car safety ad

[Mat Jackson]

I agree that parents and kids have responsibilites, but so do we.  I`m sure if anyone here hit and killed a child, even if it was the kids fault and you weren`t speeding your views would be entirely different.

As adults we should take on more responsibility than the kids, and respect the initiatives aimed to save lives.  By all means have fun on the road, but do it sesibly and be aware of others failings.

[Boomy]

One day I was at the shop with my brother and my dad. On the way back I was crossing the road when I was hit by a car.

I was hurt really badly and had to be taken to a big hospital by helicopter. I was really lucky that the car was only going 26mph. The policeman said that if the driver was going any faster I might have been killed!

But I'm OK now and my mum has been trying to get that road where I was hit made wider. She said that they should stop cars parking there too, because that makes it harder for drivers to see us when we are trying to cross the road

Superb!.

How did a 4 year old get run over on a road that was dangerous to cross by a driver that was doing 26 mph?.

Who knows.But, it can all be sorted out in the parents eyes.

Simply widen the road and stop carks parking on it!.

Marvelous.

Once that road is wider though as she wishes and double yellow lines stop cars parking, i predict it could increase the speed of vehicles.

I assume that anyway because many wider roads that have allowed traffic to progress quite safely in the past have now been made into single lanes or narrowed and fitted with various obstacles.This has been done to slow us all down...yet again.

So, when Harry (now aged 5) gets hit again, i assume his Mum will blame the driver who was travelling at 30 mph + and will now demand the speed limit is reduced.

After all, as they keep pointing out and as she well knows, 26 mph or less will mean you can hit her little boy all day long right?.

Once the speed limit is reduced on this now wide clear section of road but drivers still break the speed limit (because they can't understand why such a wide road would have a laughable low limit) and Harry gets hit again from running out of a doorway or alley, then they may well install a camera to stop these stupid drivers risking lives!!.

So, the parent got the road made wider, got people to park somewhere else by using yellow lines and they put in a camera.

They also had to use a helicopter to ferry the kid to hospital and a perfectly safe drivers smashed up car will be a constant reminder of the child bouncing off his/her bonnet until it can be repaired (if he or she wants to drive again).

It cost a few quid to do all of this of course (but they should get that money back in fines).

And all of the above happened because a vehicle hit a child at 26 mph who ran out into the road.

Yet at no point at all does the parent begin to wonder how her 4 year old managed to run into the road or why.

Llittle Harry probably got rewarded with a games console or something as he lay in hospital for a while and regularly got patted on the head and told he was brave and a little hero.

I doubt he got told off as he doesn't mention it at all, just that his Mum wants a wider road with no cars so her kids can run around as they wish no doubt in "safety".

Extreme example and unlikely to happen that way?.Maybe not these days.

I am pretty sure that if i knocked a child down and potentialy spent the rest of my life having nightmares about it, i would be even more determined that they should be better educated and aware of the dangers.Both parents and children it seems.

My opinion would hardly change as you suggest.

[Blatman]

QUOTE

I agree that parents and kids have responsibilites, but so do we.  I`m sure if anyone here hit and killed a child, even if it was the kids fault and you weren`t speeding your views would be entirely different.

I agree, but pedestrians are (or at least should be) equally responsible for their actions. Currently it seems that they are managing to divorce their personal responsibility on to the driver, and this is both unfair and unjust. A negligent parent who hasn't taught their children of the danger is as responsible (or at least, should be made to see that they are just as responsible) as the poor sod who has a kid run out on him. Parents (as Boomy demonstrates) will blame the driver regardless. It just isn't fair or just, and I'm afraid unfair and unjust apply equally to drivers as well as pedestrians.

