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?

[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.

[Haas19]

Totally agree

[scubadive]

Who was supervising your nephew, why did he have access to the road. If he was not able to control the car fully he definitely shouldn’t have had access to the road. This could have caused a serious accident, causing her to swerve, maybe hit a cat or a person,

From her reaction it sounds like she thought it was a prank, why did she think this I wonder?

[Nith]

You are not being unreasonable at all, and to the people saying that the driver was probably "too busy focusing on the road" she wasn't doing a great job if she didn't notice an object running into the road! And on a residential street her speed shouldve been slow enough to notice and stop the car.

OP says it was only a few seconds. If she was driving at the normal residential road speed limit she may well not have had time to take evasive action, and anyway the Highway Code says you shouldn't swerve to avoid small objects or animals. Plus, if she had time to slow and stop, why don't you expect the boy to have had time to put the remote control into reverse quickly and get it out of the way.

Did you bother to read it? Clearly states the child lost control of his car, that’s not deliberate.

Did you bother to read all OP's posts, @Lollipop25? She admitted that he might have done it on purpose. He certainly made a deliberate decision to operate it somewhere potentially dangerous.

[Lollipop25]

He’s a child. It’s great to see how many of you were perfect children. Regardless the driver is operating a large machine and if she was going fast enough that she couldn’t stop if something went on the road, doesn’t matter what, she was going too fast. Her behaviour afterwards towards the child was ridiculous as an adult.

[Mamanyt]

How old is your nephew? That's the main question for me. And perhaps the most important part of your story is "lost control." He was playing with it in the driveway of his (or Aunty's) home, which is perfectly fine.

If he is 14 years old, I'm reasonably OK with her reaction. She was probably a bit rattled. HOWEVER, if he is 7-8 years old (which is more probable..."lost control"), then no matter how rattled she may have been, her reaction was inappropriate.

[Nith]

Mamany, you can bring up all the OP's posts together quite easily. She did say some time ago that her nephew is 12.

[Nith]

He’s a child. It’s great to see how many of you were perfect children.

I don't, which is why I supervise them if they're doing something potentially dangerous. Any I don't think my child would deliberately run a remote control care into the road as a car is approaching and leave it there, which OP admits was a possibility.

Regardless the driver is operating a large machine and if she was going fast enough that she couldn’t stop if something went on the road, doesn’t matter what, she was going too fast.

Do you drive? Have you ever heard of stopping distances? Of course there is plenty of scope for a car being driven immaculately to be put in a position where there just isn't room to stop or swerve. And the Highway Code says that you shouldn't, because a sudden stop or swerve may well be more dangerous.

Her behaviour afterwards towards the child was ridiculous as an adult.

It's great to see you behave perfectly after a nasty shock. If the driver thought the boy's action was deliberate, he's lucky her reaction wasn't a lot worse.

[BritWifeinUSA]

Was he upset because of the way she apparently spoke to him? Or because he no longer has the car to play with?

[Harmonypuss]

I've only read the first page with of responses and I think you've got your answer right there, there's not a single response that says the driver was responsible for what happened to the child's toy car.

Maybe she shouldn't have said what she said but the potential for damage to her car or other road users was genuine and she was, IMO, justifiably angry, therefore you must certainly ARE being unreasonable!

[Harmonypuss]

I've still not read the whole 21 pages of responses but enough from pages 1 and 18-21 to know that :

• The child is 12yrs old, so should know better than to be playing with the toy car so close to the road and probably was not being supervised anyway
• He did do it deliberately, so deserved the driver's anger
• Unless a person or animal ran into the road the driver should not be swerving (even then, the type of animal would be questionable)
• The type of car and what the driver may or may not have been wearing are completely irrelevant

Also, if this was my son and he'd come crying to me about it, I'd be giving him another shouting at for scaring the driver and potentially causing an accident where people could have been hurt and/or damage caused to people's property and I certainly wouldn't be buying him a replacement because he'd need to learn his lesson!

This child's family should be grateful that there wasn't any damage caused to the lady's vehicle because it could have been very costly to THEM!

[Sapho47]

"Regardless the driver is operating a large machine and if she was going fast enough that she couldn’t stop if something went on the road, doesn’t matter what, she was going too fast."

Stoping distance at 30mph is 27 meters....

The thinking time alone covers the first 9 meters.


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.

[Sapho47]

[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]
I think many of us "perfect children" know that really no child accidentally drive their rc car into the road and parks it....


Try to race a car? sure. Wanna weave through the tyres like the rc car in Tolstoy? Totally.


"Lose control and Leave it parked in the road" yeah no

[theThreeofWeevils]

@Haas19

Wow a lot of victim blaming here. Like none of you had ever done something silly as a child. That poor child saw his toy being destroyed and the woman clearly saw it judging by her question. What a nasty piece of work she is. Hope your nephew is ok and the rest of you commenters where is #benice??

The 'poor child' is 12, ffs, not 3. Old enough to know that acting the maggot can be dangerous. Maybe the loss of his toy, which I hope will not be replaced any time soon, will cause him to reflect.
I was a bit bemused by the horrified reactions to 'making a CHILD CRY'. As far as I know, crying doesn't kill them. Neither does being 'upset' via cause they could have controlled and effect. It's how we learn some stuff (at 12, it's kind of catch-up or revision, one would hope).

I see #benice/kind and raise #getfucked

[theThreeofWeevils]

because, not via cause.

[theThreeofWeevils]

Neither does being 'upset' via cause they could have controlled and effect
ffs. Good thing I am not twatting around with an RC car near a road.
'because they could have caused an accident '.

[Emeraldrabbittail]

I would expect the OP and a 12 year old to have the sense and common decency not to have a remote control car on a road. Selfish idiots.

[CornishPastyDownUnder]

I wouldve probably said worse to you..if I could be bothered to stop-probs wouldve muttered twat under my breath and kept driving.-of course a r/c car is of no importance next to a potential traffic incident. TBU

[jentinquarantino20]

If it was my boys age at 4, I would have more compassion but at 12, yes he messed up and got his car wrecked but how was the driver to know? On the subject of you can run over a hedgehog, that makes me feel sick. I once stopped for one and the woman behind me was going mad honking until she realised and spotted the little creature getting to the other side haha

[tigger1001]

@Haas19

Wow a lot of victim blaming here. Like none of you had ever done something silly as a child. That poor child saw his toy being destroyed and the woman clearly saw it judging by her question. What a nasty piece of work she is. Hope your nephew is ok and the rest of you commenters where is #benice??

The victim was the car driver, not the child. The child's actions caused this, and was very lucky not to have caused a more serious accident. Was also lucky there wasn't any damage to the car.

The ear bashing the child received was warranted. They did wrong and there are consequences

[Rachel1874]

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

[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.