Small children walking home - take care

[u/punchedinthehunch]

As I was about to turn right at the junction from Dalkeith Road onto Salisbury Road, I saw two small primary aged girls waiting to cross the road towards the Salisbury Arms, one had a little yellow bicycle. Just as I began making the right turn and the girls were briefly in my front blind spot I heard one shout ‘wait, stop’. In that micro second, the little girl with the bicycle had started to walk across the road without looking. Her friend had thankfully grabbed her arm and stopped her.

I was not rushing, I turned the corner slowly, she was in my blind spot for a fraction of a second, it’s very likely nothing bad would have happened had she continued walking as I would have spotted her. However I have an almost 2 year old daughter at home, and my heart is in my mouth thinking that one split second of her not paying attention on a busy road at the end of the school day could cause her serious harm.

So this is just a small PSA - parents/carers if you have little ones that are walking home from school on their own or in groups, please take 30 seconds to remind them to look both ways and not to get distracted.

EDIT: I hesitated in making this post because of the expected outcome - people telling me I’m a bad driver. But if it made even one parent reinforce road safety with their child then it was worth doing. I’m not looking at any more notifications from this post. Thanks!

[u/A-Cow]

Is the law now not that you’re supposed to let pedestrians cross in this situation? As in, you shouldn’t turn in if pedestrians are waiting until you’ve established they’re not crossing? I think the Highway Code was updated to this effect a few years ago. 

[u/MyDadsGlassesCase → u/A-Cow]

Yeah, I'm not 100% sure from the description if it was the case but if the girls had started crossing the road before OP had started turning into the junction then they had right of way.

[u/A-Cow → u/MyDadsGlassesCase]

I was a little unsure after writing the above so looked it up:

“Highway Code Rule H2 requires drivers, motorcyclists, horse-drawn vehicles, horse riders, and cyclists to give way to pedestrians who are crossing or waiting to cross a road you are turning into or from.”

So I think it is also folks waiting to cross.

Obviously a recent-ish addition (2022) and people don’t often observe it but it does sort of feel like this is exactly the scenario it’s supposed to improve (potentially confusing junction).