As with many folk, you seem to assume that becuase I am forthright, I don't care. Quite the opposite is true. If I knocked *anyone* down, I would feel truly terrible. BUT if it really wasn't my fault, I wouldn't feel *responsible*. Why should I? And lets not forget that even if it wasn't my fault, a pedestrian is likely to sue me anyway, so it is important to not blur the distinction between emotions felt, and working out who was at fault and why. I don't want to have to fork out hundreds, maybe thousands in extra insurance simply becuase of this apparent "blame the driver regardless" culture that we seem to be allowing to pervade through our society. It is unfair and unjust as I have already said.

[lukeyboy]

I have a somewhat jaded and cynical view on this subject and have seen it argued many times over on various forums. I work in traffic management and road safety for local government and see it from all angles. Let's just say that almost every pedestrian related accident I have seen has been the fault of the pedestrian, it is very very rare to see an accident which can be blamed just on a speeding motorist. The reasons are normally drink / drugs, stepped / cycled into road without looking, crossed where they could not see oncoming traffic / between parked cars, crossed away from the pedestrian crossing, wearing dark clothes at night (I'm not saying that some of the vehicle involved weren't travelling above the posted speed limit, but not excessively).

There are specific document / guidance used to set the correct speed limits, based on the character of the road. Failure to stick to this and post lower limits will encourage civil disobedience and result in vehicles exceeding the limit (which occurs when politicians get involved). 20mph limits in particular will not be supported or policed unless it is self regulating (i.e. traffic calming) as traffic will not drive at 20mph in a month of Sundays, without a good reason.

I have seen children and parents stand at pelican crossings and not even know that they had to push the button to stop traffic!!

Where I worked they did not have a road safety officer (visiting schools) for over 10 years, when really it's essential catch them while they are young!!

I still say that for a safer highway network it must be patrolled by fully trained traffic police officers, not speed cameras. A speed camera should only be used as another tool in a traffic engineers tool box. Over the past few years politics have been driving road safety and not engineering, hench why there has been lots of speed limits lowered, loads of LED signs installed, signs with yellow backgrounds etc. etc. Over use of these items just dilutes the impact when one really is needed to resolve a real problem. Drivers are being flooded with too much rubbish rather than concentrating on whats ahead and around them. I have to listen to loads of people complain about this and that, one sure way to always shut them up is ask if they have a current copy of the highway code :silence:, normally followed by "how longs that been in there?"

[Blatman]

Lukeyboy for Transport Minister

[pistonbroke]

QUOTE

Dropped his balloon?  Seen a friend?  Running away from Mum as a joke?  A four year old can quite easily get distracted.  My six year old recently walked into the road without looking just last week.  We were just talking, I stopped at the kerb, he didn't.  Luckily nothing was coming.

Lucky ?

I beleive we make our own luck  

[Blatman]

Cynical? Maybe. But that doesn't make it wrong.

Lumping all parents together? Of course not, but I suspect the vast majority of us here can adequately demonstrate that there are *plenty* of parents out there who do not exercise proper control of their children (proper control = having a good grip of them if that is what is needed. Why don't parents physically restrain their children when in a potentially dangerous situation?) and then blame anyone but themselves when accidents happen. What ever did happen to personal, nay, parental responsibility?

[*Emma*]

Dropped his balloon?  Seen a friend?  Running away from Mum as a joke?  A four year old can quite easily get distracted.  My six year old recently walked into the road without looking just last week.  We were just talking, I stopped at the kerb, he didn't.  Luckily nothing was coming.

Lucky ?

I beleive we make our own luck  

Yes, it was lucky.

Lucky for me not to lose a child, lucky for my son not to lose his life, lucky that there wasn't a car driver hitting a child through no fault of their own.

[*Emma*]

Cynical? Maybe. But that doesn't make it wrong.

Lumping all parents together? Of course not, but I suspect the vast majority of us here can adequately demonstrate that there are *plenty* of parents out there who do not exercise proper control of their children (proper control = having a good grip of them if that is what is needed. Why don't parents physically restrain their children when in a potentially dangerous situation?) and then blame anyone but themselves when accidents happen. What ever did happen to personal, nay, parental responsibility?

