Would a little common decency have hurt?

[Weezapleeza]

My nephew lost control of his R/C car and it went into the road. A few seconds later a woman in a Discovery ran right over it but apparently without batting an eyelid. She didn't slow down or stop either before or after. It was like she'd just flattened it in passing. Then the acknowledgement came. A couple of minutes later she pulled up outside the drive, wound down her window, and asked him the most incredible question. "Did you enjoy that?" She was furious, and rude, and he was in tears. That seemed to give her an answer but all she did then was drive off again. No apology, nothing. AIBU to expect better?

[Hesma]

Why was your nephew playing with the car anywhere near a road? He could have caused a major accident.... the adult supervising him should really have done a better job. I wouldn’t have swerved as you are taught but to swerve as it can have disastrous consequences and I would have been really pissed off as well. YABVU

[KirstyT79]

ok i know this thread is now a couple of months old now just came across it whilst having a gander but couldn't read and run with such a thread. this has to be the most rediculous Aibu thread i have ever seen. we have a child playing with a remote control car on a main road?. if op has sent other replies i have to admit i haven't glanced every comment but i will tell you something right now if i had been that driver you would have got more than a mouthful from me. as someone else said she could have ran over the toy lost control and had a really nasty accident with on-coming traffic. i seriously hope this is a trol post looking for reactions and that the op isn't being serious.

[SoupDragon]

Accidents happen I am sure your Nephew didn’t intend the RBC car to go into the road.

Except he did intend exactly that. It was deliberate.

[Erkrie]

.

[Beck30]

@diamondsarentagirlsbestfriend

😂😂

"Nonsense. OP has admitted she only had a few seconds. She couldn't possibly have stopped."

If you can't stop a car going at 20mph in a few seconds then you need your brakes looking at.

Not that she needed to stop. Could have touched them momentarily and edged either right or left by a foot to avoid damage to her own tyre. Moving one foot to either side over the course of (lets say) 20 metres forward travel can't be more than about a 2 degree change of direction (sorry can't remember GSCE trigonometry) so wouldn't cause any issues.

[diamondsarentagirlsbestfriend]

Accidents happen I am sure your Nephew didn’t intend the RBC car to go into the road. When I drive through my estate I know kids are going to be about & are unpredictable - therefore I go slow.... she could have made some attempt to brake or avoid...
She could of said sorry - not “did you enjoy that” to an upset child. What a cow!!

[diamondsarentagirlsbestfriend]

😂😂

[Nith]

@Nearly47

I would have stopped, though. The way you describe her reaction she did it on purpose

Nonsense. OP has admitted she only had a few seconds. She couldn't possibly have stopped.

[Nearly47]

I would have stopped, though. The way you describe her reaction she did it on purpose

[Nearly47]

She was being a cow but you were being irresponsible

[Hereiam2]

I'm sorry but you are the adult in all of this and you where meant to be in charge of a minor, I understand it only takes a second of taking your eyes off them for them to be up to something , but that's the responsibility you have when you're in charge of a child, a second to cause havoc, maybe even death, or life changing injuries to someone. So please understand you have to think for them when you're in charge, the woman in the car must have got the fright of her life and reacted in anger, I bet she was still shaking when she got home thinking of all the the things that could have went wrong, I would concider myself lucky it didn't, and you still have your little nephew thank goodness , but please just remember to think for a child next time you're in charge of one.
PS you must have got a shock as well, try and take it as a lesson learned.

[chinateapot]

I have just read through all the OP’s comments. Wanted to say I admire your response - I do think YABU originally but in awe of your thoughtfulness and willingness to reconsider.

[LeonaV]

Sorry, I meant to add on my previous comment that you shouldn’t beat yourself up, you’ve all had a nasty fright and I’m pretty sure your nephew won’t do that again 😘

[LeonaV]

Sorry but I do think yabu. Your nephew could have caused a serious accident, it might be safer to play with this toy in a park or garden where there’s no danger of oncoming traffic. I wouldn’t take what the lady said as lacking in common decency, it sounds as if she got a fright. 😊

[JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows]

@Shona52

If she did that intentionally it's criminal damage

Lol!!

[Shona52]

If she did that intentionally it's criminal damage

[MsHedgehog]

I read the "did you enjoy that" as someone who thought the boy did it on purpose so came back to say "see what happened with your stupid games - are you happy now" rather than gloating that she ran over the car!

