Has anyone hit a child while driving and how did you cope with it?

Not a hit, a miss….
I was driving down a street I once lived in when I saw a kid coming towards my car, he was on a skateboard looking behind him, the opposite way to which he was travelling towards me.. I knew we would collide as he was too engrossed in what was behind him & not in front of him ‘ME’ so I stopped, as he got to within six feet of my car I blasted my horn….. Kid dam near had a coronary…… :-/
When he picked himself up off the floor he was far shaken for me to remonstrate with him, I just drove off :-/

Yes I had a young boy turn his bicycle right in front of my car and I had to hit him there was no other way. I turned the wheel which caused me to not go over the top of him but I did knock him down and he slid across the gravel road and scuffed up his hands and some on his face. When I hit him I felt like I had just killed him. I went into a mild shock and could barely respond to anything. There was a cop that was right there and he saw the whole thing. He told me there was nothing else I could do and that he had seen me turn my wheel so that I didn’t hit him full on. I didn’t ever want to drive again and it took a while before I was comfortable again.

In all sincerity, I even feel queasy to think about this. I love your question and wanted to follow it, but I don’t think I can stomach it.

I fear that quite often with kids involved, the driver’s guilt will make sure that the child is not the only victim. There is no alternative but to keep on living and accept what happened.

Best to do, as with all traumas, is likely to make sure to talk about it with people one trusts. if those are not at hand, look for professional counseling to fulfill that role. Destroying your only life will not undo the damage done. it will just cause more.

I worry about hitting a kid on a bike constantly. I don’t know how I’d live with it.

I had a kid hit my car! I was making a left hand turn and was well into the intersection when there was a “boom” in the left rear. I stopped in the street and got out of the car. There was a kid about 13 on the ground People started coming. from all over. “It was his fault! His fault!” pointing to the kid. He got up, said he was ok and rode away. No name, nothing. Was he stealing the bike and making a getaway? I’ll never know. It scratched the car but I wasn’t complaining.

I was driving home from work one day to where I lived in a rental house with my wife and (at the time) preschool kids. I got passed by an ambulance with its lights and siren on, and naturally pulled over for that. We were on the approach road to my subdivision street anyway, so as soon as the ambulance went by the road was clear for me and I just kept on going. A half-mile or so up the road I saw the ambulance turn… into my road.

I still tried not to think the worst. After all, it was an established neighborhood with a lot of people of all ages living there, but still… you can imagine what I was thinking.

We lived near the corner where the ambulance had turned, but there were a lot of trees and bushes blocking my view of the house and the corner until I got near it, and saw the ambulance parked in front of my house.

One of the neighbor’s kids had been playing with my kids in our yard and had run across the street without looking, the way kids will. A car had just turned the corner, and fortunately for all of us she wasn’t going fast, and it was unclear whether the kid had run into the side of the car or the car had (barely) tapped him and knocked him down. The driver was incoherent (not drunk, but in shock), and the kid wasn’t old enough to explain clearly.

There was a fair amount of blood and bruising, but no permanent injury.

Seeing that ambulance in front of my house was one of the worst moments of my life.

A voice from the other side of the bumper, I was hit by a car when I was 7 yrs old.
I was racing my older sister out of the car after being dropped across the street. I didn’t look and was struck by a young couple. It was completely my fault. The injury was mostly head trauma.
The first thing I recall was at the hospital going into the CAT scan. I can still see that moment to this day. My Mother told me that I was going to be OK.

So the reason I add this is for perspective. I really was OK and last I checked, continue to be OK :) I know the driver had checked in with my parents for many months and actually had visited me in the hospital and at home. My parents knew they and I needed this realization.
This was apparently the thing that helped them through it and their side of the trauma.

@blueiiznh beat me to it!

I am also a “voice from the other side of the bumper” excellent way to put it and in my case, both the driver and I were responsible for the initial accident, but things were much worse than they could have been because she was not paying attention. I was 13 years old and I did cross the street without looking which was completely my fault. If I had stopped and looked, I probably wouldn’t have gotten hit. However, I didn’t look but neither did the driver. She was driving on the left side of the road I am in the US, she did not swerve, she did not even hit the brakes until I was under the front tire of her car.

There have been almost no psychological consequences for me although I was terrified to learn how to drive which is why it took me until college to get my license and the physical results of the accident are not nearly as bad as they could have been due to a talented and wonderful orthopedic surgeon. My injury was extremely rare and difficult to treat.

For me, it wouldn’t matter whose “fault” a collison was—mine or the child’s. If it resulted in his/her injury or God fobid death, I’d feel responsible for the rest of my life.

@Austinlad: It’s odd to hear that since I did survive and I’m living my life quite well. I sometimes wonder about how the woman who hit me feels. It’s been nine years and I haven’t heard of her since but the accident did happen outside of my home state.

