Nearly hit a 3 year old!

[Killer Rat]

At devizes kwik fit roundabout today in heavy traffic. 2 girls (roughly 10-12 yr olds) had a little gril with them aged about 3, 2 lanes of traffic for them to cross (to lazy to use the traffic lights) and they let the little one run across the road by herself instead of holding her hand. I have never braked so hard in my life and had milliseconds to react, i still can't fathom how i managed to stop so fast. I ended up about 1 foot away from this little girl who was incredibly shocked at the whole thing as her sisters stood there shouting and screaming as it really did look like she was a goner.
Up came the visor and me telling the girls that your lucky i have better brakes than a car otherwise she would be dead.

Lucky the parents weren't there otherwise i would have quite happily slapped them. Still in mild shock myself and very angry that in this day and age pedestrians do stupid things like this.

Needed to get that off my chest....she's a very lucky girl that will have nightmares for months about today and will learn from it i hope.

[Mal103]

So glad it didn't end badly, shows you were paying attention instead of some numpty texting.
it will hopefully be a painless lesson to the kids to be aware but yes some of the blame goes to the parents for not being there or ensuring they used the crossing, held her hand etc.
may I also be so bold to say that you will probably be extra aware in the future which is not a bad thing.
well done for avoiding her.

[Nelly]

Its a horrible feeling isn't it. Sadly i had the misfortune to witness the same thing a few years ago. The outcome was worse i'm afraid. The young lad that day ran out from behind parked cars. He wasn't too badly hurt but it stuck with me for a long time. It definetly has made me more aware around parked cars etc.

[Swanny]

Well done for reacting quickly enough.

Lots of parked cars along my road and I always think of a kid stepping out from behind one, but the police cars seems to be oblivious of it and seem to try for a new land speed record along it

[Killer Rat]

It was sheer luck or heavenly intervention, not good reactions imo. My reactions are good and with a combined bike/rider weight of 210kgs had the ability to stop without binning the bike on a diesel-laden road. I reckon a larger bike would have hit her, even the sound of my scorpion can on a cbf125 didnt prevent her from crossing.
I keep thinking that if i momentarily glanced at my speedo or something else she'd be in pieces. Blind luck, there was no hazard perception as there was a people carrier that blocked my view which let them cross his lane.
I dunno, maybe it was a moment of superhuman reactions. I'm certainly not religious but do believe that something else helped me out in this instance. If that situation was replayed 10 times, i reckon i would have hit her 9 times out of 10.
Been on the wagon for the last 6 months, but i need a drink tonight to get over it.

Rat.

[Conehead]

Well done for the quick reactions and paying attention. It is so easy to do these days as peds dont care about traffic anymore. Enjoy the drink. :)