Will pedestrians never learn!

[Ghiagirl]

: Sorry folks but I need to get this off my chest, why are so many pedestrians so bloody stupid and selfish? When will they learn that the world will not halt because they have to get across the road?

My frustration stems from a horrible incident that occured today whilst taking the kids to the museum. We were driving down St Kilda Rd, now anyone who knows St Kilda Rd, knows the layout, trams down the middle, 4 lanes inbound with a median strip in the middle of the inbound traffic (same for outbound). We were travelling inbound in the left hand lane of the middle section, coming up to a green light with cars in the right lane stopped due to a red, right turning arrow. Approx 1 metre from the lights a woman runs from in front of the stopped 4wd drive waiting to turn right and directly into the path on our car.

Infortunatly yet inevitably, we hit the woman, she slammed firstly onto the bonnet before bouncing off the windscreen. Thankfully, the woman was lucky enough to receive only some minor cuts and bruises (could have been alot worse if hubby hadn't applied the brakes with as quick a reaction time as he did).

Now this all occured due to no fault whatsoever of my husbands (confirmed by both police, and the many witness that insisted on staying untill police arrived, to confirm so). And as grateful as I am that the woman sustained no serious injuries, I can't help but feel incredibly angry!

Her bruises will heal, but what about the emotional effect on my husband, myself, and my children who were in the back and also witnessed the whole thing?

I am begging all pedestrians to please please think of the drivers on the road and not just about your bloody selves! Taking a few extra minutes to get to your destination won't kill you, but playing russian roullette with your life just might!

Had to get this off my chest, sorry all!
:

[geckoGT]

Sad situation and happens way too often. Just hope you and all your family remember that it was her stupidity that caused this and there is not a thing that you can do to guard against that.

Make a positive about it and reinforce the road safety message to your kids if they are old enough.

[Ghiagirl]

Make a positive about it and reinforce the road safety message to your kids if they are old enough.[/QUOTE]

100%! My 3 year old keeps asking why the lady wasn't holding her mummy's hand. Our 7 year old saw the full brunt off the incident though, and unfortunatly can't get out of his head, the vision of the "the lady who did all the somersaults on the car". We keep telling them this is why they have to make sure they cross with the green man, and not the red man like the lady did.

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by Ghiagirl

Make a positive about it and reinforce the road safety message to your kids if they are old enough.

100%! My 3 year old keeps asking why the lady wasn't holding her mummy's hand. Our 7 year old saw the full brunt off the incident though, and unfortunatly can't get out of his head, the vision of the "the lady who did all the somersaults on the car". We keep telling them this is why they have to make sure they cross with the green man, and not the red man like the lady did.[/QUOTE]

Cute, maybe she should hold her mummy's hand next time.

Way to go, things are only negative when you allow them to be.

[Franco Cozzo]

It makes me wonder why pedestrians are considered the all mighty give way to object on the roads, even if they are in the wrong. I think it should be the other way around (unless they are at a designated crossing obviously), pedestrians should have to give way to cars.

Turning left or right into an intersection = give way to pedestrian, regardless of crossing.

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

It makes me wonder why pedestrians are considered the all mighty give way to object on the roads, even if they are in the wrong. I think it should be the other way around (unless they are at a designated crossing obviously), pedestrians should have to give way to cars.

Turning left or right into an intersection = give way to pedestrian, regardless of crossing.

Because in the fight between Pedestrian and Car, Car wins 99.999996% of the time.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Rodp

Because in the fight between Pedestrian and Car, Car wins 99.999996% of the time.

Don't pick fights you know you can't win

[GK]

I'm glad no one was seriously hurt and that there were plenty of witnesses to testify to the lady's witless run across the street!

I pray your family will heal quickly from what you've experienced together. That's the good thing though, it's an experiece (albeit horrible) that you've shared and therefore can discuss together.

Keep talking about it for as long as they do, they'll pull through fine.

GK

[JC]

Harold scruby will want to lock you and your family up! Bloody idiots some of these people that walk!

Hope the kids don't have bad dreams for too many nights (and you 2 as well).

