A child biking home from school has just scratched my car!!!

[onyabikeivy]

So we live a 10 minute walk from a secondary school. At about ten past 3 I was coming up to the junction at the top of my cul de sac and as I looked left I saw a girl on her bike on the path but she had her feet down like she was stopping but kept moving along clearly hadn't seen me and when she did she tried to stop but was too late and hit my car and dragged her handle bars along the passenger door of my car causing a dent then she picked her bike off my car and started to bike away, I called out to her that she has scratched my car (I've rubbed the scratch out so now just a long dent) and she said sorry and biked away.
So aibu to contact the school and ask them to address road safety with the kids?? It's a new school So only has a couple of year groups but travelling along the road I was heading on to always means you have to avoid kids walking in the road. Also would it be crazy to suggest they mention this incident in the hope someone would come forward and take responsibility??

My DD at 8 yo went speeding down the street once on her bike and lost control. She slammed into a parked car before I could do anything but thankfully the guy came out of his house and bless him, helped me bathe her cuts!

There was a small scrape on his car and I offered to pay but he refused and said he was just glad she was ok.

Obviously this post is no help lol, but I think if you made the mum aware she should offer to pay like I did.

@fairweathercyclist

It pains me to point this out, but if you are a pedestrian crossing a side road you have priority.

But only over vehicles waiting to turn into that road from another. You don't have priority over a car on that road approaching the junction.

Funny, the under 13 cyclists I know all adore doing tricks/stunts on their bikes and aren’t wobbly in the slightest. It seems very strange for a child to be old enough to be in senior school and yet is wobbly on a bike. Certainly doesn’t apply to the primary school kids I see every day cycling to the school at the bottom of my street.

Good for them.

However, funnily enough NAC(hildren)ALT. Especially when passed by motorists driving too close.

If she can't avoid a stationary object, she's not safe on the road yet.

She's not safe to be on the pavement either. It could have been other pedestrians she'd hurtled straight into - maybe a toddler or a baby in a pram.

An unsafe cyclist, regardless of age, shouldn't be cycling anywhere unsupervised. They should be practising, with supervision, until they are safe to cycle competently, alone and on a road or bike lane.

An unsafe cyclist, regardless of age, shouldn't be cycling anywhere unsupervised. They should be practising, with supervision, until they are safe to cycle competently, alone and on a road or bike lane.

Can't disagree with that. Mind you, I also think parents should get off their arses and fit their kids' bikes with lights before they make their kids responsible for getting back from school on a bike in the dark.

But they don't. They seem to think the extent of their responsibility ends at telling their kids to cycle on the roads, not the pavement, and that's it.

At the end of the day it is just a child and just a scratch. Accidents happen and just be thankful the young girl wasn't hurt. It is just a scratch on a bit of metal after all.

It is just a scratch on a bit of metal after all.

Yes, its obviously good that the child was unhurt. However, it isn't right to simply dismiss the OP's concerns that her car has been damaged, which may now cost the OP a fair bit of money to have repaired.

They may prefer not to have to drive around with a scratch or dent that they did not cause.
If its a scratch through to the metal it needs repairing to avoid rust, etc.
If its a lease car any dints and scratches have to be repaired before sending them back, or it incurs you a penalty.

That’s not relevant in this case, as it was broad daylight

Irrelevant in your point of view. I think it's relevant to point out the full extent of the poor road safety I've seen. If nothing else, maybe someone lurking on this thread will realise that the Highway Code says her kid should have lights on his bike for the cycle home from Scouts.

Why not just let it go and get in with your day?

I feel drivers just need to dial it back when they see a kid on a bike or kids on a family bike in the same way you would for a person pushing a buggy.

From what I can tell OP was stopped at a junction (after approaching slowly) and the kid just came sailing down the pavement and out into the road without paying attention to the fact that there was a massive car right in front of her. What do you expect OP to do?

I'd contact the school as well OP. What if you had been moving?

I’m completely confused with this... how old was the child?

The diagram you’ve drawn has made me even more confused, are you saying the child was cycling on the road?

However even then when you
Noticed the child you should have emergency stopped.

But isn’t this with any driver/cyclist, if your coming to a bend that you don’t have 100% visibility then you should naturally slow down

I'd happily share the pavement with children cycling to school.

Why are pp not understanding that the op had stopped at the junction, it was the cyclist that didn't look where she was going? Typical teenager or another entitled cyclist in the making. School do need to reinforce safety rules.

lazyarse123 thank you!! Most have my comments have been reiterating I wasn't moving she was on the path crossing the junction I was stopped at and she hit me!! I was already stopped so stopping was not an option the only different thing I could have done was drive forward and I'd have been driving into traffic probably dragging her with me so I think I took the correct action.

The school are emailing all parents so hopefully it will make a few of them a bit more savvy. I'm not going to worry about looking for the child to pay for the repair I'm sure it won't cost a lot it's just a long dent along the front passenger door

So we live a 10 minute walk from a secondary school. At about ten past 3 I was coming up to the junction at the top of my cul de sac and as I looked left I saw a girl on her bike on the path but she had her feet down like she was stopping but kept moving along clearly hadn't seen me and when she did she tried to stop but was too late and hit my car and dragged her handle bars along the passenger door of my car causing a dent

Because of this, OP then mentions she pulled up and then stopped at the junction... yet stated the child wasn’t in the road still on the the pavement as OP had to stop t the junction yet the child kept moving and hit her car

How can the child hit the car if she was on the pavement and not “in” the road.

Unless child then veered of the road? Then I’d say it was accidental.

Whatever way people want to add to the snowflake generations of teens and "it wasn't my fault" "it was an accident" " I didn't mean to" that seems to eradicate them from all responsibility for their actions ......

She was cycling on the pavement.

She was wrong.

She was cycling on the pavement and then pulled into the road and hit a stationary object.

In no way is the driver at fault.

I would say it was more snowflake to be so precious about a car that a child isn't even allowed to make a mistake.

Absolutely, it was an accident. We should be encouraging more kids to cycle to and from school not getting worked up every time they make a mistake. Live and let live