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Original poster

My worst nightmare nearly happened this morning 😞

460 replies

purrswhileheeats · 27/07/2021 17:51

I was reversing out of my driveway and almost ran over my neighbour's child, he was directly behind my car. He's no more than three years old and the only reason I saw him was he was waving his arms in the air and I saw them in my rear view mirror. He's so tiny I wouldn't have seen him otherwise as he was below the level of the back window IFYSWIM. My neighbour was loading stuff into his boot so I beeped the horn and shouted to him, he ran over, grabbed the boy and took him inside.

I was shaking and crying (sorry, that's so MN) when I got to work. They're a new family on the estate, only moved in a few months ago. The dad must've known the boy was playing outside while he was loading the car but didn't bother to check where he was.

I'm waiting for them to come home so I can go and speak to them. It's so horrible, I feel sick thinking about what could have happened.

OP posts:

buffyajp · 28/07/2021 08:55

@Walkaround

Well, as the pedestrian on the pavement of a road exactly like the one *@MrsKoala* lives on, I am 100% certain the cars that drive forwards into their drives and reverse out are keeping me safer than those that have caused accidents by attempting to reverse on said main road. Sometimes, the road really is too fast and unsafe for a car to stop the traffic to reverse on it, and as a pedestrian on a narrow pavement next to it, I don’t want to be close to a multi car crash, and am not stupid enough on that particular stretch not to be highly alert to people exiting their drives whatever way their car is facing in at the time. It’s just a fact that the other car drivers are more alert to pedestrians possibly crossing the road and reversing cars coming off their drives than they are alert to cars slowing down then reversing towards them and stopping the traffic in both directions while doing so. It’s an A road - they drive fast on it, and expect to get to their destination fairly quickly.

That’s your opinion but the law does not agree with you.

Walkaround · 28/07/2021 08:55

The law says reverse into your drive where possible, not that it is illegal to reverse out.

buffyajp · 28/07/2021 09:00

@purrswhileheeats

Thank you *@TheAwfulTruth, @HaveringWavering* and others. I'm not going to speak to the parents, hopefully they've learnt from this.

They are a nice family despite being Romanian obviously joking

Well you clearly haven’t. How magnanimous of you to decide to let the parents off. I also don’t find your last comment funny despite you saying it’s clearly a joke. Their being Romanian has nothing to do with the situation. Would you joke about a poc? So why do you think it’s acceptable here.

sunglassesonthetable · 28/07/2021 09:13

Have you read the thread?

KormasABitch · 28/07/2021 09:22

OP I don't see what difference it makes whether you're reversing in or reversing out, there is a moving vehicle and there is the potential for a kamikaze small child to hurl themselves under your wheels.

You've done what you can to prevent it, well done! Which is more than you can say for the parents.

ThirdElephant · 28/07/2021 09:49

If it's possible to reverse on, yes, drivers should reverse on.

Even if driving off forwards, the responsible thing is to move off carefully and slowly, particularly if there is visibility.

There are some strange ideas on here about how pedestrians should behave- I have never seen a pedestrian treat every drive entrance like a road crossing and no driver should expect that they will do so. And the pedestrian has right of way on the pavement, so if there is a pedestrian there, the driver ought to wait until it is clear before pulling out, much like how on a road, where cars have right of way, pedestrians need to wait until the road is clear before crossing.

ThirdElephant · 28/07/2021 09:49

*particularly if there is limited visibility

ArabellaScott · 28/07/2021 09:55

I have never seen a pedestrian treat every drive entrance like a road crossing and no driver should expect that they will do so

I'm not getting into shoulds and shouldn'ts, but I have taught my children to do this from when they could walk.

MyMabel · 28/07/2021 09:59

@ArabellaScott if I can’t see what’s going on on a driveway I will often hesitate and make sure no ones pulling off before I walk across, it just takes a a quick peep up their drive. It’s not hard and I can’t believe other people don’t do this 👀

sunglassesonthetable · 28/07/2021 10:02

I have never seen a pedestrian treat every drive entrance like a road crossing and no driver should expect that they will do so

I agree with what you've said @ThirdElephant but I didn't like my kids running in front of entrances where cars could come out so I did get them to treat them like crossings. Mostly I was walking but the problem is children are often running.

ArabellaScott · 28/07/2021 10:02

Yes, for sure. My children were taught to stop and peek round. They're too low down to hear noise, or be seen so its even more dangerous than it is for adults. And I'm EXTRA slow and cautious when driving coming out of my drive - I have a mirror on my neighbour's wall for exactly this reason.

ThirdElephant · 28/07/2021 10:03

@ArabellaScott

I have never seen a pedestrian treat every drive entrance like a road crossing and no driver should expect that they will do so

I'm not getting into shoulds and shouldn'ts, but I have taught my children to do this from when they could walk.