[XR8putts]

Heres hopeing this even has knocked some sense into the pedestrian.

Your kids will be just fine - If anything, they'll make sure their kids know how to cross the road properly and use this event as an example.

[pertuan]

Yeah this sort of thing pees me off as well. But what REALLY gets me is when parents take their kids across the road... 5 METRES from a pedestrian crossing or a controlled intersection where they can press the bloody button and wait 2 minutes! If you don't teach kids where and how to cross safely, don't blame the drivers when someone gets hit!!

[Silver Ghia]

TAC ads currently on TV imply the driver to be at fault even in this situation, so pedestrians now think they can just step in front of cars without looking.

They should have ads to educate pedestrians instead of their insistence on drivers to "knock off 5".

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

TAC ads currently on TV imply the driver to be at fault even in this situation, so pedestrians now think they can just step in front of cars without looking.

They should have ads to educate pedestrians instead of their insistence on drivers to "knock off 5".

AH YES!

Ive been saying that to my friends for ages, that ad is a load of BS. The stupid woman walks across the road, doesn't look left or right, just down at her feet and yet its the drivers fault for being 5 over..AH!

Yet another example of people not taking responsibility for themselves.

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by Polyal

AH YES!

Ive been saying that to my friends for ages, that ad is a load of BS. The stupid woman walks across the road, doesn't look left or right, just down at her feet and yet its the drivers fault for being 5 over..AH!

Yet another example of people not taking responsibility for themselves.

Yep...responsibility for ourselves...why? It pays to be irresponsible and stupid nowadays. The courts reward it.

Buy you're dead right...everytime I see that commercial, I see that young lass with her iPod in her ears and forgetting the lesson I was taught in kindergarten. Look to the left and to the right before crossing the road.

Drivers cannot take responsibility for other people's stupidity.

In Glen Waverley a couple of days ago I saw a couple of idiotic Chinese women cross the road with oncoming traffic. The cars had to stop for them to cross in the slowest fashion possible. One car honked their horn at them, and they continued to cross slow as hell without a care in the world.

My view is that if you cross a road against the lights and don't take responsibility for yourselves, then if you get hit, frankly, you deserve it.

Of course in this nanny state, that will never happen.

[XR8GRL]

Frankston has wonderful pedestrians, the mothers especially putting the pram out for the child to be hit or killed because of their stupidity. They're all lucky that I'm watching them.

[Kamshaaft]

Originally Posted by Silver Ghia

TAC ads currently on TV imply the driver to be at fault even in this situation, so pedestrians now think they can just step in front of cars without looking.

They should have ads to educate pedestrians instead of their insistence on drivers to "knock off 5".

Excellent idea. These should be played in the city.
I actually have this idea where tvs should be on display in electronics shops in the front window, playing safety messages and such constantly. Show off the TV working, but also get these messages into the city streets.

[chrisfpv]

This annoys the crap out of me too.

Especially teenagers (or anyone for that matter but mostly teenagers do this) who walk across the road when you're driving towards them, but they insist to not walk faster or run to get off the road yet walk at a normal pace as if to say "look at me, i'm cool" sort of way and look at you as you get closer and you have to slow down for them to get off the road.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Ghiagirl, I feel for your kids as i'm sure it would've been a pretty big fright to them.

[Revolver]

Originally Posted by XR

This annoys the crap out of me too.

Especially teenagers (or anyone for that matter but mostly teenagers do this) who walk across the road when you're driving towards them, but they insist to not walk faster or run to get off the road yet walk at a normal pace as if to say "look at me, i'm cool" sort of way and look at you as you get closer and you have to slow down for them to get off the road.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Ghiagirl, I feel for your kids as i'm sure it would've been a pretty big fright to them.

Absolutely, then they give YOU the bird for standing on the horn to express that THEY are doing the wrong thing.

