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.

It's not "essentially assault."
Under tort law negligence in supervision would apply, but the test isn't easily met.

You have no idea how big a deal it was to the poor woman that ended up on the pavement, She could have broken a hip, sustained a head injury or had a heart attack half an hour later. If she is elderly it may have frightened her so much she will never go out on her own again.

There isn’t anything wrong with your thread title and definitely YANBU.

Hope the pedestrian was ok, and yes the parents could have prevented this

its Friday night, the contrary arsehokes are on their wine and bored

Yes that’s not how it works, legally ( and morally!) at least. It is foreseeable to anyone of ordinary intelligence and foresight that allowing a young child to be in charge of a bulky heavy object in a restricted space, at least carries the possibility of accident and injury to the child, others or property.

I’m particularly triggered by the scenario described having once witnessed a toddler in a stroller careering into traffic in the road, the young child pushing the stroller at speed having lost control of it and let it go.

Lazy irresponsible stupid parents. Say no to your kids and keep them and others safe.

OP ridiculous comments. My partner suffered a stroke and we have spent thousands of £££ on rehab, if a kid knocked into her and she fell over and broke a hip, for us that would mean needing carers for many months, and a lot more rehab. I would be hoping for sufficient CCTV to make the claim she would have against the parents a lot easier. As it would literally cost us thousands.

The claim is a tortious claim and the loss is the financial loss. These things don’t just happen, and yes it is someone’s fault!

“So that's that behaviour stopped easily enough. Hardly impossible.”

how would you stop it then?

eh - not allow the child to push the pram
in the street. Parent the child.

Are you the person who has previously posted about prams being as dangerous and using a mobile phone when driving? Lol

No, the parents should be charged causing personal injuries as they are responsible for their child.

Your assessment of parents is harsh and generalized. A parent can be a responsible parent and still make mistakes. The situation described by OP could be a one off, first time child has pushed it and it was okay until ... 🙈
Or, child has pushed it countless times before without concern.
Or anything in between.
The question is whether or not the mishap was reasonably foreseeable and that the parent ought to have known.

Barristers/litigators should weigh in. It's an excellent topic to discuss.

No

I'd... tell my kids they couldn't push a pram... obviously.

Perhaps they were old and couldn't move quickly enough.

My dad is disabled and suffered two broken ribs when he was knocked over by a kid on a scooter. Not everybody has good reaction times, agile and stable on their feet.

The fact you would even make a comment as ignorant as this is embarrassing.

Thank you! Omg.

You said "We can't control careless people". Guess what, "people" includes chlldren.

I agree with you entirely @Senso. The parents should be considering themselves very lucky the person who was knocked over was not carrying a hot coffee or anything heavy that could have injured their toddler. If they had then the parents would have had nobody to blame but themselves.

But, the question is fair.
at which point was the pram seen?
at which point was it recognized a child was pushing it?
at which point was it recognized it looked erratic?
what did you do to protect yourself?
did you call out in any way to stop the pram?
did you call out to the parent or anyone else to intervene?

iyswim
It is never a clean cut in court.

As usual people are bending over backwards to find excuses for lazy and irresponsible parenting.

I feel sorry for the person who was injured and the accident was perfectly preventable if some idiot had not let a child mess around with a pushchair on a busy pavement.

Perhaps they were blind.

But who cares? It is the parents who were totally at fault.

No no no that’s not the question. How would you stop other’people from allowing their child to push the pushchair?

The biggest, toughest person in the world can be knocked over if they're caught off-balance and off guard. It doesn't make them a dickhead. Frankly, if you broke your hip as a result of someone else's carelessness, the issue of how you looked would be way down your list of priorities.

It’s not you we’re talking about. It’s why you think it’s easy to stop other people doing it.

Unfortunately very true. These same parents are also typically the first people to raise merry hell / be wanting compensation should their precious offspring ever find themselves on the receiving end of an ‘accident’. One rule for one…..

Right. How do you control careless people or adults that don’t belong to you then?