How do you get anywhere? There are about 100 drive entrances between our house and the shops and it's a pretty short walk. I'm not doing stop, look, listen at every drive entrance just in case someone might start reversing at speed. And I've never seen it done either. People would think I was certifiable.

Walkaround · 28/07/2021 10:03

@ThirdElephant - well, I think you have a death wish. It is not remotely strange to be careful in an area where you may well be hit by a moving vehicle. And you don’t have to treat every drive like a road, you have to treat it like a drive. There are differences between drives, roads and pavements and I would say it’s reckless to treat a drive as though it is a normal stretch of pavement.

StormingNotNorming · 28/07/2021 10:05

Reversing on is not always better. A few days ago I was doing just that when a small child tried to cycle between my car and driveway on his bike. Small enough he was hard to see and had mostly been in a blind spot. It was only because I COULDN'T see him that I paused - ie I knew a child had been cycling nearby but couldn't see where he'd got to. He was behind me and had stopped just behind my car to do look at something so was bent down (his foot?).

It made me feel sick too, OP. Because I could have just checked my mirrors, seen them clear and reversed into him.

ThirdElephant · 28/07/2021 10:07

[quote Walkaround]@ThirdElephant - well, I think you have a death wish. It is not remotely strange to be careful in an area where you may well be hit by a moving vehicle. And you don’t have to treat every drive like a road, you have to treat it like a drive. There are differences between drives, roads and pavements and I would say it’s reckless to treat a drive as though it is a normal stretch of pavement.[/quote]
It's not a drive. It is a normal stretch of pavement. In most residential areas, you'll find a dropped kerb every metre or so.

In over three decades I've never had so much as a near miss as a pedestrian (or a driver), so I wouldn't say what I'm doing is dangerous at all.

Walkaround · 28/07/2021 10:09

@ThirdElephant - I’m quite certain there a loads of people who have been reversing off their drives for 30 years who would say the same thing…

ThirdElephant · 28/07/2021 10:09

@StormingNotNorming

It made me feel sick too, OP. Because I could have just checked my mirrors, seen them clear and reversed into him.

But because you were reversing on, you'd seen the small child nearby before you started reversing and knew to look out for him. If you've been reversing off your field of vision would've been smaller and you'd have been less likely to see him nearby beforehand.

ThirdElephant · 28/07/2021 10:11

[quote Walkaround]@ThirdElephant - I’m quite certain there a loads of people who have been reversing off their drives for 30 years who would say the same thing…[/quote]
Which is why it's not illegal to do it. But if you DO do it and you DO hit someone, that's on you.

Walkaround · 28/07/2021 10:14

And if you DO cross a driveway without paying any attention to it, you are taking a risk, as you perfectly well know if you are lecturing car drivers about the dangers!!!

ThirdElephant · 28/07/2021 10:15

Also, I must have walked past literally millions of driveways in my life. Most people reverse out of their drive once a day, so in terms of numbers, my thirty years without a near miss is far more compelling than theirs.

Walkaround · 28/07/2021 10:16

@ThirdElephant - what a load of bollocks. There is nothing compelling about you being lucky.

LittleGwyneth · 28/07/2021 10:23

Am I the only one who thinks this is the fault of the parents for letting their child play unsupervised on the road, rather than you for slowly driving your car?

ThirdElephant · 28/07/2021 10:24

@Walkaround

And if you DO cross a driveway without paying any attention to it, you are taking a risk, as you perfectly well know if you are lecturing car drivers about the dangers!!!

If I leave the house, I'm taking a risk. Ultimately, it's one of those things where the risk/benefit of stopping to check all driveways doesn't stack up. If the drivers reverse in and drive out, that's a minor inconvenience to them once a day, maybe twice if they're busy. If I can't walk ten minutes to the shop without stopping to check every driveway like it's a road, that's hundreds of minor inconveniences, to slightly decrease the chance of something that's not happened in three decades happening.

If you hit someone with a car while reversing, you're at fault. That's it. If you're happy for other people to accept the risk for your convenience, that's up to you. You're not the only one. There are TAs at a local school who reverse out of the carpark onto a busy road containing a school at 3 p.m. There's zero visibility because the entrance to the carpark is a gap in a brick wall. They still do it. So far no one has been hit. 🤷 Still not right, if you ask me.

ThirdElephant · 28/07/2021 10:27

[quote Walkaround]@ThirdElephant - what a load of bollocks. There is nothing compelling about you being lucky.[/quote]
Yeah, in the same way I've been lucky not to get hit by someone going the wrong way around a roundabout. Maybe I should start checking both ways before pulling off in case some twat is coming from the left?

SoupDragon · 28/07/2021 10:28

Maybe I should start checking both ways before pulling off in case some twat is coming from the left?

You should always be checking both ways anyway to ensure the way is clear.

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