Lazy driver drops child unattended in traffic

[abo]

Why do people do that...???
I see it everyday at my sons school, parents just pull up, child leaps out parent drives off..Ok so finding a parking space can be tricky, but surely the few minutes it takes is worth it for the most valuable thing you posess...?

Yeah I see it outside my kids' school. Parent pulls up on single yellow outside the school, kid jumps out, parent drives off. Legal, but cmon, it's an infant school, I'd rather see my kids get into class but that's just me.

I dunno why parents try to get as close to school as possible and then fight for spaces. If they live so far away as to need to drive in, why don't they just take an easy park 5 minutes away and (shock horror) *walk* the rest of the way???

 

[MossCommuter]

when I was 7 I walked to school

 

[corshamjim]

I remember cycling to school when I was 6.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

I lived about a mile away from my primary school and I walked. No bus and no car so no other option. Kids today are mollycoddled too much in my opinion.

 

[TwickenhamCyclist]

when I was 7 I walked to school

So did I - I’m a parent now and can’t see me letting the eldest out on her own to walk to school until she’s in the last year of primary school (the year in which she turns 11)

It’s not that I don’t trust her, or that she couldn’t cross the quiet roads sensibly, but she would be the only child of her age on her own.

With no other young children out on their own I suppose there is no longer the safety in numbers.. plus one would probably get in trouble with “the authorities” - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6731743.stm

 

[abo]

So did I - I’m a parent now and can’t see me letting the eldest out on her own to walk to school until she’s in the last year of primary school (the year in which she turns 11)

It’s not that I don’t trust her, or that she couldn’t cross the quiet roads sensibly, but she would be the only child of her age on her own.

With no other young children out on their own I suppose there is no longer the safety in numbers.. plus one would probably get in trouble with “the authorities” - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6731743.stm

Hmm thats a good point, when I was a kid walking to school in the 70's there was always three or four of us together, picking up more on the way to the gate. But then *no-one* went in the car. We had one car and my dad used it to get to work. Point is there was always a gang of us, less cars about and less people generally tbh. It is absolute chaos at my kids' school in the morning.

I remember us coming out of school and there was a bright red Lotus Europa parked there and we were all oggling it. When my uncle got out and offered me a lift the grin nearly split my head in half and I had an almost godlike status with my friends for the rest of the week lol

 

[Bicycle]

I used to chair a primary PTA (which I think makes me middle aged) and I'd regularly ask at meetings if there was anything we could do to reduce the dependence on cars at drop-off and pick-up time.

The resistance to any measure or inducement at all was extraordinary.

This despite the fact that there was the usual complete log-jam of cars around the school every morning and afternoon.

It really was weird.

My children are all at secondary school now (or older) so it's not an issue.

There is a sort of excuse when a parent has to rush straight to work, but neighbours of ours would drive to school, drop and drive home again.

All very bizarre.

Cripes, I think that might have been a rant... Sorry.

I still think the video footage was fairly insipid, though.

Both the first cyclist and the street-smart schoolchild seemed totally switched on to me.

 

[funnymummy]

My sons's school runs a 'breakfast club' for parents that need to get to work, my bubs go in at 7.45am.
You have to use a side door that leads into the small hall, it is down a sloped path alongside a 4/5' wall.
This morning walking bcak up the path, I see a car pull on opposite side of road - I can only see the car as i'm over 6', an average height person IE the 5'4" TA stood on the door 10' behind me down the slope couldn't.
A very small child climbed out the drivers side rear door, ran accross the road, turned to wave to mummy who was pulling away from the kurb, a quick wave & off she zoomed.. The boy was tiny, he was either a Reception or possibly a Yr 1 pupil, his mother didn't even watch whether he entered the gate, let alone made it down the path.
The TA had no idae he was there - anyone could have grabbed him & no-one would have been any the wiser until after 9am when the registers are done & handed into the office, absent children's parents get a call to check why the off if no prior notice given.
But by that point this child could have been missing for well over an hour.
I watched the child into the school, then told the TA what I had seen, She was shocked & agreed, that until the child had walked round the corner of the wall she had, had no idea he was on the path!!
She said she would make the Head aware of what had happened - knowing the Head, the mother will be getting a VERY stern talking to!

 

[cyberknight]

A very small child climbed out the drivers side rear door, ran accross the road, turned to wave to mummy who was pulling away from the kurb, a quick wave & off she zoomed.. The boy was tiny, he was either a Reception or possibly a Yr 1 pupil, his mother didn't even watch whether he entered the gate, let alone made it down the path.
The TA had no idae he was there - anyone could have grabbed him & no-one would have been any the wiser until after 9am when the registers are done & handed into the office, absent children's parents get a call to check why the off if no prior notice given.
But by that point this child could have been missing for well over an hour.

