I feel sick. Near miss with my child

[Igglepiggleandhisboat]

Walking DC home from school. DS (7) walking around ten steps ahead of me on the pavement. Car speeds down the road and swings into his driveway, across the pavement. I screamed DS name and he stopped and the van narrowly missed him. I am still shaking. I feel so sick. He does this every day (too cool to be seen with mum at the moment) and I always keep an eye but the van didn’t indicate and it happened so fast.
The driver shouted at me that I’m a bad mum for letting DS walk ahead of me which has added to my guilt 😢

A 7 year old walking 10 steps in front of you is not bad parenting in the slightest, you have done NOTHING wrong.

I would be reporting him to the non-emergency police line tonight. What a fucking idiot.

You will replay this over and over and probably come up with endless horrible things that could have happened, it’s your brains way of processing it all. But nothing happened, he is fine. And he will get over it far quicker than you!

100% report him to the police. Even if there's no evidence to charge him with anything, perhaps they will pay a call and remind him of the highway code and his obligations as a driver.

I hope you're OK. It's a horrible feeling you're experiencing and it'll take some time to go away. Take care of yourself.

The driver was massively in the wrong. My DC are often quite far ahead of me or behind me on pavements and I don’t consider it at all negligent.

Pedestrian always has right of way, more so on a pavement but even in the road.

Driver was driving dangerously. You could report him, given the abuse afterwards too.

People inc children should be safe waking on a pavement.

You did absolutely nothing wrong OP. You must feel so shaken up. What an arsehole van driver! Your son should be able to walk along a pavement safely, he was driving dangerously. Take a deep breath, your son is safe and home with you.

Entitled dick. He was in the wrong and if he thinks he's in the right then he's a danger to pedestrians and cyclists. Please report him.

And you weren't neglectful - at all.

That’s awful it was him not you

Dc are often in front of me, it’s made me consider it but walking on a pavement should be safe

Report the little bitch boy for dangerous driving.

What a wanker. Driving far too fucking fast and not checking before crossing pavement. Dick head. Would he be laughing like the nasty prick he is if he killed your child & went to prison for dangerous driving?? Why could he not just apologise that he was driving too fast & gave you a fright? Why are people so damn nasty and entitled these days? Blameless Not your fault at all OP totally his. Just put this behind you now & give it no more energy- lucky your dc is fine xx

Please report them for dangerous driving.

I agree with others, report the driver. You have done nothing wrong.

OP I’m sorry this happened but thank goodness all ok. Van driver sounds like a true delight.

One of my dc was nearly hit on a zebra crossing once. It was such a near miss - the driver saw me crossing just behind but didn’t spot dc in front & accelerated to get over the crossing ahead of me. It was years ago and every so often I still wake up in a cold sweat thinking about it. Dc on the other hand has no recollection.

It should be safe for a child to be a few steps ahead on a PAVEMENT. As a driver he should have been looking out not just as he was turning but for any child that might step into the road.

Oh god. I'm so glad he's OK. It was definitely the drivers fault.

I had something similar the other week. Walking on the path near the coast. Road is narrow anyway but behind us storms a car up onto the path because he was too impatient to wait for the path to be clear before he could.get past another car on the other side of the road. He then got stuck in front of us. We'll I saw red and told him to wind his window down and went absolutely mental at him. His only defense was, well its a narrow road!!! I saw so what? This is a path and you almost ran my 2 children over, he didn't apologise.

So people are absolutely awful. Including this van man

Im so sorry this has happened to you. My ds2 is deaf and I was always reluctant to let him go too far ahead of me. I agree with everyone that the driver was entirely to blame and shouldn't have been abusive to you. Please report him. He could do it again and the outcome might not be so fortunate... 😔

Thank you everyone. I have reported it to the police. My son after getting a shock because I shouted his name is completely unfazed! While I’m a wreck and keep thinking “what if” 😢
The road is a quiet road traffic wise but a busy pedestrian one as it’s the walk down from the school.

I keep replaying it 😢

Oh you poor thing, we have all had a moment like this and it takes you a while to come back down from it. A few weeks ago I was walking DD(4) home from school and as we crossed the road a car swung onto it without indicating and missed us by about a foot. A couple of seconds and we both would’ve been hit at about 40mph. Not ashamed to say I definitely screamed something at the driver. Poor DD had to calm me down!

How awful. Your son is a pedestrian in his own right and is entitled to be walking on the path alone. A similar thing happened to me - my son was cycling across the pedestrian crossing when the green man was on (I was slightly behind) and a car raced from around the corner and jumped the lights. I screamed at my son to stop but he was oblivious. The car missed him by inches and I was so upset I called the police hoping they would check cctv, but they wouldn't. It was 12 years ago and it's one of those moments that have stuck in my mind. Hope you're ok.

Glad you were so alert and your son is OK. If you had been walking together you might not have seen the van until it hit you both so you've actually done the wanker van driver a big favour

Omg OP I felt sick reading this!

I can't imagine how you felt. So glad your son is ok.

To add insult the van driver behaved awfully!
He was totally at fault for crossing the pavement from the road. You're not in any way to blame.

I can't understand how these people can live with themselves being so rude and aggressive. Hopefully the police will do something.

That was all him.

Nothing wrong with ds walking a few steps ahead at all. Driver in the wrong.

Ive had the same. With a person about 8 doors down. The young woman thinks she's at Thruxton.

She hasn't learned since having to emergency stop about 3 inches from dc

if it's him driving over the pavement to park rather than a proper driveway I'd also report him to the council as well as the police

Woken up so angry about this. DS had nightmares all night. Selfish arrogant driver 😔

It will pass, just give yourselves time and keep reassuring your DS.

It is absolutely awful when this sort of thing happens, really shakes you up.