Looking More Widely...
We live near a primary school, and if we pick the wrong time to go out school children on "ordinary" scooters abound, with their riders paying no attention whatsoever to pedestrians. The children's parents aren't paying any attention either because they are either totally occupied on their 'phones or (less often) talking to other parents.
On one occasion a father was running along the pavement, although I have no idea why. Some yards behind was a below school age child on one of those wretched bikes with no pedals. Because there were pedestrians on the pavement (surprise!) the father ran into the roadway to continue his run, followed a few seconds later by small child on 2 wheels who simply shot out between two parked cars into the roadway; it is highly fortunate that no car was coming at the time because the child did not look where it was going (what < 5 year old does?) because an accident, likely fatal, would have been almost inevitable.
Just yesterday I was walking the dog in a local country park, and going up a fairly steep hill with a couple of bends in it. Coming down the hill was a family of 2 adults and 4 children; oldest child (perhaps 10) was on a proper bike while the other 3 (all < 5 in my estimation) were riding pedal - less versions. One child speeded up and failed to take a bend and crashed into a fence beside a tree and was very lucky not to smash its forehead into the tree trunk; I guess the gap was about an inch. Had it made contact then the injuries could have been extremely serious because it wasn't wearing a helmet; in fact none of them were. Another child negotiated the bend but fell off a bit further down the hill at some speed. Of the 3 pedal - less bikes only one - the one that didn't crash - had any sort of brakes, and even the brake it had was rear wheel only. As far as I am concerned that family only avoided 2 children being rushed to hospital by the Grace of God. (On this occasion I make no apology for using that expression, with capitals, on this forum.)
At the age they were I cannot really blame the children, but the whole thing convinced me (and at my age I didn't really need any convincing) that adult fuckwittery is endemic in a large proportion of the population; these parents were either not paying sufficient attention to what their children were doing or had no real perception of the risks that were being taken.
Drivers have to learn to drive and pass a test in the hope that while driving they will somehow manage to keep their fuckwittery under control; fortunately most succeed, most of the time. But who in their right mind uses an electric scooter wearing no protective gear whatsoever and then rides at some speed on either the pavement or on the road - both of which actions are illegal in the UK. In so doing they risk not only themselves but others.
A driver ought to be conducting a dynamic risk assessment all the time when driving, but anyone using one of these toys clearly has no idea about "risk" and what it means. As a driver (or pedestrian, come to think about it) I am getting fed up having to include in my risk assessment the fact that there are quite a few fuckwits who simply don't or can't carry out their own risk assessment and by implication rely on mine to keep them out of trouble.
As to parents, by not realising the risks and keeping their children under control because of them, they are actually teaching their children that risks don't really exist, which is unforgivable. A child that is allowed to misbehave on a pavement or road grows into an adult with exactly the same, now ingrained, habits.
And yes, I am grumpy and won't apologise for it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
