… well this was the biggest fright of my life today.

… well this was the biggest fright of my life today. from ireland

46 comments

  1. Great reflexes on your behalf. If you had hit him you might have knocked a bit of sense into him, though. It’s not like he was a toddler and shouldn’t have known any better.

    Edit: Eagerly awaiting the day it becomes a legal requirement to have your car fitted with a dashcam.

  2. Fuck lad that was a close one, fair play to ya on the reaction time… A hell of a lot more drivers would have been going faster and it would not have been pretty..

  3. When I was a kid the crossing road safely was huge! Now my kids still haven’t a clue about how to cross the road safely. Even when I teach them how. My Guess is because my generation grew up watching the telly and watched all the rsa ads all the time. Now because of tablets, phones, YouTube, Netflix etc. My kids aren’t getting the constant message.

  7. Fair play! You did really well to react in time. Everyone will make a mistake as a pedestrian or motorist at some stage and their fate will rest in the hands of another person. That kid was just lucky you were driving with the right level of caution.

  12. Jesus Christ he didn’t even look and to make matters worse runs out from behind a car like.

    Fair play for being alert and being able to stop on a dime like that. My family dog got out this year and got a wallop off a car flying down the road out here in Brisbane. The driver was speeding well over the limit in our estate and I’m just thankful it wasn’t my niece or nephew.

  13. did this when I was a kid I’ll never forget how close I came to dying, even at a very young age I knew it was a close one and afterwards just felt weak with shaky legs and went back inside my house and sat down. Van was going way faster though and just barrelled through, I ran out on the rode saw it the corner of my and just ran out of the way…it was so close.

  18. You handled it well. You were going a safe speed and the reaction time was good. Pat yourself on the back for being a good driver

  20. That’s actually a small man, who is an actor paid by the road safety authority – you were being live tested on this scenario which comes up in most theory tests

  29. It’s kind of sad that almost every comment here is just slating the kid. Yes he looks old enough to know better, and what he done was an absolutely stupid thing.

    But look at the state of that street, car dominance in Ireland has ruined so many of our towns and villages.
    The main street of a town or village should be a safe, thriving, fun place to be, with plenty of shops, cafes, benches, greenery etc – not a mini dual carriageway with another two lines of parked cars wasting space.

    They should be places where kids can be safe to run around and play. Anytime I mind my nieces or nephews, I become immediately aware of the biggest risk to kids – vehicles.

    I can walk down a busy street with a tiny footpath that has drivers tearing by way too fast and not really worry, but as soon as I have a nephew with me say, straight away it’s “hold my hand”, “watch the road” etc, and it’s just genuinely sad for kids to be growing up in that environment IMO.

    And before the usual “there’s no public transport outside Dublin” reply, I’m not disputing that, but there’s no reason why the majority of people couldn’t park their cars 5-10 minutes off a main street and walk there to enjoy it safely (again, with disabled parking spaces closer for those who can’t walk that far).

  33. Imagine some idiot was texting or on tik tok or something Jesus. Fairplay for being vigilant! 👌

  34. Not a pedestrian crossing in sight. But no shortage of on-street car parking making it impossible for motorists to see anybody shorter than the cars’ bonnets.

    I don’t know if this was a 30kmh zone, I really hope it was. But good on your for moving slowly enough that you could stop in time.

    Kids will be kids. Street design that makes that potentially lethal is the enemy. Think of this video the next time you hear a councillor moaning about pedestrianization, removal of traffic lanes/parking, or a push to lower speed limits.

  35. Same thing happened to me a little while back.

    Kid ran across the road without looking.

    I blasted the horn and he froze in absolute shock.

    He learned a lesson that day.

  36. I once had a teenage girl walk backwards out onto a road from behind a tall van while looking at her phone. I was going down a steep hill on a bike so I would probably have gotten hurt too if we had collided, was very lucky I was able to react on time. I had just done a big shop and had heavy saddle bags and I remember feeling the lurch as my bike stopped with all the weight swinging forwards. She would have been creamed if I was in the car. She just flipped her hair and looked bothered when I let a roar at her to be more careful.

  37. I did this when I was a young fella in the early 90s, but I froze in front of the van. The driver reacted in the nick of time, stopped and got out to make sure I was OK.

    I said I was, then he kicked me up the hole and told me never to do that again.

    Different times!

  39. Tremendous reactions OP. Your speed helped you big time there as well, the number of lads I see flying through the main street of the local town would have no chance if a similar event occurred.

  42. It’s scary that’s knowing what’s coming, and knowing where to look, you still can’t see the kid engaging super speed. Well done OP!

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