@KatawaGrey I was going to ask you if the driver ever followed up on your healing process. It’s a shame that she hasn’t. Surely anyone in her position would find a bit of relief by doing so.

I hit a car once, and while the driver was an adult (and ticketed at the scene for making a left-hand turn when I had the right-of-way), I was thankful that the case went to court. It gave me the opportunity to see that she was fine. The way she was screaming at the scene, it would have haunted me forever that there was physical permanent damage or worse.

I was making a right hand turn onto my block and a young man riding a bike behind and between me and the cars parked at the curb didn’t notice my blinkers on and ran smack dab into my back bumper. Like @worriedguy, the biker got up, said he was ok and rode away. ‘No name, nothing. Was he stealing the bike and making a getaway? I’ll never know’.

I’ve been on the other side of the bumper as well, but in that case I remain convinced that it was no accident. I still wonder about what exactly happened, and why, and who did it. (I’ve written about it here before under my previous ID, if anyone wants to look it up.)

I was a young teenager, probably 13–14 years old, and out with my friend Ray one Halloween night. We were never troublemakers, so we weren’t out making trouble that night, but we were “out and about” with the trick-or-treaters. I’m sure we weren’t trick-or-treating ourselves.

We were on a dark road near his house, in an area where there weren’t any houses for a half-mile or so, and we were just walking and talking on the side of the road, and off the road. A car nosed up behind us so quietly that neither of us heard it (and he had his lights off, so we didn’t see them, either), and at just a hair faster than we were walking, pushed me down to the ground, and then stopped. I was in shock, and Ray jumped off the road, eyes as big as saucers.

The car backed off a couple of feet, and then took off down the road, still with his lights off, until he was out of sight.

It all happened so fast – in slow motion – that I didn’t even have time to wet my pants.

I had a brother who was killed by a car when he was six. He ran in front of a car that couldn’t stop. We later learned that the driver turned to drink after the accident. Needless to say, it was terribly traumatic. It still amazes me that I was able to give my children freedom as a mother.

My daughters best friends mother actually hit a child in her complex and rolled over her. I don’t talk to my daughters friends mother really but I know her and I know she kept driving, but she also seems very stressed out, a basketcase really I suppose would be the correct terminology. The little girl is doing great!

On the other hand a few years ago I went to pay our taxes it was icy and I was right by what would turn out to be my daughters highschool and at the time I had no clue it would be her highschool. At this particular spot there is a crosswalk which works great push the button and it changes within about a minute. On this day 2 boys about 17 just walked out in the road not using the cross walk, no warning or anything, you know the “invincible” age, as soon as I saw them I started putting on the brakes, well icy roads and braking meant my stopping wasn’t happening, I ended up just clipping 1 of the kids as he tried to get out of the way. They gave me a look and kept walking. I wanted to pull over and see if he was ok but they had gone in between some houses on a cross walk. I was a little ticked though and I am extremely cautious and my gut turns each time I need to go to that spot.

I am not sure but I have realized that I should be breaking the rules of driving because when I’m doing the right thing more accidents on my side have occurred. I have been hit going through a green light, rear ended while stopped at a red light, and been backed into while leaving a parking lot, and also been backed into while in a drive thru :/ lol again I say if I just broke the rules did everything opposite I would probably have more chances of living. Some fool almost killed me the other day while I was driving straight doing 80km and she decided to pull out in front of me and that she could be fast enough to avoid me, if there was a ditch I’d be in it. I think cracker jacks had drivers license prizes in some boxes.

I also one time saw a young kid on a bike get hit to which the driver checked that the kid was alive and then left, I watched the entire thing from a parking lot, on my way home I saw the kid farther down the road struggling with his broken bike and holding his hand and crying, I immediately pulled over to see if he was ok, and told him I saw what happened I asked if he need the ambulance he said no but that his hand felt broken I said let’s get the bike in the back of my SUV and I will take you home. He explained to me he was on his way to a job interview to which he did make it and sat through the interview with a mangled hand, he had also said that he did not think he got the job, he was extremely happy I gave him a ride.

My brother has also been hit by a car twice on his bike, once while he was walking by a drunk driver. He is doing great now, but he never received any compensation, because he did not have car insurance, don’t ask, I don’t get it either.

I have never hit a person, place or thing; lucky I guess.

Another from the other side. I was hit on a major, 6 lane road, while crossing it before school one morning when I was 15. I did look, but when I started approaching the last lane before the median, I turned my head to start looking for traffic coming the other way. I never saw the car that hit me, and thought the man had left the scene. He hadn’t though, he was actually cradling my head in his lap, while we were surrounded by a huge crowd of high school kids. I felt really bad for calling him a bastard while I didn’t know he was there.

