Scooters nearly caused accident on school run

[Flores2]

So this morning once again a careless parent let her two young kids scooter off ahead on the school run. The mum was way behind and they were wizzing off down the street . For context this is a main road in London. We all cross the zebra crossing at the same time and these kids wait for their mum so end up behind me. Some how just as I was about to get back on the pavement after crossing, these kids cut in front of me and my reflexes cause me to swerve to avoid them but accidentally causing me to step back into the road with my buggy.

I kid you not I very nearly missed an accident. It was a moment of panic for me as I didn’t see the kids coming and they zoomed right in front of me at the wrong time. The mum continues to stroll leisurely behind as the two kids sped off down the road to school. To me it’s highly irresponsible to let six year olds scooter to school with barely any supervision. Our pavements are very narrow and there are loads of cars passing by. I feel like I should ask the school to remind the parents to be mindful of their surroundings on the school run because I know you can’t ban scooters . Or is this just a pointless endeavour? AIBU?

Are rhe roads busy? I wouldn't be endangering my child by swerving into the roads to save someone else's.
Report to school.

Report to school but the parents will likely as not think the reminder doesn’t apply to them and their darlings. I can’t stand scooters - seen too many near misses.

Hope you’re OK.

This drives me mad. Our school repeatedly send messages saying kids shouldn’t use a scooter or bike on school grounds but everyday I’m run into by a bloody scooter. Same goes for people bringing in dogs. Apparently the no dogs rule doesn’t apply to little ones you carry. People think rules don’t apply to them.

I agree with you, I bet you wish you'd said something to the mum but shock sets in doesn't it
Say something to the school though

hate this. Unfortunately, lots of schools promote scootering and cycling to school so I don’t suppose they’ll do very much.

Maybe things are different in London, but I'd guess that a main road isn't part of the school grounds

Sounds like the road is too busy when there's a high volume of pedestrians walking to school which should be encouraged for lots of reasons, so how about adding in your letter to school that you'd like them to apply for a "school street" road closure? Our school has one and it makes things so much less stressful and friendlier.

Did you not say they waited for the mum at the pedestrian crossing? So did they cross with her or not? I'm reading it that they went around you gave you a fright and caused you to swerve.

"Sounds like the road is too busy when there's a high volume of pedestrians walking to school which should be encouraged for lots of reasons, so how about adding in your letter to school that you'd like them to apply for a "school street" road closure? Our school has one and it makes things so much less stressful and friendlier."

^This. I hear you. But, kids on scooters not being helicoptered over is actually not a bad thing.

Thanks for the replies and suggestions everyone 💖. The school run is absolutely chaotic around here. A lot of the parents are really aloof and some are constantly on the phone talking to god knows who while their kids run rampage. The school did send an email once about cueing etiquette and how it’s not acceptable to barge infront of others when picking up kids. Let’s hope they do the same for this scooter issue 👍🏼

So what happened was they waited for their mum to catch up at the zebra crossing before they crossed the road , then once the mum caught up they zoomed off again. They were going pretty fast tbf.

Definitely ask school to send a reminder but the problem is, the shit parents won’t even open messages from school 😔 Maybe the teachers could also talk to their classes about this incident, as part of PSHE, in the hope that some of the children will choose to scoot more closely to their parents?

I let my son scoot to school sometimes. Either I jog along next to him huffing and puffing or he goes at walking speed. I’m always close enough to grab the scooter if needed, and I make him get off it and walk if we want to overtake someone. If parents can’t be bothered to do this (and it is a pain!) then their kids shouldn’t be on a scooter.

I live opposite a school and see this quite often,
Drives me mad.

Unsupervised children on scooters are a complete nightmare.
DC's old school banned them (the scooters, not the children ;) ) after so many near misses of the type OP describes.

I had an incident a few weeks ago driving to work. School run time. A stupid women on an e scooter, her on the back, young child in the front. Went right onto the road without looking. I had to slam on my brakes. She just kept going. If I’d been going that tiny bit faster I would have crashed. I complained to the school they were going to. They knew who this women was and it was addressed. What a fright I got

There’s a child of about 8 who has one of those flicker scooters. The two days I work from home (though I assume it happens every day) I watch him tear around the corner on his way home from school absolutely haring it along in the middle of the road past the house, with his mum/Nan (can’t tell) tailing far behind. We’re not in a cul-de-sac but the road curves away about 30 yards away from my house. It’s so terrifying to watch! Only a matter of time before a near miss or worse.

By the time the adult is passing the house he’s off round the corner so I daren’t stop her and ask her to keep him closer or on the pavement because he’s now well ahead and out of sight.