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?

I cross a road right outside work in a similar set up to this every morning. There are two lanes, one is usually stationary cars so I slip between them, the other usually has faster flowing traffic. I need to stick my head out from the stationary lane to make sure I don't get hit by a car in the other one - it's my responsibility to check and, in the absence is someone travelling at 60 mph, my fault if I make a mistake.

Both U.

she shouldn't be crossing

you should have seen her, you say you had 300m clear view

you say you had 300m clear view

She didn't, she said the light had been green from when she was 300m away.

YANBU at all.

It really annoys me seeing people pushing buggies/ walking with young children glued to their mobile phones. If it is so important to text you need to stop in a safe place.

This woman clearly needs to learn some basic road safety.

as is usually the case yabothbu.

If other cars are stationary there was surely a reason for that. She should have been paying attention.

Apart from anything else, she ought to wait for the green man when she's with her kids (no matter how teeth-grindingly frustrating it is). Otherwise, what are you teaching them?

"Hey kids, wait for the green man! ...unless you think the road is clear, in which case just amble out into the traffic"

YANBU

Even if it was green for her to cross it is stupid to be texting as she crosses. Plenty of people have become ill at the wheel of the car and been unable to stop resulting in hitting pedestrians and some have died.

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.

That is absolute rubbish. Cars behind you should be enough distance from you to be able to stop if you do - even if it is a sudden stop!
Cars behind you should be ready for anything and not assuming you will not stop.

We all agree that the pedestrian was wrong and is an idiot - but that does not mean the OP is right just because the pedestrian is wrong.
They were both wrong.

A young cyclist was killed in this sort of situation in Nottingham, the driver was not found to be at fault.

I think you possibly were going too fast for the circumstances.

I hate to see parents with tiny children crossing the road, on their phones. What could possibly be more important than getting them across safely? What exactly are they talking about? I need to know.

I think TBH you may be being a little unreasonable here. If you have got queueing traffic in two lanes and one free lane, then that's an obvious hazard:

• cars moving out into your lane because they don't want to wait
• pedestrians crossing because of the stationary traffic
• bicycles emerging into your lane from the crossing

I actually rear-ended someone when I did much what you describe and a car cut across into my lane from the stationary traffic, he didn't see me coming (van driver) because of the traffic behind him, and I went into the back of him.

Have tried to learn from that though.

^That's true. But it must be quite galling to be yelled at by a woman who pushed her children into a lane of traffic before bothering to check if there was a car coming. OP is driving through a green light, mother was sending her children through red light.

But Olga we actually don't know what the situation was!
We still have no idea when the family started to cross. The OP doesn't know when the family started to cross because she had no visibility of that side of the crossing. Shepherding 3 dcs and a buggy across a crossing can sometimes take longer than the lights allow.
Yes the dmum shouldn't have been texting but the OP shouldn't have been driving so fast approaching a crossing when she couldn't see if the crossing was empty or not.

It's definitely difficult to respond appropriately to angry, stupid people. I'm not sure there is a good response really. The fault is with the pedestrian, BUT these hazards are common and predictable, it's a topic on the driving test isn't it, hazard perception, and as a good driver hopefully you can avoid.

Olga what a bizarrely callous post. The cyclist is still dead, aren't they.

Or is it your view that vehicles have carte Blanche to run people over if the light is green?!

Most people driving vehicles prefer not to kill other people, and hence are alert for hazards such as the op describes.

There are lots of cases of cyclists getting killed and the driver usually gets off, because the standard of proof is very high, the driver says the sun was in their eyes, or there was a spider in the car, or similar, doesn't mean it's not avoidable.

To be fair many cyclists are utter fuckwits, who ride as though they ae the only ones on the road

not as fuckwitted as people making comments like that.

I don't think dismissing the deaths of cyclists on the basis that they are "fuckwits" is an attitude that should be tolerated, fortunately in London at least where so many have been killed they are looking at what can be done.

Even if some of them are fuckwits they don't deserve to be crushed to death, who on earth hears these tragic stories and thinks that. They have families and stuff you know, many are just starting out in life.

And why would you even assume that about a whole group of dead people. That they were all fuckwits who somehow brought in on themselves. Drivers have been successfully prosecuted etc.

I think this is 6 of one, half dozen of another. If you can't see both sides of a crossing, you should drive up the free lane cautiously. I think 25 is too fast in the circumstances, personally. I'd be going slower than that and covering my brake. And I think your instructor was talking rubbish. However, crossing with children between cars whilst texting is clearly cocking stupid.

Factual not callous. Devastating for his family and distressing for the poor sod that ran him over.

Crossing in front of queing traffic on multi lane roads when the pedestrian light is red under the assumption that drivers will be looking out for you is a v poor message to give your children.

The point here is the car driver is here on mumsnet. The other person did wrong undoubtedly, but the driver is the one here protesting.

Olga, which cyclist are you talking about?

You are both being a bit unreasonable. Mother 70 per cent and driver 30 per cent. Of course she shouldn't be texting and walking on a red light but nor should the driver be hanmering up to the junction at that sort of speed when she doesn't have a clear view of the traffic or the crossing.

Difference is that the driver is in a machine capable of killing the pedestrian so should take additional care. Op - don't waste your energy fixating on the actions of the pedestrian you can't do anything about her but you can amend your driving to reduce the chances of an accident.

An incident similar to the one the op describes where someone crossed at a pedestrian crossing on red, in front of traffic waiting to turn right, so obscured from view and was hit by a car travelling in the adjacent straight on lane.