He was extremely shaken up, probably more so than I was. We were both incredibly lucky that the accident wasn’t worse… I didn’t even break a bone. I never did hear from him again, but I can’t imagine he had an easy time driving for a while after that. I hope he’s ok, because I certainly am.

@augustlan: It’s funny what our memories do when we’re in an accident. I remember screaming for all I was worth right after my collision and my mom later told me that I was barely making a sound.

@KatawaGrey That’s kind of chilling. I think the screaming is inside of us. I think that’s how it works with me when I’m injured, although I’ve never been banged up as bad as you were.

I have. I hit a small child who ran into the street when his mother opened the back car door and he darted out. It was absolutely terrifying. My son and young siblings, who were around 8, saw his sneaker fly up in the air and thought my car broke the little boy. Many ambulances, police cars and eventually all local news stations showed up. We had to wait in the car for almost an hour while the boy got loaded into an ambulance and the police did their investigation. The mother and other observers all reported that I was not going too fast, slammed on my breaks, swerved to avoid him and ran out of my car after he was hit to see if he was OK (he broke a leg). His mother was wailing/screaming/crying (not at me).

It was terrifying. I couldn’t drive for a few days. The kids had to stay home from school that day to decompress. Years later I had a bird hit my windshield and I had a flashback to the little boy and panicked. I would say I no longer carry the experience with me in an obvious way, but the memories can be triggered.

It was awful.

Oh… in addition, the parents wouldn’t accept my car insurance’s payment of $250,000… so I was in fear for a few years that they would sue me. Although that didn’t happen, I hope they got what they needed for his medical expenses.

When I was around 19 or 20 I had a kid / car “contact” that I never considered an official “collision”, but…

I was driving on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon at around the posted speed limit (45 mph) on a secondary road with no traffic and no distractions. Not a care in the world, nor another car on the road. Some teenage kids off to the side of the road ahead of me were riding minibikes, but they weren’t crossing the road (I could see them doing donuts off to my side of the road, and staying on that side). As I drew even with them, one of them messed up his maneuver and instead of completing his circle he skidded, right at the side of my car, and onto the roadway. I heard a THUMP that sounded like the hammer of God smacking my car, and felt the car shudder. My heart was instantly in my mouth; I knew the kid was dead. Who could survive a collision that would make a noise like that and shake this big ol’ Chevy, and him with no protection?

I stopped and got out of the car, expecting the worst, and barely able to walk, my knees were shaking so much. As I rounded the back of the car, the kid was standing up, brushing himself off, and picking up the bike to look it over. No damage to him or the bike – and he kind of glared at me like I was at fault for being there! – but I saw where his left side footrest had punched a hole in the rocker panel just below my curb side passenger door. He and his friends boogied off through the woods in less than a minute, and I was left standing there in the road, wondering: how do I handle this? I can’t just walk / drive away from “an accident” (I was such a Do-Bee in those days); how were we going to call the police? I don’t even know the kid’s name or the witnesses’ names; what if he had an injury that he just hadn’t realized, and what about this hole under the door of my Mom’s car?

A few days later when I brought the car back home from school I told Dad everything, and he pretty much went through the same list of things I “should have done” to report the accident, wait for the cops, inform the insurance company, etc. (I didn’t learn to be a Do-Bee in a vacuum.) Later on he recognized my predicament at the time, but he reinforced one thing that he had tried to teach me when I started driving:

Any time you have an accident with a child, and it doesn’t even matter if you’re in a parked car with the engine turned off and the kid simply walks into the side of the car, then you are at fault. I’ve driven extra-defensively around kids my whole life because of this. Can’t trust those monsters.

But to change the context a bit (and the way I read the ‘big letter Q’ before I read the details: I always used to threaten to “stop this car and come back there” to hit the kids. I never tried to do it while driving. That was my wife’s job.

@blueiiznh Story of my car accident has some paralells to yours. I was also seven, ran into a car to get a bus, broke my leg and had some head trauma, remember being slid into the CAT Scan and wakingup after the operation (needed an external fixateur). I found that meeting the woman whose car I ran into was a good thing for both of us, helped me understand her shock. Can’t remember the incident, just some strange, uncomfortable dreams I had when I was unconcious. My sister was watching though, unfortunately for her, she found it very hard to progress, she was just ten at the time. But I was lucky.

@scuniper my sister was also 10. very paralell

@WasCy I know you’re not here :( but yeah. I can only imagine coming home to an ambulance parked in front of my car. I live in a small town, and when ever I went out of town, then drove back in, if I saw smoke I always got a really sick feeling in my stomach.

Yeah, I got a call once at work. “Are you Valerie Vogler?”
“Yes.”
“Your son has been hit by a car. He’s OK, but you might want to come.” I was there in less than 30 seconds. Dumbass.