Close call for mother and child

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Luke Redpath

Well-Known Member
I really don't get some of the responses - clear road, pedestrian clearly visible at crossing, car driver zooms through .
Utterly crap observing by driver, unless (worse) it was "don't care, get out of my way"

All true, but that still doesn't absolve the pedestrian from their responsibility to look before they cross. The pedestrian put herself and child at risk.
 

Shut Up Legs

Down Under Member
One thing is clear from the video in the OP: if you pause it at 0:25, it's clear that the pedestrian is visible before the motorist even reaches the side street. If the motorist still couldn't stop, then he/she was going too fast, and wasn't driving to suit the conditions.
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
That poor driving is worth 3 points and a £60 fine. The troubling thing is that had there been a collision the kid, presumably there was a child in the push chair, had absolutely no control over events that were unfolding which would likely have killed them had the car struck them. Both the car driver and mother if it was the mother would have been at fault, but definitely the car as it was being driven too fast and failed to stop at the crossing. No sound of the horn either.
 

glasgowcyclist

Charming but somewhat feckless
Location
Scotland
Does the woman even pause before shoving the pram into the road?

GC
 

redcard

Veteran
Location
Paisley
I very rarely start crossing until the car has almost come to a complete stop. Not worth taking the chance to save a few seconds. Never had a driver drive right through.
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
I very rarely start crossing until the car has almost come to a complete stop. Not worth taking the chance to save a few seconds. Never had a driver drive right through.

Where as I have experienced and seen cyclists ride straight through a crossing causing peds to scatter ……..
 

Nigeyy

Legendary Member
From my point of view, I think it's hard to judge by the video; it's extremely difficult to gauge speed. I'm far from convinced the pedestrian was easily visible from the video (or not) or if the pedestrian went immediately into the crossing without pause (or didn't). And therein lies the question: I re-viewed the video several times and I still couldn't tell if it was a case of the car going too fast and the driver not being observant vs the car is going at a reasonable speed and/pr the pedestrian just went straight into the crossing.

I guess I just can't say definitively from the video that car driver was zooming or inattentive (and again, that doesn't meant to say they were, or weren't!)

I really don't get some of the responses - clear road, pedestrian clearly visible at crossing, car driver zooms through .
Utterly crap observing by driver, unless (worse) it was "don't care, get out of my way"
 

Nigeyy

Legendary Member
While I disagree that the incident may be similar to the one the OP posted, I have no problem in saying that's just appalling driving! I'm surprized and disappointed the police didn't follow up with that one.... that was just clearly awful to me!

Scarily similar to an incident I experienced a couple of years ago. No action taken by the police despite tackling dangerous and anti-social road use being one of the local priorities.
 

GrasB

Veteran
Location
Nr Cambridge
The driver takes approximately 1 second to get on the brakes from the point the woman starts turning to the crossing, knowing she's going to the crossing makes it easier, it's about 0.5s from being clear she'll cross the road to actually braking, which is a reaction reasonable time frame. It then takes the car about 1.5 seconds to slow down to walking pace, I think the driver wasn't hard on the brakes.

Having watched that many times carefully, the mistake the driver made was to brake! Had they not braked but committed to an avoidance manoeuvre, moving completely into the opposing lane, rather than it being an after thought then they would have been no where near the woman & child. Our driver training in the UK is absolutely awful when it comes to collision avoidance, about the only advice is 'brake hard' which often is the wrong answer, most of the time it's radically change your road position. This by creating more space removes the need to brake in the first place.

The main instigator of this incident was the woman pedestrian who didn't check to see if the road was clear but just walked out giving the driver very few clues as to what she was about to do until the situation became very tight.
 

Hip Priest

Veteran
The driver takes approximately 1 second to get on the brakes from the point the woman starts turning to the crossing, knowing she's going to the crossing makes it easier, it's about 0.5s from being clear she'll cross the road to actually braking, which is a reaction reasonable time frame. It then takes the car about 1.5 seconds to slow down to walking pace, I think the driver wasn't hard on the brakes.

Having watched that many times carefully, the mistake the driver made was to brake! Had they not braked but committed to an avoidance manoeuvre, moving completely into the opposing lane, rather than it being an after thought then they would have been no where near the woman & child. Our driver training in the UK is absolutely awful when it comes to collision avoidance, about the only advice is 'brake hard' which often is the wrong answer, most of the time it's radically change your road position. This by creating more space removes the need to brake in the first place.

The main instigator of this incident was the woman pedestrian who didn't check to see if the road was clear but just walked out giving the driver very few clues as to what she was about to do until the situation became very tight.

What is the point of a zebra crossing if a pedestrian has to wait for the road to be clear before using it?

If you see a pedestrian by a zebra crossing, you prepare to stop. It really is that simple.
 
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