Fact is too many people are worried about getting somewhere in a hurry, & not taking the normal precautions, & adopting, the great assuie attitude of "She'll be right, mate", or the great money spinner, "I'll sue". People are dumb, self absorbed beings. But there are still courteous ones out there, & if you are courteous, thank you, we need more of you. :

BBII

[Kryton]

Here in Warrnambool, pedestrians do NOT have the right away at round abouts - they have to wait for all traffic to clear before they can cross the road.
Being full of roundabout's, you think it would be a simple message to comprehend, considering its even on the radio every single day, but as i often need to drive down the street, youd be amazed at those that think they have right of way and expect a car to grind to a halt to let them through.
Some are even simple enough to challenge a 3 ton 4WD.

Its because of simple pedestrians (and children) that we now have 40kmh zones around schools.
A child doesnt even need responibility anymore - it can simply walk out on the road and expect everyone to be aware of it and stop so it doesnt get hit.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Same thing happened to me a few years ago...

Going down a long straight 3 lane road. Right 2 lanes are full of traffic, trucks etc. Each of the right hand lanes would have been banked up 150-200m.

The left hand lane was empty, as at the lights up ahead you needed to turn left. So, I continued down the empty left hand lane, doing 50-60ish, and then around 10m in front of me a lady steps out into my lane from between 2 large trucks.. Applied the brakes, left some nice skid marks and stopped about 2feet from the lady...

She just walked through the 2 blocked up lanes and into mine assuming it was empty...

Of course, she abused me, as naturally I should have known she was there.....

Don't even start on the drunken tools that leave Rosehill Races of a Sat afternoon... I almost hit 3 last last weekend who couldn't walk a straight line between traffic when trying to illegally cross the road...

[bodes-sh]

i don't think they'll ever learn. the problem is these days nobody wants to take responsibility for anything. i guess you're just lucky you weren't in a patrol or a cruiser with a bull bar hanging off the front. she wouldn't have got up after that....on the other hand, maybe it's her that's lucky.

idiots like that don't get any sympathy from me, if they don't know how to cross the road by the age she would have been, you better lock yourself in a room and leave the key outside...

the other problem is, it's normally the people in the vehicle that are worse off either emotionally, physically or both...

[Jim Goose]

Try going up Castle Hill here in Townsville in the afternoon.

1000s of **************... er walkers walking up a single lane public road.
For those that don't know the hill is about 400ft high and very near the coast right near the city heart, so its a popular tourist vantage point.

I recently drove up the hill on 5pm (i forgot how stupid people are here) and there was 100s of people, 4 to 5 abrest walking up/ down the road not giving a toss that cars are coming.

All these yuppie morons "exersizing" just didnt give a damn a car was approaching and it was incredibly dangerous. Very few bothered to get out of the way. There was dozens of people with dogs, kids running round all over the place, people pushing prams etc.

Most these idiots also had ear phones on so cant hear cars coming up near them.
Worse still are the idiots on push bikes who reach sppeds of 80km and hour despite the fact there are speed humps everywhere and a 40kmh speed limit.

I almsot collected one on the way up.

The stupidity that these people show on the road as pedestrians in beyond a joke.
The amount of times I was told to slow down be these morons started to make my blood boil. At most i was doing 45 uphill, but the downhill is a problem as even with the auto locked in 2nd gear, I would have to ride the brakes quite heavy the whole way down to remain under 50kmh.

Yet these idiots still walked infront of you!!! And then whinge and moan when you pass them too close?!?!?!

Surely if people walked out on a main road in the middle of a lane to job they would be met with Police or an Ambulance. Not to mention hundreds of abusing drivers.
Yet because they all claim the hill as "theirs" they think its their right to walk in the middle of a one lane steet winding road!!

[XDV800]

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

Try going up Castle Hill here in Townsville in the afternoon.

1000s of **************... er walkers walking up a single lane public road.
For those that don't know the hill is about 400ft high and very near the coast right near the city heart, so its a popular tourist vantage point.

I recently drove up the hill on 5pm (i forgot how stupid people are here) and there was 100s of people, 4 to 5 abrest walking up/ down the road not giving a toss that cars are coming.

