Flipping near miss... rant

[Mudball]

My sons school is on a stretch with 2 schools.. One of them is a Secondary. The footpath is used by secondary school kids... They are untrustworthy.. So generally I watch them as I drive. This primary is further down the road and kids are usually in cars. It is a narrow single lane road. This morning I was second in a convoy of about 4-5 cars driving along. I had one eye on the secondary kids. Out of nowhere one of them who was facing away from me and chatting on her phone, decided to step onto the road. I probably had about 1 second to swerve and avoid hitting her. No time to brake. She realised her mistake and apologised. If i was watching the car in front, i would have hit her. If there was a car in the opposite direction, i would have hit it. If i had braked, the car behind me would have rammed me. I hope the car behind me had a dashcam in case something happened.

Flipping teenagers and their flipping phones... seem to exist in their own bubble. I hope she learns from it and does not repeat it.

 

[SteveW86]

My sons school is on a stretch with 2 schools.. One of them is a Secondary. The footpath is used by secondary school kids... They are untrustworthy.. So generally I watch them as I drive. This primary is further down the road and kids are usually in cars. It is a narrow single lane road. This morning I was second in a convoy of about 4-5 cars driving along. I had one eye on the secondary kids. Out of nowhere one of them who was facing away from me and chatting on her phone, decided to step onto the road. I probably had about 1 second to swerve and avoid hitting her. No time to brake. She realised her mistake and apologised. If i was watching the car in front, i would have hit her. If there was a car in the opposite direction, i would have hit it. If i had braked, the car behind me would have rammed me. I hope the car behind me had a dashcam in case something happened.

Flipping teenagers and their flipping phones... seem to exist in their own bubble. I hope she learns from it and does not repeat it.

Just be glad you were paying attention.

I have found that age doesnt seem to matter with pedestrians not paying attention, I've had just as many near misses with kids through to pensioners.

 

[Mudball]

Just be glad you were paying attention.

I have found that age doesnt seem to matter with pedestrians not paying attention, I've had just as many near misses with kids through to pensioners.

Everything happened so quickly and I kept driving. Since I got back home, it’s been playing on my mind... what if...

I am ok with pedestrians getting onto the road to avoid other pedestrians coming in the opposite direction, but you need to turn around and check traffic before doing that. It is a very busy road in the morning... but she was lost in the phone.. one hand holding the phone up while the other holding the headphones up.. yapping away to glory...

 

[jim8flog]

It is not just teenagers.

 

[Robster59]

Everything happened so quickly and I kept driving. Since I got back home, it’s been playing on my mind... what if...

I am ok with pedestrians getting onto the road to avoid other pedestrians coming in the opposite direction, but you need to turn around and check traffic before doing that. It is a very busy road in the morning... but she was lost in the phone.. one hand holding the phone up while the other holding the headphones up.. yapping away to glory...

Try driving around Universities any time just before 9am and you will also see loads of cyclists who don't look, don't pay attention, pull out from anywhere, it's terrifying as they seem to have no road sense whatsoever.

 

[RichA]

I'm sure most of us have been there. I'm a driver, pedestrian and cyclist - in no particular order, and have had my share of near misses.
Even the ones that weren't my fault, on reflection I could have done more to predict and avoid. Pedestrians are rarely investigated and held responsible for accidents.
Nobody likes a Saturday night pundit, but post-match analysis is a useful learning tool.

 

[Imurg]

Everything happened so quickly and I kept driving. Since I got back home, it’s been playing on my mind... what if...

I am ok with pedestrians getting onto the road to avoid other pedestrians coming in the opposite direction, but you need to turn around and check traffic before doing that. It is a very busy road in the morning... but she was lost in the phone.. one hand holding the phone up while the other holding the headphones up.. yapping away to glory...

Fortunately, for her, it was an experienced driver behind the wheel.
You were able to give a %age of your concentration to watching her and her mates whilst still keeping an eye on everything else.
An inexperienced driver would, in all probability, have put her in hospital or worse.

 

[Backache]

Cars should be banned from roads near school where possible and where not 5mph speed limits used.
Schools and their surroundings are for people not machines that pollute , kill our children with asthma and potentially injure them.

 

[SocketRocket]

It is not just teenagers.

No it's not but it mainly is.

 

[SocketRocket]

Cars should be banned from roads near school where possible and where not 5mph speed limits used.
Schools and their surroundings are for people not machines that pollute , kill our children with asthma and potentially injure them.

That would screw the kids, how would their Mums drive them to the school gate.

 

[Backache]

That would screw the kids, how would their Mums drive them to the school gate.

Which is half the point, get the kids a bit more exercise.

