Mark Eden, 47, who has lived in Erith Road for 15 years, said it's only a matter of time before someone is killed on the road. He said the situation is particularly bad during rush hour, with parents driving up to the school to pick up their children and youngsters cramming themselves onto buses to get home. He said: "It is terrible - I am surprised people haven't been killed.
"You've got buses racing down, cars racing down, lorries racing down.
"You need a zebra crossing for the kids and a speed camera. It's a death trap that road.
"We've had a car smash into the front of our neighbours house, another one crashing into the wall out here. It is frightening."Right, OK, got it, the motorist is 100% to blame and…
Wait.
The incident happened at around 3.30pm as children were leaving at the end of the school day.
Pupils have said how the girl - named locally as Caitlin Martin - ran in front of a bus as she attempted to reach her mother on the other side of the road. She is said to have frozen in front of the oncoming vehicle, which was unable to brake in time.Hardly surprising, and certainly not an attitude confined to children, either. I’ve lost count of the adults I’ve seen in the last few years that have blithely stepped off the kerb into traffic, engrossed in their smartphones or simply failing to look.
The father-of-six added: "Something has got to be done about it. Either a car is going to smash into one kid or a car is going to smash into a group of kids.
"We live here and I cannot even let my kids play at the front of the house. It is like the M25 out there.
"And the way buses speed down there - I feel sorry for the girl."Maybe you should feel sorry for the bus driver instead?
*Something Must Be Done
Like educating the children not to run into on coming traffic .... that sort of doing something?
ReplyDeleteI am not a huge fan of cars and consider many car drivers selfish buggers, I live on a road like the one described above and at certain times of day the 4 lane road out to the motorway is like a car park with traffic bumper to bumper belching fumes everywhere at others it's like a bloody race track.BUT I still believe (as someone who was hit by a car aged 8) that teaching people to cross roads safely would help, pedestrians are equally bad and inconsiderate when it comes to crossing roads. If using a phone whilst driving is illegal so should using a phone whilst traversing roads be and using social media anywhere but the privacy of your own home should be common sense. Sadly it's not, because as we all know common sense is dead in the UK with everyone abdicating responsibility to higher powers.
"And youngsters cramming themselves onto buses to get home"
ReplyDeleteYe Gods! - how did I ever manage to make it into adulthood all those years ago? In the 60's & 70's most buses had open platforms at the back, and it wasn't at all unusual for several of us to be squeezed on there when the main passenger compartment was full! However, things could get tricky if an inspector was waiting at the next stop...
@microdave
ReplyDeleteBeing a 1950 model myself, I whole-heartedly concur.
I made it to adulthood relatively unscathed (and learned from those occasions when I was scathed).
Not so sure I would have survived today's 'Elf'n'Safety, Common Purpose PC claptrap etc. etc.
"Something must be done"
ReplyDeleteHow about a massive poster of the dead girl lying in the road to remind the other kids to cross sensibly?
" If using a phone whilst driving is illegal so should using a phone whilst traversing roads be..."
ReplyDeleteAmen! Or even at all while walking.
Lost count of the idiots who've walked into me on the pavement while goggling at the smartphone in their hand.
" In the 60's & 70's most buses had open platforms at the back, and it wasn't at all unusual for several of us to be squeezed on there when the main passenger compartment was full! "
How many rush hour buses sailed past, already full!?
"How about a massive poster of the dead girl lying in the road to remind the other kids to cross sensibly?"
I like that idea!