Reversing cars.

[Beloved]

Why is it that parents will drag their kids out of the road of an oncoming car and will then lead them behind a reversing car? In just about every carpark I've been in I've witnessed this absolute stupidity, it's fresh in my mind because I saw it again today.

Luckily I've never seen someone hit, but my sister's MIL had her hip broken this way. She walked behind the car while her husband was reversing.

[Addict]

Could you explain what you mean? All I can imagine is people wildly driving in reverse around a parking lot, but not sure what the significance of that would be.

[Mags]

I think people assume that cars are reversing slowly, so they figure they won't get hurt even if they do get bumped, but it can still do damage, like you mentioned about your sister's MIL's hip. I've known a few people who have also hurt or killed their pets by accidentally reversing into them in their own driveways - you just can't see pets or kids as they're out of the driver's line of sight.

[Beloved]

Addict, I'm not talking about people wildly reversing around a car park I'm talking about people reversing into or out of parking spots. I have taught my kids that we need to look for reversing lights, to stop and wait for the car to move or at least for the driver to see and wave us past. Most people don't do that, they just walk behind cars, even those in motion.

My father actually ran over my brother while reversing out of the driveway which is were my lesson was learnt. My brother was only a toddler and thought he'd help dad drive out so sat down to help 'push' the car after Dad had checked all around the car, both of his legs were run over. Luckily because of a bone disease my brother has his bones were very flexy and didn't break. We all learnt to keep away from reversing cars after that. Edit - I mentioned never seeing someone hit, when I just realised I saw this happen.

I once watched a father yelling at his tiny son to hurry up as he ran through a school carpark, running behind a reversing van, the driver having no chance at all to see a tiny child and was only warned when another parent screamed at him to stop. The other parent had no idea how close his son was to being hit, he was still yelling at his son to hurry without even looking back.