All these yuppie morons "exersizing" just didnt give a damn a car was approaching and it was incredibly dangerous. Very few bothered to get out of the way. There was dozens of people with dogs, kids running round all over the place, people pushing prams etc.

Most these idiots also had ear phones on so cant hear cars coming up near them.
Worse still are the idiots on push bikes who reach sppeds of 80km and hour despite the fact there are speed humps everywhere and a 40kmh speed limit.

I almsot collected one on the way up.

The stupidity that these people show on the road as pedestrians in beyond a joke.
The amount of times I was told to slow down be these morons started to make my blood boil. At most i was doing 45 uphill, but the downhill is a problem as even with the auto locked in 2nd gear, I would have to ride the brakes quite heavy the whole way down to remain under 50kmh.

Yet these idiots still walked infront of you!!! And then whinge and moan when you pass them too close?!?!?!

Surely if people walked out on a main road in the middle of a lane to job they would be met with Police or an Ambulance. Not to mention hundreds of abusing drivers.
Yet because they all claim the hill as "theirs" they think its their right to walk in the middle of a one lane steet winding road!!

You sir, are a
The 'road' up castle hill is considered a shared zone, and there are proposals being made to make it more pedestrian friendly.
IT IS NOT A MAIN ROAD! Its a no through way for starters, + the amount of traffic is minimal. The council and residents consider it an avenue to allow tourists to reach the summit and the fitness community use it for their regimes.
Blaming them for having to ride your brakes, my god. The road is bloody treacherous in places, why would you need to travel any faster down it?

I don't see how this adds to the topic. Typical.

Can't stop pedestrians having a brain fart and forgetting that cars hurt, so not much can be done apart from lower limits, more education, (and fencing roads off to them completely).
Pedestrian deaths are quite a large contributor to the road toll, even more than motorcyclists at times.
Here in Brisbane they,ve dropped the inner limit to 40 to combat this problem.

[Fled74]

It's for this very reason that I hate driving in Melbourne's CBD.
Case in point: last week I was in the left lane, indicator on to show that I was turning left at the next street.
This lady pushing a pram was at the corner, having pressed the button to cross. Problem was, she was standing right at the edge of the kerb, and her pram (with toddler) was in the street in front of her. In my lane, to be specific.
I honked my horn and eased around the poor kid, and all the while the mother was lost in her own world and didn't notice she was endangering her child.

[Mickxr8]

my 2cs worth. teenagers with baggy trousers (that hang down where the sun dont shine) listening to there i-pod whilst wandering aimlesy across the road without a care in the world need a ticket for the darwin awards !. ghiagirl hope all goes well with your kids. if a teenage moppit trys to cross the rd in front of me i`ll "TRY" to avoid them but at the end of the day what happened to COMMON SENSE ?? :

[Mickxr8]

my 2cs worth. teenagers with baggy trousers (that hang down where the sun dont shine) listening to there i-pod whilst wandering aimlesy across the road without a care in the world need a ticket for the darwin awards !. ghiagirl hope all goes well with your kids. if a teenage moppit trys to cross the rd in front of me i`ll "TRY" to avoid them but at the end of the day what happened to COMMON SENSE ??

[LTDHO]

I drive into the city every day. Ped's think that cars should give way to them..

Why look when cars have brakes, right???

Ped dies, roll toll goes up, government justfy 'safety cameras' as "speed kills"

Go figure.

[RRM]

Originally Posted by Ghiagirl

:I am begging all pedestrians to please please think of the drivers on the road and not just about your bloody selves!

Bloody pedestrians eh?

Only ever thinking about themselves.

Fancy denting the bonnet of a Ford Ghia with your head.

[jcxr]

And another pedestrian died in Carrum Downs last night, youth aged 16.

[left]

Melbourne CBD always has me on the edge of my seat. Guaranteed that I'll have at least a few close calls with iPod wearing peds or tourists looking the wrong way. People walking behind trams or launching themselves of the footpath in to traffic without a care in the world are my biggest gripe. I had a guy push a lady in a wheelchair right out in front of me against the red man a few months ago...like she didn't have enough problems already! :O


(p.s. I didnt hit her)