[HellcatMomma]

Lady was probably in shock and reacting on instincts. We all do things we regret and act on the spur of the moment, imagine if something had just run out in front of you and you’d hit it - what’s going through your head? Was it an animal, a child, did I just kill something? It’s probably as much from the lent up worry, stress and relief. She probably feels terrible right mow for her reaction. Tbh in this instance everyone is at fault.

[WaltzForDebbie]

He did something wrong and dangerous for which he got blasted by the person he'd done it to. Maybe he will learn his lesson.

[LouJ85]

@Weezapleeza

There's a few things that I do want to say.

I can't tell you how much I've talked about roads. Maybe I wasn't exactly supervising but I thought he was old enough to be trusted and in fact it seems like I turned my back for a moment where he thought I was out of sight and he went and did the most incredibly stupid thing.

I live on an estate. There's a big area that used to be for cars but now is only accessible to keyholders and emergency vehicles and there's a low wall that protects it from the road except for a driveway where the barrier is. I wanted to believe that he somehow went down that driveway by accident but actually there's no way and he's admitted as much. He actually chose to go into the road. I hadn't considered the possibility of that ever happening by accident and I would still view such a thing as highly unlikely, despite my attempts to renegotiate reality. As far as I was concerned he was in a protected space. The road outside, by the way, is a 20mph and I don't think for a moment she was going faster than that.

What seems to have happened next is that he saw the Discovery and panicked and decided to stay still where the driver would know where the r/c was and could miss. She didn't, of course. How much I believe right now is all a bit open to question. The idea that he just aimed it there to be crushed is pretty unthinkable but that's been put to him and he's pretty clear that the jury's out, because it's an explanation that rather sadly fits the facts as far as anyone knows them.

I paid quite a bit of money for that thing. I know that's not the point but I'd have thought he might done something rather better than have some unfortunate woman run it over. She could probably have stopped but actually, yes, why would she? If she saw it come out onto the road then how could she really predict what was going on? She had to have known what it was though, in order for all of the pieces to fit. She didn't stop to check but when she came back she seemed pretty clued up on what she thought had happened.

I think she was making the point that his stupid choices had made something bad happen and was saying that it wasn't much fun. Like, did you enjoy the result? But again, who knows for sure. As a lot of people have said, none of us covered ourselves in glory

I should have made him say sorry. He's been told that and he seems to have taken it on board. He's not getting a replacement. He's been told that too.

My first thought at the time was wrong. I saw what was going to happen and I was just like, oh no, please don't. Then there was a big sickening crunch as it went under her wheel. When she pulled up I was too busy hating that car and what it had just done to get my brain into gear.

If it had been me in her place I'd have stopped at the start and said I was sorry but I'd have expected the same in return. She didn't get that apology and I'm really surprised at myself about that. I feel I've let myself down and I've certainly been put straight on here for it.

I'm sure there's still people are going to make sure the point is hammered home. I don't feel in a blaming mood on that one.

In the end it was some old plastic. Yes, it could have been much worse.

It sounds like you've really thoroughly reflected on what happened in your response here and are very gracious and balanced in your consideration of the issue, rather than becoming defensive like many do. You sound like a lovely Aunt to this young boy!

[SoupDragon]

It's not the child's fault

Yes it was!! 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Mumof3girlygirls]

As a driver who has my precious children's lives in my hands every time I drive, I'm sorry but I would have got out of the car and had a go at the irresponsible adult who was allowing a child to act dangerously near a road. It's not the child's fault but the person who should have known better than to play near roads.

[BertramLacey]

Residential areas aren't 30 so you can stop they're 30 because its expected you won't have time to stop and 30 is mostly survivable for a pedestrian.

Where did you get that heap of bollocks from? If you hit someone at 30mph there's a 20% chance of them dying. That's 1 in 5. It's why there are campaigns to lower the limit to 20. It's a basic tenet of driving that you should be able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear.

[SoupDragon]

[quote Lollipop25]**@SoupDragon* @Wearywithteens* Did you bother to read it? Clearly states the child lost control of his car, that’s not deliberate. Could have easily been a child that ran on to the road. Thankfully it wasn’t.[/quote]
@Lollipop25 Not read the OP's update then where it clearly states he drove the car on the road deliberately...? I'll save you the trouble of looking for it and quote it here...

I wanted to believe that he somehow went down that driveway by accident but actually there's no way and he's admitted as much. He actually chose to go into the road.

[nimbuscloud]

From your description it sounds like she had time to break. So that makes her just a horrible person.*

If you read the op’s post from 9.03 yesterday it seems as if her description of what happened is total conjecture- she wasn’t there. Her DN went somewhere he should not have gone and drove the car onto the road.