Kid got killed by van in our area...

[ZesPak]

So, a 14 yo got hit by a van while crossing the road on his bike, and died a couple hours later in the hospital . The BiL went to school with his brother, so we actually "know" the kid.

What happened was that the kid wanted to cross the road in a 70km/u limit (45mph), slipped/failed to look properly and got hit by a van.

Now, last sunday, we were sitting with the family in law and it came up, the father in law immediately slaying the van driver as irresponsible tt, a danger on the road, etc.

And I started thinking: how did this happen? He wasn't there, and as much as I feel for the parents and relatives left behind, I do feel for the van driver too. He has to live with it for the rest of his life. He wasn't found to be speeding/drinking/on drugs, zo I really fail to see how he could be at fault, yet a lot of people seem to agree with the FiL.

I had a similar accident when I was 13, but my (very) sturdy "backpack" (it wasn't a backpack back then but I don't know the proper english) protected me from hitting the road to hard, and I came off with a couple of stitches. Altough that was at a zebra crossing (the recent accident wasn't) and a 30mph zone, it would never have occured to me to blaim the van driver for MY failing to see him coming.

Oh and since when is 14 "just a little kid"?

Anyway, it really angers me to hear people talk like that about accidents they don't know anything about. I can understand that you want to seek someone to blaim for such a horrible event, but if there isn't anyone to blaim, just don't.

My condolences to the the family of the little boy and the best to the van driver who's life will never be the same...

[dunmow70]

I have to agree with you that it is all too easy to blame the driver.

I had a similar incident when I was about 13. I ran down an alley between some shops, ran across a one way road behind the shops which was usually clear of traffic and found myself rolling off the bonnet of a car. The driver was mortified and all I could do was apologise to him for running into his car and then I hobbled home. He couldn't have been doing more than 15mph and I was lucky he wasn't. When I told my mum about it, she ranted about the driver not paying attention and I had to convince her it was me just running out in the road because I based my assumption of there being no traffic coming on past experience.

Unfortunately accidents do happen and it is all too easy to rush to blame the other party.

[GreigM]

Did you argue the point with the FiL? Maybe he needs a bit of education as to what did/might have happened.

[live ade]

you only need to have had a near miss with a couple of kids running after a football from between parked cars, when you are doing <15mph in a 30 to agree with this thread. It really shakes you up even though the ending is a happy one...

[GBS2K]

GreigM said:

Did you argue the point with the FiL? Maybe he needs a bit of education as to what did/might have happened.

Will arguing the point do any good, make anyone feel any better?

Unfortunately those most emotionally involved in an accident cannot see that their friend / partner / husband / wife / child could possibly be to blame.

High emotion and what better time for the journalists / gov't to ask them for a quote on speeding or dangerous driving or ask them to front a campaign.

Journo "But Mrs Bereaved Parent isn't it clear that if there had been a foot bridge; a max speed of 5mph and a law stating all cars should be covered in mattresses then little Johnny would be alive today?"

MBP "err....yes?"

[Pothole]

Grief and shock are very odd things and make people speak/act in very strange ways.

[ZesPak]

GreigM said:

Did you argue the point with the FiL? Maybe he needs a bit of education as to what did/might have happened.

The point is that he's a cyclist and cycles 30miles a day for commuting so "he knows it was the van driver's fault".
I said that next time a cyclist would be killed I would say he shouldn't have run a red light.
He was pretty pissed and said "I don't do that", which I said actually proved my point about him generalizing van drivers.

[RobCrezz]

Pothole said:

Grief and shock are very odd things and make people speak/act in very strange ways.

This.

[MarJay]

Similar thing happened to me. I was riding my motorcycle to work one Sunday morning when a woman stepped out into the road and was caught by my footpeg. This kinda proved that she stepped into the side of my bike as she was missed by the indicator and the mirror which stick out further than the footpeg. I wasn't speeding and I didn't lose control of the bike.

A few days later my grandmother was talking to a neighbor who told her that a "crazy biker went haring down the road and knocked over some poor young girl".

Luckily my Nan was aware of the situation and tore a strip off of this woman for spreading unfounded rumours. The 'girl' was 19 years old, she was half asleep, dappy as a lemming and stepped into the side of my perfectly legal motorcycle when I was doing 20mph.

Additionally this taught me something about witnesses too. The main witness to the accident said she did not see me immediately before the accident, but I was obviously not going fast as "Motorcycles make a lot of noise when they go fast don't they?" I was glad of my standard exhaust that day I can tell you.

Its not something I ever want to repeat, and I still slow down if I see a pedestrian standing near the kerb or waiting to cross. It was probably one of the worst experiences of my life, despite the woman being essentially unharmed and there being no consequences from the Police or anything. The police did give me a producer though... fail.

[s3fella]

I agree with the jumping to conculsions argument, but in 25 years of driving, I have had several incidents of peds (and cars) suddenly popping out in from of me, and have yet to hit one. I have also seen many many incidents of other drivers not paying anywhere near as much atttention to the road as I think one should.

When I was 7 years old I was hit whilst on my bike by a Volvo drive that mounted the pavment in our village whilst rummaging in his briefcase. I was on the road (on my Thomahawk!)and he hit me with one wheel up on the pavment and didn't stop for over 200 yards! Was pretty banged up but survived.

