Educating Parents

[ZR1427]

Yesterday evening i pulled over to drop a fare off, i gazed ahead at a right hand bend about 50 yards away and there was an entrance to a side road on the right just before the bend.

To our horror a small child of about 6-8 came out of the turning and turned around in the main road and circled on a small trike,it was one off those low slung plastic trikes and obviously had no lights.

Straight away i drove over to the child asking him to get out of the road before he got killed,he replied 'No ime not going'.

Our first thought was where the hell are the parents not only is a small child out after dark but he's in danger of getting killed,there were other kids further up the road and it was a pretty rough area WTF!

My point is and ive noticed it come thru on many posts on PH is,when there is so much emphasis of responsibilty on the drivers shoulders there would not be a cat in hells chance of avoiding hitting this child even if you were driving under the speed limits, so where does pedestrian education come into this?

Why no pedstrian Education from the Government??

After reading Observers post that we are all crims in the making(according to the Government) what does this make the parent(s) of this young trike rider ,how many similar situations which are not the fault of the driver contribute towards statistics.

[forever_driving]

Imagine what would have happend if the parents had court you talking to their child, the police would have been called in fear of another peodophile/kidnapping case.

A couple of months ago I found a couple of kids crying nearby where I live, they said that they had got lost from their parents on a walk. I then accompanied them around the streets trying to find the parents which we eventually found (a couple of pikey-chavscums if ever I saw them). Anyway, the kids were still distressed (and still in tears) when we found the parents and the agrovation I received from the dad for 'scaring' his children and 'making them cry' was obviously totally uncalled for. If the children weren't there I think I would have been unable to stop myself from planting him firmly to the floor.

I've decided never to help anyone ever again - unless they're wearing a PH badge of course- don't leave home without it!

>> Edited by forever_driving on Tuesday 17th February 22:28

[clapham993]

The fact is that the point at which the death/injuries figures for pedestrian children started rising for the first time in over 30 years and the point at which Bliar's government stopped promoting child/parent awareness of road safety and focused all attention on targetting drivers are exactly the same....

[ZR1427]

That did cross my mind funnily enough,but ive got Taxi numbers all over my car and i stayed inside the car,i am afraid i cant walk away from 'People in need' situations no matter how hard i try and if some parent had said anything i would have had a right go at them for letting a kid out in those circumstances.

The area is dog rough and no disrespects to the people that live there but its just one of those places made for problem families,some of which dont give a sh*t about their kids,although they would be the first to blame the driver if their child got run over.
Its ironic that the first thing to come into some peoples minds would be that the driver must of been speeding such is the stigma now attached to the driver.

Stupid People!!

[WildCat]

clapham993 said:

The fact is that the point at which the death/injuries figures for pedestrian children started rising for the first time in over 30 years and the point at which Bliar's government stopped promoting child/parent awareness of road safety and focused all attention on targetting drivers are exactly the same....

Now don't get me started on those singing hedgehogs again!

But have already said the hard hitting campaign needs to be addressed urgently!

The other "wildcats" do post on other channels and other forums, and have already had claws out and into attacking the muesli munching politically correct muppets who believe that any form of child discipline is "damaging the child's development!" Cannot think of anything more damaging to a child's development than letting him or her play out on a main road, and not being responsible enough to teach and train in Green Cross code and general discipline.

Will confess that I do think many parents were vicariously responsible for more than a few of the tragic cases I have read about in the press.

Collectively - we only allow our "kittens" out on roads when they have proven to us that they know and understand road safety. The same rule applies to the youngsters' driving lessons. (It applied to us as kids, and we apply it to our own!) But then - that is our lifestyle and standards of behaviour! (Apart from that - we grew up in a country which fined you for j-walking and we think it is a great pity this policy does not exist here!)

[northernboy]

ZR1427 said:

My point is and ive noticed it come thru on many posts on PH is,when there is so much emphasis of responsibilty on the drivers shoulders there would not be a cat in hells chance of avoiding hitting this child even if you were driving under the speed limits, so where does pedestrian education come into this? Why no pedstrian Education from the Government??

Erm, like the tufty club, or the green cross code, or the stop look and listen adverts?

Or, moving more up to dte, the one we have now, with the teenager running out and getting killed? Or the "game over" posters?

Do you mean something like these, that the government has spent millions of pounds on?

But of course, my mistake, this government is lazy and incompetent, they'd not have done something as sensible as thses, would they? Stands to reason. Better to just assume not, and criticize anyway!

[mybrainhurts]

We're back to that 85% of pedestrian casualties down to their own negligence (TRL 323).

Also shows more pedestrians hurt by reversing cars than excessively fast cars.

Someone tell Mary.