Kid on a bike did that to the car in front of me once. Straight across a park and over a pedestrian crossing. Despite the lights being green for traffic. And despite not giving anybody a fraction of a second to react.
Fortunately, he bounced off the side door - then picked himself up, leapt back on the bike, and buggered off as fast as he'd arrived.
Somewhere on Youtube there's one of those Russian dash-cam exerts where a car comes bouncing over the motorway divider median straight at the camera car. It's on the bonnet before you know it's happening.
And in more recent times more youngsters have had access to small self propelled vehicles.Many of those will just be low powered electric toys but it still encourages some to whizz down a slope and inadvertently get onto the road,others are in the care of adults who may not be particularly worried about their safety or behavior let them have mini motor or quad bikes which have a bit more power than a toy. There was one a few Christmases back ISTR where a 7 year old was killed on her present when in collision with a Range Rover, the childs parents were further ahead in their car on a dark boxing day evening . The father was later convicted of manslaughter due to negligence but I reckon the driver of the Range Rover still doesn't enjoy this time of the year even though she was not blamed or charged over the incident.
G.Harman
It brings back memories. When I was a post war kid and everything was more austere, we build "orange-box-cars"; a sort of plank car made from any surplus wooden boxes. Steering was interesting; the whole front axle turned. Brakes was just a stick into the ground. Power was gravity, e.g. steep hill. We could race each other, and it was great fun. Luckily, traffic was light at the time.
johannes wrote: [snip]
I made one of them - at about age 9. I fitted a handle and crank to one side, so I could propel it.
Later, at age 12 - I broke my ankle and could not walk for a few days while the plaster set on the cast - so this cart was quite useful for getting about!
My uncle and I built one when I was about the same age.
That was flash. I used to sit / kneel on my left leg and kick out my right like a frog. ;-)
Mine was basically a scaffold plank gauge 'spine' with a rectangular plywood deck at the back that tapered inwards towards the front. Large pram wheels and axle at the back and smaller wheels and axle on a wooden cross member that pivoted at the middle on a coach bolt. Some 'reins' (a loop of rope going from each side of the front axle to about the middle of the cart) allowed you to steer it whilst sitting on it or for it to follow you if you pulled it along.
I remember it being pretty strong and how Mum used to volunteer me to move things (locally thank goodness) like washing machines and fridges! ;-)
I would also help her with her 'big shopping' and often took pity on travelers getting off the local railway station and helping them home with their suitcases (before they had their own wheels). ;-)
I learned a lot about vehicle mechanics and dynamics on my go-cart ... how much longer and how much more effort it took to stop (I wonder if that's where the term 'foot brake' came from ) when fully loaded and how fast you could corner before I either slid into one of the wheels or it flipped over. ;-)
Happy days. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
My point is that swerving is not the best way to avoid hitting something, it can lead to a more serious accident. Braking, OTOH, reduces any potential impact.
This was repeatedly said in Michigan during the season when deer were likely to run across the road. "Never swerve, just brake".
how about when a van coming from the opposite direction rolls broadside across almost the whole width of the road? If I had braked I would have ploughed straight in to its roof, by swerving I almost completely avoided it, receiving only a glancing blow from its roof as I passed its rear end.
A man's gotta do... ;-) I'm glad you survived to be able to provide the amount of advice and useful information we get from you in this group. There are many such happenings on You Tube, and any number of hypothetical situations can be posed..
This only happened a few weeks ago, I just wish I had a dashcam at the time (one turned up for Christmas though) Happily my banger driver instincts kicked in and avoided a heavy collision. Over the last 40 years on the road I have had scarcely any crashes, and for the first time ever I was breathalysed !!! It was so easy to do that it is no wonder the Police (on the TV shows) get fed up when they get chancers that won't blow it and claim it is too difficult, asthma, sore throat etc.
... so you will be travelling at
On 30/12/2015 10:07, Mrcheerful wrote: //snipped to reduce line count//
Yeah you can learn quite a lot from youtube. Usually one vehicle gets unstable, and all sorts of mayhem unfolds. Very difficult to make out which cars caused this without dashcam. Also not easy to avoid an unstable car darting along.
If there is advice to slow down, it is in order to give the child more time to get out of the way.
Normally, around the average speed of traffic on the road, and as far away as you can. If it is a German car which pulls up sharply, slightly over the give-way line or the centre line, then obviously you slow down and crawl past, even if the gap behind you then disappears.
The van drove into the end of an ancient stone wall surrounding a cemetery, he had failed to turn for the very slight curve in the road. It is very likely that he was on the phone or more likely texting, there was a massive bang and a cloud of dust and the van was flying through the air toward me, in this case swerving was definitely the best option, happily ther was a vehicle run in or the kerb would have got the tyres. Best of all there were no pedestrians about, which is rare for the road in question as it leads to a college.
I marvel at their patience, although of course with cameras watching everything... The number of scrotes they find driving without insurance or even licences is worrying.
And of course my use of 'swerve' was only an example of the vast range of things we might be doing that would be distracting us from many other (less important at the time) things at that time.
'Chaos theory' working in your favour that day MrC. ;-)
And yet another example of chaos theory at work. ;-)
It's funny isn't it, all that happened (quite dramatic) yet it sounds like you got away with it pretty well (considering). However, it's easy to see how few options you had, how difficult it would have been to predict it, or the outcome ... and how instinct may have played a (positive) part.
I had similar (to a much lesser extent) when driving home in the wet after a Christmas day, day with some family friends.
Just after midnight, roads near empty, me driving the Mrs and daughter home in the Sierra Estate. *Completely* out_of_the_blue and predictably too close to us to stop in time, a car pulled out from between some parked cars attempting to turn right (across the front of us). As soon as he saw us he stopped with the front of his car just across the centre of the road. I locked up, instantly realised that wasn't going to help so cadence braked my way, sort of slaloming round the front of him and though the very narrow gap between him and the cars parked opposite. I stopped with the tail of my car still just in front of him.
He was gesturing frantically, apologising etc so I just carried on my way with a 'Well done' from the Mrs (who *had* been drinking ). It was about 20s later it kicked in what *might* have just happened. ;-(
I put the outcome partly down to 'luck', reasonable reactions (I was stone cold sober) and like you, fairly familiar with the handling of my car as I had had it (and tested it's limits ) over many years (I had it 23 years in the end).
Had he pulled out one second later ... or stopped 30cm further forward, I'm sure the outcome would have been very different.
I have actually watched motorcycle racers crash at silly speeds and walk away unharmed and other collected up by the air ambulance, never to return. There is often more to the outcome of these things than just driving / riding vigilantly or taking due care and attention ... ;-)
Cheers, T i m
Possibly ... as well as lessen the potential damage you may cause to them (as per the TV adverts).
Which, after the event would always be considered 'too fast'. ;-(
Well, quite. However, as a cyclist that may not be as far as is required to avoid a collision. On a motorcycle, typically traveling a little faster and taking up a 'space' in the middle of the road (and presenting a larger profile) you will go past a bit quicker, lessening the chance of them catching you.
;-)
Cheers, T i m
The 40-30-20 TV adverts which are no longer shown, and have been quietly acknowledged to be lying ?
Only because the front end car design, including softer bonnet lids introduced to be pedestrian friendly, has been forgotten and replaced by small tanks, aka 4x4s which never go off-road.
Dad taught me to drive in the 50s, and he told me to treat pedestrians as having the Right of Way on the road. They could be deaf, blind or be a small child with parents who didn't teach them.
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