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What do people make of this BBC News video?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-41839086/mother...
So the child is clearly at fault for riding on the wrong side of the road. The wheelie doesn't help. But does that make it ok for the driver to plough into them when they could easily have slowed or stopped?
The highway code says in the introduction to rules 103-158 "Always give way if it can help to avoid an incident."
It seems to me that the driver was either (i) keen to teach the child a lesson by scaring them with a 1.2 tonne metal object, but was too incompetent to actually stop in time, or (ii) keen to teach the child a lesson by hitting them with a 1.2 tonne metal object.
Which of the two people is more irresponsible and puerile? Which could reasonably be expected to display such behaviour at their age?
I am glad to note that only bruising was suffered. Maybe we should all wear hoodies? 
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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I trust that you also encourage motorists to buy white or yellow cars and to shun vehicles the colour of a wet road?
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Are you going to answer?
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48 comments
If it's any consolation, my performance remains unenhanced, and I've got a load of psychedelic tops that are now so tight I use them for riding!
Clearly both parties being idiots here.
But crucially, one of them (presumably) passed a test to hold a licence to use the roads and they are also driving a 1300kg death machine and aren't willing/able to brake to avoid an obvious collision with a vulnerable road user (who also appears to be an idiot but that's really not relevant to the value of their life on the roads).
If I'd have been on a bike coming the other way, I may have grabbed his front wheel... for my own safety, to ensure it doesn't collide with me. If I'd have been driving a car I would have avoided him long before he got to me, there really isn't any excuse for this driver's conduct.
You can't just plough through the roads hoping that everything will get out of your way.
Maybe it'll teach the moron and the rest of his moron mates what a stupid idea riding like that is?
IMHO not taking action to avoid someone's life being in danger (even if it's entirely their fault) doesn't seem a proportionate method to teach a child a lesson.
No one is blaming the car driver... what is being pointed out is that the car drivers reaction to an obvious hazard is maybe questionable.
I don't think its the same as someone pummeling into someone pulling out on them at a roundabout just because they have right of way... 'I'm right to hell with teh consequences' but there is one person at least doing bird for taking the same approach... the only difference is that they were on a bike.
Can anyone remember the details of the case I am referring to? It was the 'arrogant' cyclist (see a theme here?), shouting at kids deliberately blocking his path that he wasn't going to stop...hits a kid, kid bangs head and dies...
Told the tale before, but once I was cycling no handed adjusting the music playing from my phone when a car punishment passed me. When catching them up I questioned why and they said that my lack of care for my personal safety meant that they didn't have to show any.
Personally, if I see someone being an idiot or dangerous, I like to distance myself from the situation, not deliberately take action that escalates the risk imposed.
I'm not condoning my actions in any way, its just how easily people are willing to justify the potential taking of life afronts me.
Is there an argument of that in the video above... I'm not so sure, but I certainly welcome the discussion.
In the now infamous Alliston case you should stop from 18mph in under 6 metres. If you've had to swerve to avoid one, surely you're more alert. Not sure what pregnancy has to do with it, you could even argue this woman should have a greater appreciation of the worth of a childs life.
Would her actions have been the same if that was an articulated lorry heading towards her?
The lad was a nobhead quite clearly - we've all done something stupid as kids. I think it is fair to ask for higher standards from other road users as well though...
A rider deliberately rides his bike at a car in a game of chicken, and we are blaming the driver?? Come on...
If you watch the beginning, the driver (who I understand from another source to be a pregnant mum) avoided one rider by swerving to the left, to be confronted with the other rider. She was stationary at the point of impact. Even at 20mph it takes 12 metres to react and brake to a stop.
Was thinking the same thing.
The boy turned into the car at the last mintue. Why should the driver be blamed for an idiot playing with death?
Previously I'd have agreed with you, but hasn't the Allison case established that you are expected to stop in half that distance?
Not even I'm blaming the driver. If the kid hadn't been wheelieing on the wrong side of the road there wouldn't be a situation. Don't be so binary.
However, the driver kept going when they should have stopped. The lad who ends up colliding with the car seems to be on the wrong side of the road for the entire video - if that's the case, that's way more than 20m and ample reaction time. There are kids mucking about in the road - doesn't matter how much of a prick they're being, how in the wrong they are - the driver should be slowing/stopping at that point.
Look at the lad's steering as he approaches the car... He's full-left and probably panicking and not understanding why his bike isn't swerving out of the way. He's a dickhead, but the driver is a licensed road user, and is in charge of a device that kills 5 people daily. They have an element of responsibility too, and they don't take it.
I agree, the car was hardly moving at all. The little shit was lucky he got away with bruising.
Kids being kids... endangering their lives for... well absolutely no reason at all!
But yeah, its a fair point about the car... keep on trucking hey?!
What I think is relevant about the drivers perceived decision to avoid braking until the very last minute despite the obvious hazard, is that I can think of two examples where cyclists have done the same and been convicted for furious cycling.
One of those examples was a cyclists approaching a group of youth blocking the cyclist paths.
Now my issue is not so much that the car undertook this course of action, but that there are double standards applied.
I agree with the double standards point, but I do have an issue with the driver leaving it so late, purely to make a point. It looks to me to be a street on an estate. If that was a bunch of kids playing another game, football or something, would they have just carried on with their game of chicken? It's still kids just mucking about in the road (not that that happens in many places anymore, and it's not like we have a kids' obesity problem or anything...)
That the lad was being a cocky teenager doesn't absolve the driver of their responsibility to not drive into people in the road. If they didn't like him wheelieing towards them, worried about losing face or whatever, they need to remember which one of them in that exchange is the adult in a metal box and grow the fuck up. What do they do if confronted with people walking, or on horseback, on a single-track road?
The mum should have jumped on that in her message, too.
Difficult to see how much the driver slows, but it looks like they have plenty of time to stop and didn't. Massive kudos to that licensed adult operator of heavy machinery for making the essential point that they own a residential street.
Still, I bet the lad's not going to forget that the rear wheel is the drive, not the steer, in a hurry.
Fair comments, but evasive action was left far too late to avoid a colision. They also swerved in the wrong direction, making a collision more likely not less. I hope that wasn't deliberate! It's almost always better to brake hard (especially with ABS) to avoid hitting something or someone in front of you than to swerve. You usually can't tell which way they will go if they move and you may lose control. If it was me driving, I'd like to think I'd have slowed down earlier to see what would happen.
Difficult to judge, looks as if driver tried to swerve to avoid the cyclist. Quite possibly too scared to stop in the middle of a 'gang' of hoodies...................
Always dangerous to do but reading one of the post about it being a pregnant woman, I'm puting two and two together and you may have something here; I severely doubt it was someone as per the original post 'teaching a lesson'
I appreciate we (myself absolutely included) opened the door labelled 'speculation' long ago, and are now having a proper party on the other side, but while we're here...
This (hoodiephobia) is the only viable explanation to me. Continue to drive because I don't want to stop amongst these wheelieing hoodies who've probably come back from mugging old ladies while high on M-cat, or maybe even kicking a ball around in a public place.
And yet... If I was in the midst of a bunch of undesirables, whose presence I so feared that I risked driving THROUGH one of them to avoid it, and I accidentally collided with one of these ne'erdowells... They'd be angry, wouldn't they. I'd better high-tail it out of there before they drag me out of the car. Fuck it - I've already hit one of them and I'm scared. I'm up the kerb and away.
But no, it's more 'He'll stop in a bit. Any second now. Oh shit - he isn't stopping. Why isn't he stopping? No, you need to put your front wheel down to steer with it, you spanner. OK, I've stopped and he's on the bonnet.'
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