to have argued back after nearly hitting children with car on the school run?

[KarasKite]

This morning I was approaching a roundabout. There were three lanes - two with queued traffic and my lane was clear. Just before the roundabout there's a traffic light controlled pedestrian crossing, the light was green. As I approached at about 25 mph a pushchair appeared with 3 kids piled in/on from between the lanes of traffic and I had to slam my brakes on as their mum was texting and hadn't even noticed me. She glared at me and carried on. I'm heavily pregnant so emergency stops are not ideal.

I saw her again on the way back to town and again she was crossing between traffic on a busy road. I then saw her in town while walking with dd and she said I should be more careful because I nearly hit her kids and they were terrified, in a really arsey and aggressive way. I said I'm sorry they were scared but perhaps if their mum would stop pushing them out in front of traffic/cars these things wouldn't happen. She said she'll 'report me for driving dangerously' AIBU to think I didn't do anything wrong and to have argued my case?

Not really - she had to do an emergency stop. If you are driving appropriately for the situation - i.e. near a crossing with clear view obscured,..then an emergency stop is not necessary. You could stop in time.

I think you were both in the wrong.
She should certainly have been looking all around, fully alert and not texting.
You should have been driving at a speed that allowed you to stop safely within the distance you could see to be clear. A panic stop means you weren't doing that.
I hope you have both learned a lesson.

So are you saying that you approach all green traffic light at 15 miles per hour?

The OP has said she was doing 25mph which is total acceptable in a 30 zone.
An emergency stop can happen at 10mph as it is the act of needing to stop immediately which considering the pedestrian walked out in front of the OP's car is exactly what she had to do. We are not talking OP was approaching the lights saw pedestrian walking across the road and decided to slam all on. The bloody women walked out in front of her.

You approach crossing lights - when you cannot see the whole crossing clearly,..slower than 25 miles an hour.
It is much harder to stop intime at 25 miles an hour than at a slower speed.

I can't tell from OP who had the green light to proceed: the pedestrian or the cars?

I had a bunch ofd kids do this to me at a junction. I had a green light ahead and a clear lane, but the other 2 lanes were stopped. The kids weaved through 2 lanes of traffic and stepped out in front of me. I was accelerating, possibly doing 15 mph at this point and had to jump on the brakes.

I came to a stop and one lad lowered his hands onto my car's bonnet - I was that close. I wound down the window, checked they were OK and asked them never to cross like that again. They would have had a turn of the crossing in half a minute.

YANBU. Pedestrians should pay attention, and wait their turn if appropriate.

But the OP's view was not obscured. Her line/road was clear and her light was green meaning the pedestrian walked out in to traffic. I appreciate as a driver it is your responsibility to assess the situation however it is also a pedestrians responsibility to use the crossings provided and to not walk out in to on coming traffic especially between parked cars (as these were). This was taught to me in primary school.

Surely it all depends on when they started to cross? If they started crossing when they had a red man then they WBU. But if they started to cross when they had a green man and then the lights changed, they were in the right and you were wrong because they'd have to finish crossing. There's nowhere else to go!

I witnessed something similar on the school run once. A group of schoolchildren started to cross but the lights changed when they were half way. A car was speeding up the inside, obviously only focused on the green light (and not taking into account that it was a crossing). The driver had to slam on their brakes when they spotted the children and stopped cms away from one of them. The driver then parked, followed the child into a shop and shouted at them I was stopped in traffic on the other side of the lights and had a clear view of everything that happened. The dcs weren't in the wrong in that case. The driver was.

The ops view was obstructed by the other lane of traffic otherwise she would have seen them

I had a similar experience. Same set up bit a runner with headphones on popped out in between the cars. I stopped, he ran on oblivious until a dog walker waiting on the other side stopped him and started berating him! Once I'd calmed down that did make me smile.

You did nothing wrong. She endangered her children

Y.N.B.U. She was the irresponsible one texting when she is crossing a road and in addition with her children.

I've been driving for almost 20 years thankfully nothing has ever happened where I've had to slam on my breaks.. Don't think I'd drive again if that happened to me.
Hope you and baby are okay, oh and congratulations. x

If two lanes of traffic are stationary and one is apparently clear, you should approach with caution because there is likely to be someone or something in front of those lanes that might affect the 'free' lane too. Those vehicles aren't all sitting there for no reason.

