When iam a pedestrian i tread carefully because not all drivers are alert ,and certainly a lot of pedstrians believe its their god given right to walk blatantly in front of on coming cars , quite carelessly .

Well they might just end up with god .

Good on you VW another top car , that might spare a dumb walker from death.

All I said was that at some point pedestrians need to take responsibility for road safety too.
It IS the subject of a current road safety campaign in SA. The authorities do agree.

If manufacturers have the ability to make their cars safer for pedestrians, why not let them? If one particular manufacturer wants to spend more money making their cars safer for pedestrians, should such spending not be rewarded with recognition that their car is more safe from an overall viewpoint than another manufacturer? It’s not like car companies HAVE to make their vehicles pedestrian safe, but it does encourage them to.

I would have thought that pedestrian safety also translates to less deadly crashes with other vehicles? I have nothing to support that than intuition though. If the car is designed to crumple and exert less force on pedestrians then surely it would work the same way with other cars… I mean its all good if you have a 5 star car but if its a massive tank on wheels you might be fine but the poor individual in the microcar you crunched probably doesn’t feel the same way.

Whilst I do agree with reckless and brets views as to pedestrians having to take responsibility for themselves, this attitude will not apply to everyone. Think about that little girl… what about the situations where the driver is driving wildly and mounts a curb and takes out a group of pedestrians? Even if a few of these deaths or permanent injuries can be reduced in their severity then isn’t it all worth it?

“false or misleading statement in a fixed medium, especially writing but also a picture, sign, or electronic broadcast”.

But I’m not that worried. Just wanted to remind people that the degree of anonymity isn’t as far-reaching as they seem to think it is on the net. You still have to be careful what you say about people, and generalisations like the one Peter made about me, is total bollocks and shouldn’t have been posted in the first place.

I have never, and will never call any PERSON names, or take them to task simply because they have a different view to my own. Today’s example is an anomaly because it is an issue very close to me, given a family member was involved in such an incident. But lets not go there.

The reason I comment on this website is because I like to hear others views on things, and ‘debate’ topics in a constructive manner. But I do get my back up when people make generalised statements from what appears to be a position of authority, and then continue the nonsense when someone questions them on it.

As for the scenario – the child’s safety in this case rests with the parents followed by the driver, and, yes, the vehicle itself – that is why I said “I believe pedestrian safety measures on cars are good …”

Don’t try to confuse the argument between the 6yo chasing a ball and an irresponsible adult being an idiot.

BTW the statistic that I presented comes directly from a current road safety campaign in SA, where the authorities are saying that pedestrians should take more responsibility for their road safety!