Road safety and children in housing estate

Departed

What would happen if a child comes from behind a car in a housing estate and is hit by a driver driving very slow/careful who just has no time to stop

Friend of mine had a close one. Couple seconds later and the child could have been hit.Child cycled out from behind a parked car with no warning. Friend drives very slow as he lives there and knows the situation. Should a driver have to actually stop every parked car he comes to?

What if the kid was hit by a stranger who does not knowthe area. i do not see how reasonable care on the driver's part could prevent this. My friend is unreasonably careful

Also do the parents have a duty of care to the children to take steps to keep them safe. In this area - a cul de sac - the children cycle and run around a turning car and the parents watch. It is difficult for driver to watch all side

The Big Red Button

I'm curious about this one myself.

I witnessed an accident where a three-year-old was sitting on the ground playing between her parents' two parked cars, with both parents and some neighbours standing a couple of metres away. A car was coming by, doing around 20kph, and the girl stood up at the last minute and ran right in front of it - the driver hadn't a hope of stopping!

The toddler suffered a broken leg, and her parents accepted full responsibility immediately - they felt awful for the poor girl who'd been driving the car, she was (understandably!) in bits!

I've often wondered, though, if they had tried to blame the driver, what would the likely outcome have been? The driver, as far as I can see, was exercising due caution, and was definitely well within the speed limit.

(Personally, having seen this happen, I really take no chances in housing estates and similar myself ... it doesn't matter who's right or wrong legally, no driver ever wants to be in that position! )

The thing is, my parents still live on this same road where the accident happened, and the kids on the street have absolutely no awareness of road safety - and are allowed out playing on their own from when they can walk. :mad: My parents are extremely careful when driving because of this, but they live in fear of an accident happening anyways!

mikemac1

There is a long thread in Motors forum about getting a dashboard camera to protect yourself

Of course first concern is the child but a camera can help you in a dispute

BrianD

There used to be a road safety advert about checking to see if you could see feet of kids behind cars and bicycle wheels poking out etc.

There is a parental responsibility to educate their kids and the way kids are molly coddled these days it's unsurprising that they have no sense of danger.

Departed

BrianD wrote: »

There used to be a road safety advert about checking to see if you could see feet of kids behind cars and bicycle wheels poking out etc.

There is a parental responsibility to educate their kids and the way kids are molly coddled these days it's unsurprising that they have no sense of danger.

my friend does that but this time it was a too close to see legs before the child came out.

EDIT Actually I now know he did not have a bicycle but one of those things they stand on with one leg and push with the other, a child's scooter

Procrastastudy

There are quite a few threads where the liability for RTA has been discussed at length.

In short it's almost always the drivers fault. They should drive bearing in mind all hazards - if they hit something they have failed to do that.

I'm not going back into the debate here - look up the threads - it was much better put by other, better educated, posters than myself. There was one recently where Chops came up with some scenarios where there may be contributory negligence.