I think you said it all , i cannot imagine letting a child of this age group being out of parental/ trusted friend /teachers or families guidance at all !!!

These sort of parents should not be allowed to have children.

Given the amount of trust the child places in you to make sure they are safe etc etc i literally feel like thumping some sense into such people with no regard for the well being of their children, i would die for my family without a second thought.

 

[Stephenite]

There is something very seriously wrong with the UK if a seven-year-old cannot walk to school. Thank god i don't live there!

Edit: I should say "..live there anymore!".

There were 5 kids in my family and we all walked about two miles to school in the 70's, 80's and 90's. No problem. ANd everyone i knew did. Have the British become deranged or deluded since then?

 

[D4VOW]

QFT, there's no WAY i would do this, i mean your kids are your life you know? you wouldn't just let em out and then drive off thats like horrible you'd at least see em through the gates safe!
i'm more shocked by the driver doing that then the fact that he did this in the middle of traffic!
pete

Oh how times change, when I was that age I walked to school, either with friends or by myself. Too much cotton wool in todays world.

 

[yello]

I don't think I'd ride as quickly as the togged-up mtb-er seemed to be in those circumstances. I also think it's pretty impressive that the camera-ed up cyclist saw the car door open - not sure I would have but maybe. I'll have to watch again to see if perhaps it is a little more obvious. Maybe bicycle is right and the child's head does appear momentarily and/or sufficiently to catch the eye.

 

[asterix]

I find myself unable to get too excited by that.

The door was opened as (or before) the first rider approached.

As it doesn't extend beyond the door mirror, the door itself was unlikely to present much of a hazard.

The first cyclist didn't even slow or wobble as he approached and passed. I didn't see his line as too aggressive.

The child's head appears to peep out to check the horizon before stepping out (it's hard to tell because the head is just a dancing white dot).

Our cameraman stops well before the child steps out.

It appears that the child was looking for a gap or waiting for a gap.

The cameraman offered that gap and the child emerged.

The cameraman's stop didn't seem particularly hasty or grabbed.

It may not be what I'd want my children to be doing, but the child does OK.

She heaves that door closed without losing her grip on her teddy.

The first cyclist seems to be pretty aware (if we can judge that from this footage) and riding in a way that we see regularly from urban commuters.

I believe we all see worse than that daily.

Letting people out of your car when not pulled over by the kerb is at best incompetent driving. As a car driver I simply would not let passengers get out in that situation.

To let a child out like that is even worse.

The aspect of letting them walk unattended is another matter.

 

[Will1985]

Oh how times change, when I was that age I walked to school, either with friends or by myself. Too much cotton wool in todays world.

Absolutely - far too much paranoia these days. I have to walk past a primary school every work day and often get suspicious looks as a lone 26 year old male walking past and glancing towards the playground. I would probably be lynched if my phone were on view.

I wouldn't be surprised if the bad parenting critics in this thread made their own way to school from a young age.

 

[PaulB]

QFT, there's no WAY i would do this, i mean your kids are your life you know? you wouldn't just let em out and then drive off thats like horrible you'd at least see em through the gates safe!

We were reminiscing last night about the time (several times, actually) when women would literally throw kids INTO my car!

No word of a lie this. One of me or my wife would go through the usual angst of getting a teenager or two out of bed and ready for school and then drive them to their bus stop. There we would encounter several other parents doing the same but occasionally our kids' 'teenagerness' would find us missing the bus. Frantically, we would set off after the bus, hoping to beat it to the next pick-up point where we would make sure our kid(s) got on board. Several other parents were enjoying the same pleasures of life. The first time it happened, a car pulled up behind me at a red traffic light and a mother literally threw her son and daughter into the back passenger seat of my car and without a word, got into her car and went left while I was going straight on. Our two kids knew the two kids we'd been hijacked into carrying and obviously they had the same uniforms as our lads but still. The woman was a person I'd never spoken to and she needed to get somewhere important so taking me on trust and without asking, bundled her kids onto me making an assumption that I was attempting to do the same thing she was doing.

I was a bit taken aback by this but in the next few terms, this happened to me several times so I kind of got used to it but I could still be surprised when a different car with a driver new to me did the same thing. This happened to my wife when she was on ferrying duties too.