Kids have been playing on residential streets since ancient times. For them its the best surface in the whole wide world to play on. They bike, skate, jump rope, play ball, draw using chalk and many other numerous activities their devious little minds can come up with. We, as drivers, have a legal obligation to watch out for these children as they have little or no concept of how powerful a vehicle, motorcycle or bicycle is and what type of damage said vehicle can do.
Parents have a moral and parental obligation to teach their children the dangers of playing on the street and the consequences of being in front of a vehicle. Unfortunately most parents only tell their kids so much, sometimes nothing at all. Most parents don't even require their kids to wear the most basic of safety gear, which is a helmet. So when the stars line up and a child gets injured or worse everyone blames the driver and that person pays the price of being behind the wheel, but should they shoulder the blame totally? Unless there is a sign posted saying xx speed the legal speed limit on any residential street is 50 km/h, and whether parents like it or not if someone is doing the posted legal limit there isn't much they can do. The driver on the other hand must be able to determine whether or not they can safely do the posted legal limit or not. We, as responsible drivers, have a legal requirement to be on the lookout for the unexpected, but nobody can predict what a child will do.
So who is at fault? The driver or the parent? Most often it is the driver who is at fault, but should the parents shoulder some of that blame as well? We, as adults, when we took our drivers license we took the responsibility of safe driving and the legal obligation to do so, but the question is, did the parents do their due diligence as well in explaining the dangers of the road to their children? When kids are involved nobody wins.
Dean Soiland
Prince George