Since that experience, knowing how much it hurt, how lucky I was to survive etc, I am extremely cautious when driving anywhere that kids may be about, on bikes or on foot. And I am fastidious with maintinaing the speed limits in towns and built up areas as a result, and amazed at hwo few drivers seem to do similarly. (Not that maintianing speed will guarantee no kids or bunnies are harmed, but fastidious nontheless). And I am extremely careful around peds generally, but particularly with kids. They can be a little unpredictable but I can only imagine how st one would feel to mow one down.

Sad for all involved, hoepfully if there was anyone to blame for it, lessons will be learned.

Edited by s3fella on Friday 8th October 10:25

[edo]

The focus is always on the car driver. I have no issue with the motorist being educated about speeding in built up areas, but how about some education for children on not playing in the road/running into traffic?

Perhaps the great unwashed cant be left to manage their own safety, so perhaps we need the "No Jay walking" law like they have in the states?

[petrolsniffer]

http://www.chad.co.uk/news/local/a614_crash_driver... ok a full car of teens vs an old couple no witnesses

Could of been either partys fault... the teens could of been driving normally it is a 60mph road although everyone i've spoke to about the story instantly blame the teens

[fido]

Same thing happened to family who live next door to my uncle. I only found out because they came out of their house to chastise me for parking my 'sports car' on his driveway - i sometimes check over his house when he is on holiday. Found out afterwards that their son had been knocked over by a car. However I have lost all my sympathy for the mum and if she ever has a go at me i'll kindly tell her to 'f8ck off and mind her own business'. In fact, the next time i'm round for dinner, i'll celebrate by doing an Italian tune-up outside their house.

Edited by fido on Friday 8th October 10:32

[RV8]

Children for the better part are regarded as the innocent party in almost every situation, even if they commit crimes there is usually an excuse for their behavior and a parent / carer / teacher becomes the scapegoat. Even adults try to excuse some of the blame if something happened to them during their upbringing which has later made them commit a crime as an adult, sex offenders for example.

So what I am getting at is a strong sense in society where people consider the child a victim, as I pointed out even the childhood of an adult who has committed a crime. Consequently some people will point the finger at the adult, automatically assuming they are at fault, being around to actually witness the event is irrelevant to them.

[Swoxy]

There's lots of unfounded prejudice regarding accidents. boobles was involved in an accident in his Elise and The Sun's atricle implied it was his fault whilst The Northern Echo's article contained witness statements implying it was the other driver's fault.

[Garlick]

Swoxy said:

There's lots of unfounded prejudice regarding accidents. boobles was involved in an accident in his Elise and The Sun's atricle implied it was his fault whilst The Northern Echo's article contained witness statements implying it was the other driver's fault.

I think boobles merely posted about the accident, rather that it being him that was involved.

[ZesPak]

Garlick said:

Swoxy said:

There's lots of unfounded prejudice regarding accidents. boobles was involved in an accident in his Elise and The Sun's atricle implied it was his fault whilst The Northern Echo's article contained witness statements implying it was the other driver's fault.

I think boobles merely posted about the accident, rather that it being him that was involved.

Pumpkinheeed clearly states that it was his car.

[GPR13]

Its amazing how quickly people jump to blame motorists. I dont think kids are as aware as they should be and teenagers take stupid risks. Last night, for instance, I went to the shop for milk. The shops only about 2 -3 miles away but despite the short distance I had 3 near misses. All teenagers running across the road between me and the car infront. I was only doing 30mph on a 30mph road that happens to be very busy and the main route into town. All 3 of the kids that jumped out infront of me where no more than 30-40ft from a crossing of some description yet still decided to risk it.

Driving through the village its the slightly younger kids that are a pain, I only travel through the village at around 10mph because of the horrendous speed bumps but when a child makes movements as if to jump out infront of your car when your only a car length away from them, it tends to make your heart speed up a tad. Problem for the kids is, I dont like them(children in general piss me off), I wouldnt intentionaly harm them but if they run out infront of the car and I cant stop in time, I wont feel any sympathy for them.

But then again, not all kids are bad and some just dont pay enough attention rather than playing stupid games with traffic, same as not all motorists are raving lunatics, speeding everywhere, knocking little'uns off of thier bikes.

(Sorry for the long post, poor spelling and grammer and for not liking children)

[Munter]

GPR13 said:

(Sorry for the long post, poor spelling and grammer and for not liking children)

I don't like the little sts either. A good hard punch to the face would sort most of them out. Good news is it's not like they are real humans. They are just kids.

I do feel sympathy for the families that lose a child in a road accident however. Can't be an easy thing. Not easy for any innocent party involved either. Basically it's a stty situation for all involved when kids decide to do something that ends up with them in front of a car. But I can't see us ever stopping it completely and allowing them to grow up and be fully independent adults.

[andrewrob]

ZesPak said:

Garlick said:

Swoxy said:

There's lots of unfounded prejudice regarding accidents. boobles was involved in an accident in his Elise and The Sun's atricle implied it was his fault whilst The Northern Echo's article contained witness statements implying it was the other driver's fault.

I think boobles merely posted about the accident, rather that it being him that was involved.

Pumpkinheeed clearly states that it was his car.

That kind of reporting infuriates me. Would there ever be any chance of The Sun apologising for that without it going to court?