Young child caused accident on pavement

[Senso]

AIBU to think that young children should not be allowed to be in charge of a pushchair on the pavement?

I was witness to an incident that happened on a busy street where a young child, aged around 8 was pushing a pushchair - occupied by a toddler - too fast, and collided with another pedestrian.

the injured person had been walking at a normal pace in the opposite direction but the child just charged straight into her causing her to fall and sustain quite a nasty impact injury.

The parents didn’t seem to get that the child had caused the accident, instead repeating that it was “just an accident, no-one was to blame”

i think otherwise.

No it’s not a weird conversation. Are you quite alright?

Eh? The pushchair veered out of control, how could the pedestrian predict that? Why blame her?

How do you know it's not a big deal? That sort of fall can case life-changing injuries.

Definitely not. I saw the whole thing. Pedestrian was just walking at a normal pace on a busy street. Child with pram was charging through and clipped her which made her fall down heavily

The oP isn’t asking whether she’s unreasonable to think parents should control their children - she can’t possibly be that much of a sap that she thinks that’s an unreasonable thought.

its not a realistic thought though, so just meaningless. “Someone mugged me, aibu think they shouldn’t mug me?”

Not really ... No one is saying it definitely wouldn't have happened if an adult was pushing. But the chances of a collision are surely far higher if it's a child with underdeveloped cognitive and motor skills!

It isn't an accident if someone is letting an 8 year old push a pram into another person, it's a failure of supervision.

It is absolutely not an 'everyday thing' for an adult. I can remember every time I've had a fall in adulthood - usually due to ice. I don't want to jinx myself but I'd say at the absolute most it happens once every couple of years.

I’m interested to understand what you think the OPs AIBU was?

I think they meant the parents were on their phone

Well go to your local a&e and you’ll see loads of people there at 8pm on a Friday who have fallen over, with the elderly ones queuing up in ambulances.

Some accidents are entirely avoidable. Clearly this one could have been avoided by the simple expedient of not letting the child push the pushchair, or supervising them properly.

I got knocked over by a mobility scooter, it was bloody painful and I needed a knee operation to fix it. Falling hard on the pavement is no joke and parents supervising children should remember that.

Accidents happen, that’s just the way it goes.

Nothing, I think she wanted everyone to gush about all the irresponsible parents are “nowadays”

Oh sorry!

Do you yourself fall very often?

Falls are a major killer of the old.

Eh? My AIBU is whether or not a preteen child should be in charge of a pushchair on a busy street. That automatically assumes parental responsibility

Why do you think parents can't control careless children?

😂

how old do you think I am?!

Why are you repeating a PP? Was it so good you wanted to say it again?

If I saw that pram coming towards my mum, who also has osteoporosis, I'd have accidentally booted it so hard out of her way, so yeah I suppose accidents do happen 😊

Why are you asking me that? I’ve said nothing of the sort

I think @Backedoffhackedoff‘s point is that parents should be more than capable and willing to control their children, but in reality there are a significant number who either can’t or won’t. And it’s my experience that people like that are typically the last ones to accept any responsibility, make any attempts at an apology or reflect on their behaviour and learn from it.

Society is getting increasingly self-centred and slopey-shouldered.

Yes the parents should have been supervising and telling them to slow down. But an 8 year old is plenty old enough to push a pushchair.

The person hit had a broken hip? So the parents are saying it’s not an issue as the ambulance is called? Really?