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Lib Dems hate the motorist 1212Martin Dixon I find it diffcult to reconcile that view with the situation you found yourself in. Surely your employers moved to where they didsimply because...
Playing devil's advocate, here - perhaps because pedestrians don't present much risk to cars, therefore driving something that has the potential to cause great harm to pedestrians, under the premise of a legal privilege (ie not a right) qualified by certain requirements (valid driving license, vehicle and driver being insured, roadworthy and or pbutted MOT, VED paid (or exempt)), should show a duty of care to other road users that are more vulnerable.
However, I do agree - the burden of blame does seem artificially skewed these days. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, at school we had visits from police safety people about the dangers of roads. I don't know if these things still go on, but back then, the emphasis was that roads were dangerous places, and there was almost an unwritten, unvoiced principle, that getting involved in an accident with a car, would be the fault of the child, and buttuming he she wasn't so hurt it would be bad form, they'd be in trouble ;-)
All that was backed up by road safety "adverts" on TV, that re-enforced the dangers, and good practice.
That seems out of the window, now. Whether I'm just not seeing it, or whether it's not there, I'm not sure, but the balance of adjudication, now, seems to be that it will be the driver who's automatically buttumed at fault, unless proven otherwise, and that there's likely to be varying degrees of compensation due, depending on the outcome.
Now whilst I think it is beholden on drivers to bear in mind their own responsibilities behind the wheel, I think the implied message encourages the wrong mindset - in that the emphasis seems to be do what you like on the road, it will be somebody else's fault - probably due to speeding.
I don't remember seeing that many adverts on TV that encourage children pedestrians to be careful, they seem more aimed at drivers to keep their speed down, or think about the consequences of alcohol and driving - which isn't a bad thing, but I think by omission in doesn't encourage pedestrians to worry too much about their own behaviour, and merely make them think it's down to drivers to worry about.
