What would you do?

turbodish said:
At that speed, going into oncoming traffic is a viable choice. The oncoming traffic may be able to swerve out of my way. Even if not, a crash between seatbelt and airbag-equipped vehicles at typical urban speeds offers much more chance of survival than a crash into an unprotected kid.
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i dont disagree with you. but, say you swerve towards an oncoming car, said car might also swerve to avoid you. who knows where it will end up? might hit a defenceless pregnant mom standing next the a sidewalk...
 
fastar1 said:
If there's not enough room to steer a motorcycle around a kid out on an open road, then there have to be a whole lot of other things going wrong. The scenario only makes sense we're supposed to be in a car.
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Could be a big assed Harley.
 
turbodish said:
Bus stop with many people suggests urban setting, which suggests a 60 or 70 kmph limit at upper end, and possibly even a 40 or 50 kmph limit at the lower end.

At that speed, going into oncoming traffic is a viable choice. The oncoming traffic may be able to swerve out of my way. Even if not, a crash between seatbelt and airbag-equipped vehicles at typical urban speeds offers much more chance of survival than a crash into an unprotected kid.
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What exactly do you do for a living Turbo? I used to think you were a cop loving ...... but your posts are very well thought out.
Your posts are certainly above the average level I'm used to seeing here.
 
I'd avoid the kid and the oncoming traffic and we'd all live happily ever after :cool:
 
turbodish said:
Bus stop with many people suggests urban setting, which suggests a 60 or 70 kmph limit at upper end, and possibly even a 40 or 50 kmph limit at the lower end.

At that speed, going into oncoming traffic is a viable choice. The oncoming traffic may be able to swerve out of my way. Even if not, a crash between seatbelt and airbag-equipped vehicles at typical urban speeds offers much more chance of survival than a crash into an unprotected kid.
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if i remember correctly there are sections of mississauga with 80km/h roads, and outside of school zones i find most people stick to "20 over"
 
CruisnGrrl said:
that is correct, you drive cars, ride bikes. drive a team of horses, ride a single horse... though i didn't spell it out this situation you're in a car.
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I assumed you meant riding a bike.........I have bike on the brain - lol!

In all honesty though, I think my self-preservation instinct would see the girl get hit.

I've been there before, except the little girl was the back end of a Ford Pinto - the one that went kaboom when it got rear-ended, although I didn't know that at the time and I stopped 6 feet short of hitting it (locked up at 140kph) in my dad's BMW 530i, toasting all four tires, especially the front. I fully expected that I was going to hit it - it was surreal. Pinto was letting hitch-hikers out of the car onto the shoulder in the middle of my lane with on-coming traffic coming the other way when I came over the crest of a hill. That was over 25 years ago.

Yeah, not so cool story bro.
 
Brake as hard as possible and hope for the best.

Closing speeds with oncoming traffic would easily be 100+ kph. A head-on with oncoming traffic might end up better than hitting the kid, but it also might end worse. Too much thought and time would be required to make the best decision if this situation would happen, by default that means i won't swerve. If i don't have time to examine the oncoming traffic I'm not going to throw myself into it. Head on with what? Smart car? Motorcyclist? 1976 Chrysler Imperial? Dump truck? Then what? Chain reaction with 3 or 4 more cars piling into the wreck? No thanks.. sucks to be the kid and her parents.
 
Amazon said:
See people, there is a good reason to keep you children on leashes if you can't train them to not run out on the road.
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Parents need to stop trying to be friends with their kids, and be parents. But yeah, if they can't keep them from running out on the road, then you need to keep them leashed up in the yard, lol.

caboose483 said:
Brake as hard as possible and hope for the best.
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This is defiantly what I would do. Hit the brake and hope for the best.
 
stupid scenario... a lane is 3.5m wide. A kid is about .4m wide if it's a fat kid. Plenty of space to go around the kid without heading into oncoming traffic.
 
Freestyle72 said:
stupid scenario... a lane is 3.5m wide. A kid is about .4m wide if it's a fat kid. Plenty of space to go around the kid without heading into oncoming traffic.
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Show your math? 0.4m wide moving target in the middle of the lane, leaving 1.55m on each side. My Edge is 76" wide (1.93m). Will the kid stop and reverse direction? Or keep going across? Or just stop dead center in the lane? Doesn't seem so "plenty" to me.
 
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Meh I assumed on a bike. Re-reading the post now I see she said drive.

But also consider this. if you don't notice the kid heading towards the middle of the lane you suck at driving. In a too late to react scenario the kid should only be in the first part of the lane. If the kid is somehow all the way in the middle of the lane before you have noticed, then you have more problems then your inability to stop in time.

I don't know, maybe it's just me but I usually take notice of whats going on on the edge of the road as well as what's going on in the road while I drive.
 
Again.. show your math.. how long does it take a small person to run out 2m into the road? how long does it take for you to stop from 60kph?

A guy I used to work with hit and killed a little girl on a bike many years ago. Her and her sister were riding down the side of the road. He was approaching from the rear in his pickup, as he came up behind them the girl turned to cross the road into her driveway without checking for traffic. He said he didn't even have time to lift of the gas before he hit her.

You can't predict everything that can happen just by being more aware of your surroundings. I think a lot of people are oblivious to what is happening so I know what you mean... but sometimes it's just a bad situation and you as a driver could not have done anything to avoid it.
 
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Don't forget that the oncoming lane has the same width, so they can and will move over when they see the kid.

What ever happened to driving within your sight lines. Does that not come into play. Is the kid between parked cars?

But many drivers on the road today would obliviously hit the kid, then steer into oncoming traffic, causing someone coming the other way to take out the bus shelter - all in one neat little package.
 
I had a dream about this exact scenario last night! Except instead of a little girl and her mother it was Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman. And instead of a car, I was in a bar. I barely had time to react and knew I had no choice but to hit one.
 
Lonewolf said:
I had a dream about this exact scenario last night! Except instead of a little girl and her mother it was Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman. And instead of a car, I was in a bar. I barely had time to react and knew I had no choice but to hit one.
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Wrong choice! The right choice would have been hitting both :cool:
 
SkyRider said:
so u steer into traffic and hit another car carrying an infant head on...? or a person with a heart condition and driver dies of an heart attack
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Yea..... Crashing into a car with an infant in it would mess with my head.... Hopefully it would be in a seat strapped in properly.... but if I hit the kid or the people....I'm not sure they would stand a chance.....
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