For God's Sake, Teach Your Kids To Cross Roads Safely

[Jaythulhu]

So yeah.. Saturday afternoon on my way home from work I saw a kid who could've been no more than 10 run straight into traffic and get wiped out by a truck.

The only point of me making this thread is to implore every single fucking one of you to, if you have kids or are thinking about it in the future, teach them how to cross a road. Look left, look right, and look left again.

Why the fuck this isn't drummed into every kid by the parents, by the tv shows they watch and by their schools like it was in the 80s when I was a kid I don't know, but for fucks' sake, teach them. Beat it into them, tattoo it on their fucking foreheads if that's what it takes, but do it.

Right now, I'm a mess. I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't even talk about exactly what I saw, and I was behind the truck. I can only imagine what the truck driver is going through.

So yeah. Teach your kids. Unless you are a kid, in which case, DON'T FUCKING RUN ACROSS ROADS WHEN THERE ARE CARS ANYWHERE NEAR YOU. It's not just your life that you're fucking up.

 

[Caiphus]

Wow man, that must suck. I'm lucky to have never experienced something like that. I know my mum would never let me cross the road on my own until I was around nine.

So yeah, there's not much to say.

*hugs*

 

[EeveeElectro]

Sometimes kids just don't listen. Sometimes their parents do tell them but they just don't care or listen or they might even have something like ADHD and find it hard to pay attention. I suppose that would also explain the running out in front of a van? I don't know a terrible amount about it but my nephew has ADHD and onetime he was with me I had to grab him by the scruff of his neck and drag him backwards because he tried to run into a busy road. He has been taught about road safety and even I've told him when we've been out to wait until you see the green man before you cross.

Undoubtedly there's some terrible parents out there, I see plenty of them. I wouldn't jump to blame them though, some kids are just stupid or have something that prevents them from understanding danger. I feel really sorry for his family...

 

[piinyouri]

If I ever have kids I intend to teach them, and make sure they understand all the basics of safety in everyday life, just like my parents did.

 

[Zhukov]

I'm pretty sure most people teach their kids to look.

I know it was drummed into me like mad. Both at home and at school.

I've seen a few kids run out into traffic, but the cars always managed to stop in time. I once saw a particularly thick individual run out, have a car screech to a halt within three feet of him, then keep going across just to have the same thing happen in the next lane. His sisters were screeching at him from the sidewalk the whole time.

 

[purf]

As of 2 years ago, I file this under Stuff I can't .. know anymore. Fuck, man.

I'm very glad that my ^ 2 year old is happily reporting all the green men and red men she sees and recently dragged me to the pedestrian crossing when she realised we were about to cross the road.

 

[Jamieson 90]

So yeah.. Saturday afternoon on my way home from work I saw a kid who could've been no more than 10 run straight into traffic and get wiped out by a truck.

The only point of me making this thread is to implore every single fucking one of you to, if you have kids or are thinking about it in the future, teach them how to cross a road. Look left, look right, and look left again.

Why the fuck this isn't drummed into every kid by the parents, by the tv shows they watch and by their schools like it was in the 80s when I was a kid I don't know, but for fucks' sake, teach them. Beat it into them, tattoo it on their fucking foreheads if that's what it takes, but do it.

Right now, I'm a mess. I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't even talk about exactly what I saw, and I was behind the truck. I can only imagine what the truck driver is going through.

So yeah. Teach your kids. Unless you are a kid, in which case, DON'T FUCKING RUN ACROSS ROADS WHEN THERE ARE CARS ANYWHERE NEAR YOU. It's not just your life that you're fucking up.

I can sympathies since I nearly ran over a young girl and boy a few weeks ago; they just ran out into the road and weren't even looking, in fact I'm amazed how I didn't hit them and it left me shook up for days wondering what might have happened. As for myself I don't have kids but if I did I'd drill it into their heads like it was to me when I was growing up, and back then it was a concentrated effort on all fronts both from parents, teachers and even speakers coming into my school, a bit overboard but it bloody worked.

 

[White Lightning]

Holy shit, that kids parents must be flattened. I mean, what the truck was that kid thinking? Just speeding into the road like that without looking?

Oh well, say what you want but if the kids too dumb to look both ways he probably wasn't going to last long either way. I feel bad for the truck driver though. He's probably going to get into A LOT of trouble. But I hope he doesn't.

 

[PerfectDeath]

Well, on my 2nd trip to seattle for PAX I got hit by a car doing an illegal right, he accelerated so much he launched himself onto the sidewalk.
So remember, just like in GTA sidewalks are passing lanes too!

Also, I work a few days a week in a parking lot at a department store. I see children run full speed away from their parents to either get to the store or out of the store, this happens at least once a day.

 

[TAGM]

I'm not sure even telling them is enough sometimes. I know I was a kid once, and I know they kept telling me to stop, look, and listen, left right left right etc. I knew it all, and it STILL took me about 6 or 7 close calls before I really got it. (Mind you, I DID have undiagnosed ADHD at the time, but still, I knew I should be smarter then that...)

