Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I am afraid the evening one wasn't a minor accident. A pedestrian was knocked down crossing Lordship Lane by Heber Road around 8.30 last night. It looked serious as he bounced off the car windscreen and had a serious head injury. The police were there until gone midnight investigating the scene of the accident and I am just praying that this doesn't mean that the pedestrian died.
That's awful. I get really angry about how dangerous cars can be and whenever any curbs are put on people's 'freedom' to drive, motorists are up in arms. Cars, lorries etc are lethal weapons and there should be a rethink about whose rights are more important, the driver's, or the rights of other inhabitants of the planet!

I get really angry about how dangerous cars can be and whenever any curbs are put on people's 'freedom' to drive, motorists are up in arms. Cars, lorries etc are lethal weapons and there should be a rethink about whose rights are more important, the driver's, or the rights of other inhabitants of the planet!


It is obviously true that half a ton and more of metal, driven at any speed, can be a 'lethal' weapon - however it is also true that not all accidents are caused by drivers - I have no idea what was the proximate cause of this accident, neither, I would guess, does the original writer. In fact drivers' rights are actually no more nor any less than those of 'other inhabitants of the planet'. Care needs to be taken by drivers, as it does by any road user, which includes pedestrians using roads. I learned (and have tried to teach to my children) the concept of 'defensive driving' which, broadly, assumes that the other bloke is an idiot and will cause an accident, so drive with that in mind and don't assume that all road users will act rationally and sensibly. From that also stems the concept of defensive walking, defensive pedalling and so on - that is, treat roads as dangerous places and take care. The same principle applies to fell-walking, mountaineering, kyaking and so on - bad things can happen, so be wary.


There are huge advantages to individuals and society in motorised transport - 'turning the clock back' and posts which imply this would be good are simply disengenuous. Read old reports of accidents with horses and horse drawn transport - look at how societies which relied on people power alone for transport and carriage fared against those who didn't.


We have to live with drivers and cars. We have to accept that some of these will not be as careful as others, however much we may deplore this and rightly want these motorists properly punished for transgressions. We may have to design roads to make them safer and obviate the excesses of the poor and careless driver, but moaning about the car and the driver as a entire class is a dreadful waste of time.

It's not the main roads like Lordship Lane where you take your life in your hands when you cross the road - We are on Fellbrigg Road which is MAX 20 mile an hour - it is signed, though these are slightly obscured by 'street clutter' ie trees and lamp posts - and cars go down clearly 30/40 miles an hour. There are roads where the speed restrictions are white painted onto the tarmac - are these proven to be 'obeyed' more? Certainly the end of '20' luminous sign from Fellbrigg onto Whately isn't very clear during the day and there isn't anything from Northcross Road into Fellbrigg, or is it only signed where the speed restrictions come into effect? Perhaps JB could get some nice policeman to come with a speed camera and catch a few speeding drivers, invariably a mobile phone is being used as well...HP

I have to say that I don't cross at the crossing when I get off the bus at night and have seen people dart in front of cars so it's not just the motorists' fault. Mind you, people do drive like maniacs up and down the road sometimes - including bus drivers.


I would like to know happened to the casualty. My husband and I were really upset as we imagined the guy's partner/family at home wondering where he was.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • But I don't think that was what you meant, was it? But he can hardly be held responsible for what somebody else did! Just discovered I forgot to post the above  last night, and now it's overtaken by long posts.  I don't have sufficient knowledge  to counter some of what has been said above, some of which appears to be opinion rather than facts, so it would be pointless for me to say anything else.
    • I am sure our lovely Evri delivery team, who do a firkin hard job, take the time between drops to read the East Dulwich Forum 🤫
    • For every person like OP that moans their doorbell was rung and there was a knock on the door, there's someone else moaning that they didn't hear the delivery drivers. If you've ever done delivery work you'll know that loads of people's bells don't work. The delivery drivers probably goes to a hundred doors a day: press bell, knock door, drop package, move on. If you don't like delivery drivers, insist on delivery by Royal Mail where the workers have wages and a union - or just stop ordering shit online that's artificially cheap. But most of us (me included) don't want that
    • If someone comes to my house and bangs my door and slams my gate, I'd speak to them about it nicely and ask if they would please not do that. And then subsequently less nicely if they keep doing it, ending in reporting them.  We don't slam doors at home and I don't put up with that either. I can see us moving to a culture where we bribe drivers to be nice by tipping them, but we shouldn't have to. It's not necessary - does not matter if they are on minimum wage or not, or if society means that delivery services are outsourced or whatever reason anyone would like to concoct.     
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...