Are you suggesting that I should hold hands with my children at all times whilst walking along the road?  If I am carrying bags of shopping, should I then tie them to my wrists?  When should I stop doing this, when they're 14 or 15?

I can tell you're not a parent.

[Blatman]

Are you suggesting that I should hold hands with my children at all times whilst walking along the road?  If I am carrying bags of shopping, should I then tie them to my wrists?  When should I stop doing this, when they're 14 or 15?

I can tell you're not a parent.

Actually, you can't. I am a parent...

When I had shopping and children to carry, I made sure the children were safe, rather than juggling with both and failing to look after either adequately. It really isn't that hard. Yes I would keep hold of my children when in a dangerous situation. I stopped when I felt they could behave responsibly enough to do what they were told without restraint. The better I teach them, the sooner I don't have to keep hold of them. It worked for me, and it worked for my parents. I grew up living on the A1000 in London. Not the quietest of roads, so I do know what I'm talking about...

[steve_m]

Are you suggesting that I should hold hands with my children at all times whilst walking along the road?  If I am carrying bags of shopping, should I then tie them to my wrists?  When should I stop doing this, when they're 14 or 15?

I can tell you're not a parent.

That's what used to happen . . . until we were old enough/learnt that we must not run into the road . . . then I had to hold my mum/dad's hand when walking along the road.  In those days traffic was probably half what it is today.  (70's)

Disciplin was stronger in the old days, not suggesting you are like this but I see Mums now allowing their kids to scream and shout and run all over the place . . . if they carry on like that near roads then there's a chance they will run into the road and be hit.

I wasn't allowed to ride my bicycle on the road until I had passed my Cycling Professiency Test.  This was organised by the school, we had plod come in to show a film about road safety, the cycling training was done in the playground with roads marked out in coloured tape.

The whole issue of road safety was taken seriously . . . drivers who were stopped by plod and given points probably very much deserved them but in the same breath, parents and schools took pedestrian safety very seriously and children were trained properly on how to move about safely.

This all seems to have been lost in the modern "I have the right to do what I like" attitude that seems to exist.

[Blatman]

Completely agree with that Steve. I had similar standards applied. No cycling in the road until the proficiency test was passed, and I was physically restrained when necessary. I seem to have turned out alright... mostly...

[*Emma*]

QUOTE

I am a parent...

To say I am flabbergasted would be an understatement!  You certainly don't SOUND like a parent.  

My children have safely walked alongside me along the road for at least two years without my having to hold my hand.  Alex suddenly out of the blue walked into the road.  This was the first time in his life that he has done so.  It was completely out of character for him to do this.  It was a simple lapse of concentration.  I teach my children how to walk down the road in a sensible manner, to respect the traffic and other pedestrians, and to be INDEPENDENT.  I could hold their hands all the time, but that's not teaching them to be independent, that's not giving them the chance to stop to look at the world around them, that's not giving them the chance to run and skip (when safe to do so, of course) and play 'hide and seek' round gateways.  Yes, it takes longer to get to Sainsbury's, but it's worth it for me to see them experiencing their world.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I'm a great believer in learning by experience, but some lessons only give you one chance, and no retake.

Sadly, I experienced the motorists side of this in my teens.

It never goes away, for me or the parents. It's twenty years ago, but often feels like yesterday.

Believe me, sitting in a coroners court facing the parents still haunts me on occasion. While being asked by my insurance provided solicitor if I wanted to sue the boy's parents to recover my excess nearly had me decking him.

[Blatman]

To say I am flabbergasted would be an understatement!  You certainly don't SOUND like a parent.  

What does a parent sound like? Just because I am forthright in my opinions doesn't mean I don't care. Quite the opposite in fact. It's because I care, not just about safety, but also about my responsibilities to society and how my action (or inaction) may impact on those around me that I hold forthright opinions and have a basic desire for my actions to be seen as just, fair and reasonable. To bring that back to the subject, as I have said many times, simply making drivers appear, or feel responsible every time a pedestrian gets damaged is not just, fair or reasonable.