conveniently sited for the small shopping centre.
So what do they do?
They climb over the barriers and dash in front of cars!
When someone is killed, no doubt the local authority will use the opportunity to whack on a low limit.
Words fail me.
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Been more interesting had you owned a Merc with the 3 pronged star or a rolls royce !
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If it hadn't been for my sleeping daughter in the back I'd have been glad of the option af a pop-up flying lady right where it hurts. .....
It even made me think that bull-bars were a good idea for a few seconds before I reminded myself what they're capable of doing to innocent pedestrians.
David
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>"My work here is done!"
'The', Is that a promise? :o)
Stu.
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My work on this thread is done, so I shouldn't really be posting on it, but, as you asked.......;-)
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This has less to do with road safety than antisocial behaviour.
A thorough knowledge of the Highway Code would be likely to help them calculate EXACTLY how much room the needed to leave when playing "Chicken".
I did cure our neighbour's son of a habit of running down the road behind cars. One dab of the brakes so he ran into the boot did it.
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I remember as a kid we created a BMX track on the village green.
It culminated in a jump onto the exit of a blind hairpin bend. If you were any good you could jump into the middle of the LH carriageway. I guess we developed very good hearing.
Whatever a car would have done to us would have been as nothing compared to what our parents would have.
And IIRC you could get an extra turn of speed by grabbing hold of the trailor when the silage bales were being towed back to the farm...
Then there was our mate P****. We used to dare him to walk on a frozen pond which had accumulated in an old quarry... and he did.
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