Sutton Cycle Tragedy

Here's a tragic story relatively local to me.

A schoolboy was seriously injured at the junction between the A217 and Gander Green Lane in Sutton.

It's not clear what happened from the report, and it's quite likely I'll never find out, as even the local press don't tend to spend much time on this kind of story.

One thing is for sure though - at 7:43AM when the crash happened, you can expect to see children on their way to school. Motorists should be driving with extra care, and they should be prepared to stop if a child runs out into the road unexpectedly. There is no duty of care required of motorists, so providing they were not speeding or driving dangerously, such an accident is not considered the fault of the driver. If they were speeding or driving dangerously, it's highly unlikely this would be detected and even less likely that it would be successfully prosecuted.

It could be that the driver in this case was driving attentively, legally and carefully. But in my experience, most accidents involve two people doing something wrong: often one person driving dangerously and the other inattentively. If you drive defensively, anticipating and allowing for other people's errors, you can avoid many accidents. Children make more errors, that's in their nature, but they should not have to pay for their errors with death or serious injury, if it can be avoided.