something to think about...
 

So..

I fitted new front shocks..
And wishbones..
Droplinks et al..

Brakes..

And I was enjoying this change.

Enormously.

Few days ago I was on my way to work, almost as usual, but with one big change.
I had a smile stamped on the front of my, for lack if better word- face.

As usual, I took Trinity Rd to Wadsworth roundabout, as usual drive over the bridge, as usual went trough on the green light..

And not as usual..

I hit a school kid.

Maybe 12, maybe 14 years old. Hard to say.

Something I've actually seen only few times in the whole time I spent behind the wheel:

She run out from behind the bus.

And I, whilst going maybe 25mph by then, was still equipped with brand new, OEM discs, and brand new, OEM, pads.
That with my very light foot didn't have any chance to bed/dress in properly yet...

So..

When I finally stopped.

She was looking at me trough the side window. Drivers side.
She stopped. In the middle of the road, she stopped..
And I passed her.

By the time my front bumper was passing her, I still had some 4.. maybe 6mph on the clock, I guess.
If she didn't stop..
I'd hit her.
Of course if she didn't run out I wouldn't hit her either, and one has a right to believe that a kid who survived this many years of going to school in London should know better..

But that is irrelevant.

What is relevant is this:

I. DID. NOT. STOP. IN. TIME.

So this is why I see it as I did hit that kid. Even if I didn't actually do it. I still see it this way.

Again, I could argue that I had new brakes, that weather wasn't good (a bit drizzly), and so on.
But my own answer to myself would be straight: you're the bl00dy driver, you fitted these bl00dy brakes, YOU should bl00dy know!

I need to think about my driving.

While it is right that you should reflect on the incident and, if possible, learn from it, Thomas, from what you say you were doing nothing wrong, so you should not beat yourself up over it.

There was a good outcome; she wasn't hurt and hopefully she has learned a valuable life lesson, too. Believe me, life really is too short for whats, ifs and maybes.

Regards, John.

I can see what you're getting at Thomas and something to be learned by us all.Thankfully there was no physical contact and maybe just maybe she will also take a lesson from this.Yes you can take more care-as can we all at times I suppose-but no matter what you do or how much care you take you can never second guess all eventualities.You weren't speeding/driving erratically or doing anything irresponsible so I wouldn't beat yourself up unnecessarily over this.

Thomas, it was a near miss, hopefully both you and the young lady learn something from it
However do you stop and walk around every corner to assess the hazards before driving around it, of course not, you drive to the conditions and risk assess as you go.

Having been in a car many years ago as a passenger when a young child ran across the road from behind a bus, fortunately we stopped in time and only a shook up driver and a frightened child were the outcome. That experiance has lived with me for 50 years, ever expecting someone to step out from behind a bus has been it's consequence. Fortunately I have never hit anyone whom stepped out from behind a bus because of that expectation.

Paul.

Don’t beat yourself up over this.
 

From your description you didn’t stand a chance of stopping. I have serviced my own brakes most of my life. I submit that even though the discs and pads were very new, if, at 25mph, you hit that pedal hard, as you would if a child ran out in front of you, the car would stand on it’s nose. I was taught from a very early age NEVER to run into the road from behind a vehicle and especially when alighting from a bus. Did you actually hit said child or just narrowly miss her? Did she hang around or continue on her way?
A few years ago whilst driving home from work in daylight on a dry road I was almost stopped on the approach to a small roundabout, watching traffic on my right and coming across the roundabout. I was aware of two guys on the footpath to my immediate left when one of them staggered off the footpath and collided with the near side front corner of my car. I hit the brakes and he fell to the ground in front of my car. As I got out of my car he stood up and staggered off. To protect myself I called the police and followed his staggering progress. Police eventually arrived and spoke to him. He was extremely drunk and couldn’t even remember the occurrence. No further action taken.

Ian: no, I didn't hit her. Near miss. She eventually crossed behind me. Running again :/
I don't know how much space I had for braking. Length of the bus? More? No idea. Not much anyway.
In that split second there were only two things in existence:
Me, with my car
And fast moving object on collision trajectory.
Even recognition of the "object" came later.

John, Dippy: I'm not sitting here beating myself on the head with a chopping board, you know :)

Pretty much as Paul's experience- lesson taken. My "thinking" about it will be more in lines of making it a bit deeper habit of being careful around large vehicles, especially buses.

Habit I once had.. When cycling.

And as this experience of mine shows- old habits die hard, but die nevertheless. I took it as granted. As something I learned once and it would stay with me.

I was wrong.

Food for thought... Food for thought..

I had a similar experience in the late 70's except I was the driver. It happened outside a school, so I was going slower around the buses which were parked on the opposite side of the road to the school in Luton. The kids were meant to use the crossing and it's lollipop man but decided to run out between two buses. Luckily, I stopped and the kid was just staring at me over the bonnet. The only injury was the kids ear from the clip the lollipop man gave him whilst he was staring at me. It was thankfully the 70’s, bet the kid never did it again nor the other kids that saw what happened.

You did the right thing Thomas, and your post shows you continue to, and that is care.

"I hit a school kid."

No you didn't.

Definitely a salutary lesson but not one to beat yourself up over too much.

In my family experience-
My wife's sister ran out from behind a bus at the age of about 14 and was hit by a guy on a moped, she died of her injuries some days later. The echos of that incident still mar the relationships within my wife's family some 40 years later. In a cruel twist of fate the guy on the moped was also one of my school friends and of all of my friends who rode mopeds he was probably the most conscientious and safe, and he was distraught at what he had done too, but really it was just his bad luck that my wife's sister chose just that moment to run out.
Similar to your incident, my father who was IAM trained and a member of the local road safety committee had a child run out and run into the side of his car as he was doing just a few mph in a queue of traffic, he was quite shaken for a few days at 'what might have been' even though he could not have been held to blame in any sense.
There's a lot to be said for being extra careful on the roads and as you say sometimes we let lessons of the past fade, I do think that forums like this can be an aid to road safety, if just one of us when approaching a bus thinks 'whoa, remember what happened to Thomas' perhaps one tragedy can be avoided.




On the subject of new brakes my personal experience was that I had a car pass the MOT for braking efficiency but fail for a perished hose, when I replaced the hoses I did the discs and pads too. When I took the car down the road to check it I pressed the pedal like normal, having come to an abrupt stop (and picked my teeth out of the dashboard) I realised MOT standard brakes are not that great and new discs and pads even without bedding in are a lot better.