 

[Imurg]

There's a secondary school around here that you dread driving within 1/2 a mile of at kicking out time.
They, literally, walk out in front of you and expect you to stop - and im not joking or exaggerating.
It's on a main road through a big estate and gets quite busy at times
How there aren't multiple incidents every day baffles me.
I try and steer clear but sometimes have to use the road at that time.

 

[Imurg]

Cars should be banned from roads near school where possible and where not 5mph speed limits used.
Schools and their surroundings are for people not machines that pollute , kill our children with asthma and potentially injure them.

In theory not a bad idea
In practice...impossible.
What about the people who live next to a school - do they get banned from driving?
How big a No-Go zone?
Many schools are on main roads - ban cars and lorries from them and they'll have to use back roads and rat-runs potentially putting people at risk.
Cars and lorries driving past schools are not the problem
Its the "school run" brigade who park as close as they can to the school ignoring parking restrictions in place to keep their kids safe.

 

[USER1999]

A school near the golf club. The railings are battered. Absolutely battered. This is all from parents dropping their kids off. They clearly don't give a monkeys about the safety of anyone else's kid, just their own.
When I leave work, I go past two Jewish schools. Pretty much every car is a Toyota Previa, and they are rammed with kids, most with no seat belts, and the cars have every panel dented. Again, they don't care what they reverse into, drive into, bash, what ever, as long as their kid is fine.

 

[Fade and Die]

A school near the golf club. The railings are battered. Absolutely battered. This is all from parents dropping their kids off. They clearly don't give a monkeys about the safety of anyone else's kid, just their own.
When I leave work, I go past two Jewish schools. Pretty much every car is a Toyota Previa, and they are rammed with kids, most with no seat belts, and the cars have every panel dented. Again, they don't care what they reverse into, drive into, bash, what ever, as long as their kid is fine.

I go past a couple of Jewish Schools near Golders Green and have noticed this, wonder why the Previa?...Looks like a piece of crap!
(Bit sobering when you see the amount of security guards they have patrolling outside the schools too!)

Re kids wandering in the road, well done MB the girl was very fortunate, we have a girls school near us and they just stroll across the road at home time chatting to each other or on the phone, none of them bothering to look around! ?

 

[Tashyboy]

Been Out with Missis T today and called back at me parents. Anyway I passed the comp school I went to 42 years ago. All the kids were coming out of school. I have never seen so many cars outside a school. When I was a young teenager. School buses dropped off kids at Blidworth, Bilsthorpe and Ravenshead. The buses are gone and now we have cars picking up 1 kid. Another thing, they are all on the phones, and half don’t know what zebra crossing is.
Re kids are the worst, am not sure a kid on the phone is worse than an adult driving and on the phone. That said two wrongs don’t make a right.

 

[Mudball]

Cars should be banned from roads near school where possible and where not 5mph speed limits used.
Schools and their surroundings are for people not machines that pollute , kill our children with asthma and potentially injure them.

This happened a mile from the school... the approach to my son's school does not have a footpath, so car and bike are the only option.. its on a main road. The teenagers were on the way to their school from the railway station.. too big an exclusion zone.
Which brings me to another parental gripe. The other school is inside a very tight estate with cars parked on both sides... so parents dropping off use the mouth of a cul-de-sac to do a 3 point turn. Not sure every parent understands how the indicators work..

 

[Blue in Munich]

Cars should be banned from roads near school where possible and where not 5mph speed limits used.
Schools and their surroundings are for people not machines that pollute , kill our children with asthma and potentially injure them.

Given that the majority of traffic around schools at dropping off & pick up times is the parents of the children, why do we need any more regulation; surely they will all be driving with the safety of their precious offspring in mind?

 

[Mudball]

looks like my son goes to a posh school... saw someone being dropped off in a Porsche Taycan today... alright for some, reasons for rubber necking for others.
Similarly, at our grassroot kid footy place, one of the kid would always arrive in McLaren.. a bit posh for our club. Only later realised his dad worked for something connected to McLaren and would get to drive a company car on weekend..

 

[Backache]

In theory not a bad idea
In practice...impossible.
What about the people who live next to a school - do they get banned from driving?
How big a No-Go zone?
Many schools are on main roads - ban cars and lorries from them and they'll have to use back roads and rat-runs potentially putting people at risk.
Cars and lorries driving past schools are not the problem
Its the "school run" brigade who park as close as they can to the school ignoring parking restrictions in place to keep their kids safe.

Personally I'd make the exclusion zone 800 yds which any child should be able to walk, and no parking/ stopping within the area if you cannot make it an exclusion zone but keep the speed limit at 5mph.