My mom makes complaints every now and then about kids playing football right on our road - it's a tranquil one, but people still drive on it, and she has to make an effort not to run someone over. She has actually hit a kid on a bike who came speeding out of an alleyway right into the road right in front of her - Luckily the only real effect to either party was that she was slightly late in picking me up that day, and the kid had some mild bruises and a big scare at worst.

Sorry to hear you saw a real death from it, OP. Condolences to everyone involved, up to and including you.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Here it's not the kids that step into traffic; it's the old people. It swear it's a game the old Okinawans play: find the best cover you can, then hide until a car is coming and start crossing the road like you own it.

 

[Brutal Peanut]

When I was younger, my former brother-in-law was giving me a ride to my Brother's house. A kid ran right into the street in front of us, apparently chasing after something. We weren't a small vehicle, it was night, the lights were on ; anyone could see us coming. I remember he slammed on the brakes and her terrified face was illuminated by the headlight. We didn't hit her, but it's a haunting memory. Her mother was furious at her and apologized to us profusely, but that didn't change the fact that that kid didn't even seem to care about running right into oncoming traffic.


Just a few days ago, I pulled into a parking lot and stopped a bit of a ways to allow a family of three to pass. They weren't looking behind them, just moving across the lot. After they pass, I start to drive forward to find a place to park. Apparently they had a little girl they hadn't bothered to wait for and help cross the lot safely. I hadn't seen her because she was small - I couldn't even see her over the top of the car she was standing behind, or through the windows of the parked car; because the windows were tinted to hell. Luckily, I didn't hit her. The parents were giving me the death glare, as if I had purposefully tried to gun down their baby in the parking lot.

Please, make sure you have all of your small children with you before moving through a crowded street or lot. If she had decided to make a run for it to catch up with her family, even though I hadn't been going fast, things could have ended a lot less smoothly for all of us. I'm still a bit unnerved by it.

 

[MagunBFP]

As of 2 years ago, I file this under Stuff I can't .. know anymore. Fuck, man.

I'm very glad that my ^ 2 year old is happily reporting all the green men and red men she sees and recently dragged me to the pedestrian crossing when she realised we were about to cross the road.

^^ This.

Its not so much telling the kids and teaching them to cross at the crossing or the lights or looking both ways, its leading by fucking example!

The number of adults who don't look, or who dodge traffic, or whatever is insane. Kids don't accept "do as I say but not as I do" as an excuse for shit. You want to see an improvement in kids listening to safety instructions don't be a hypocrite, wait the extra minute for the lights to change, cross at the lights or the crossing even if it takes you half a block out of your way. If you would like your kids to do it, do it yourself as well /rant

Sorry just had a woman tell me my 3 year old niece should have been looking where she was going... when she was staring at her phone and didn't have a clue where she walking in the first place.

 

[Plasticaprinae]

Man, thats horrible. I hope the kid didn't suffer long.

There was this elementary school that was right by a street that goes 50 miles, and kids used to dart across it to go home. It was right after high school got out too, so there were a lot of cars. At least they looked both ways, but still, the crosswalk wasnt that damn far.

I recently went on a walk with my nephew, and he didnt know how to use a cross walk. I think its a good idea to go on walks with your children, instead of driving everywhere. Walks are a lot more interactive anyways.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Not sure how reliably you can get a kid to know something like that, all it takes is for them to do something stupid once.

 

[Flatfrog]

Kids, like adults, are different. My daughter has been cycling two miles to school since she was ten years old and I've never worried about her doing anything stupid (I worry like hell about *drivers* doing something stupid, but I refuse to give in to that worry). Meanwhile my son is utterly hopeless and just doesn't pay attention to anything, despite loads of close calls. It's not for any lack of 'drumming it in to him' on my part, it's simply that his mind wanders.

But what can we do? Ultimately, as a parent you have to accept that terrible things do sometimes happen. Kids get run over, murdered, drowned, electrocuted and raped. You can protect them up to a point, but eventually you have to let them take those risks because otherwise they reach adulthood with no experience. So you grit your teeth, send them off into danger and trust to the odds. And you know that if the worst happens, you will always, always know that you could have prevented it.

 

[knight steel]

And this Is why you cut your childrens legs off preventing them from walking that way stuff like this doesn't happen.......although I guess they could still wheelchair their way onto the road-fuck better just lock them in the basement just to be sure-better safe than sorry ./sarcasm in case you couldn't tell.

 

[dumbseizure]

Wow, that is terrible.

I do agree though, right behind the closest shopping center to my house is a pedestrian crossing, which is fine.

However, NO ONE FUCKING USES IT! They just walk out between parked cars on the side of the road and just fucking walk out into traffic like all drivers knew they were coming.

I really have stopped caring, if kids are going to run from behind cars and older people are just going to step onto the road giving no fucks about what is happening, I will hit them.

And I really don't care anymore, if they are stupid enough to do that, instead of walking the extra 15 metres to the crossing and getting across safely, they deserve to be run the fuck down.