You can't assume that because it is clear when you approach, it will still be clear when you get there. Just because the mother was behaving foolishly doesn't mean you are free of all responsibility to avoid an accident. So YABU.

I also think you were both in the wrong.

25mph is too fast to be going at a crossing where your view of the whole crossing is obscured, green light or no.

She sounds like the type who is never wrong, nothing is ever her fault and as pedestrians do have the right of way, it absolves her of any responsibility what so ever. What dick texts whilst crossing the road?

Feel sorry for the poor sod that will one day knock her down through no fault of their own

God recently a similar thing happened right by me.

I was in a car in one of the stationary queues that OP describes. 2 lanes. I was in the right lane. I saw a school boy run across the front of the car in front of me (stationary) and not look left to see if anything was coming in that lane. In my rear view i could see a car bombing along towards him.

It all happened too fast to do anything. A lady on the pavement screamed - she could see what was going to happen. By some miracle the boy sort of ran into the side of the car as it shot by and he 'rolled' across its side. God knows how he stayed on his feet. He was unharmed. Everyone watching was shaken up.

My driving instructor told me that you slow if you can't see both ends of a zebra crossing but that it's dangerous to slow for a traffic light controlled crossing on green as cars behind you won't be expecting you to brake for a green light.

I had a clear green light for at least 300m of the approach so she hadn't already been on the crossing - when I stopped for her I could see the button hadn't even been pressed.

She recognised me because her ds is in the same class as dd.

“Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

is the only advice i can give she has three children and doesn't pay attention when crossing busy roads? really unimpressed

we have been doing ten miles an hour and DH has slammed on his brakes before now speed isn't an issue startling a driver is and startling a driver due to breathless stupidity is unforgivable when you have any children

The cars behind you should also be allowing a safe stopping distance, and if they don't it will be entirely their fault for any collision - no question.

It's a poor instructor who tells you not to slow down for a potentially dangerous situation. The child in front is far more vulnerable than your rear bumper.

You must have had a right old staring competition if she was able to recognise you later in the town

Anyways,perhaps she could put her powers of observation to better use in future and check the traffic more carefully

YANBU. About 20 years ago when I was a teen crossing the road a bit carelessly, I did the exact same thing. Two lanes of traffic stopped but I managed to miss the third lane of traffic flowing smoothly.

A lady had to slam her brakes on the avoid hitting me. It all went a bit slow motion. But I will never forget the day I shook someone up and nearly died because I was being a dick head.

If two lanes of traffic are stationary and one is apparently clear, you should approach with caution because there is likely to be someone or something in front of those lanes that might affect the 'free' lane too.

There was. It was a roundabout. Very obvious and predictable.

This could have been me this morning (minus the texting).

To get out of estate I live in you need to cross just in front of a roundabout. It's dangerous but it really is the only place to cross.

There are two lanes of traffic and usually in the morning the roads are quiet and the first lane is normally the only one used.

Anyway the car in the first lane stopped and waved me and and 2DC across. As a responsible adult, I clocked the idiot that was speeding up approaching the roundabout in the second lane as we were almost half way across.

The car in the first lane beeped his horn to alert the stupid driver but I had already commanded my two to stop. My 10 year old DD probably wouldn't have considered looking and would probably have got run over.

I'm sure we were in the wrong for crossing the road in the first place but there really is no other place.

I'm very surprised your driving instructor said you didn't need to slow down at such a crossing and that to do so would create a hazard. The hazard perception test tells you to slow down for any perceived/possible hazard and iirc most accidents occur at junctions and crossings so extra care should be taken on approach. However, I guess driving instructors choose which advice to focus on.

The best advice I was ever given about driving and crossing roads was 'the traffic lights don't control the traffic - only the driver does that' in other words, be aware of the lights but also realise that reacting to them doesn't make you safe. Being aware of other vehicles and pedestrians is what keeps you safe.

YANBU. I wouldn't walk along the pavement texting with 3 DC, not to mention texting while crossing the road with them.