What happened to the green cross code?

[entwisi]

The man who played the Green cross code man was a start character in Star wars, I can't remember his name though and what character he played.(Although darth vader rings some distant bell, Yep! http://www.swindonevent.com/darthvader.htm)

[Mick]

yes Margaret i have seen this happen too ,
its very frightning you know the kids have seen you, you have seen the kids but they still walk right out in front of you to see what your reaction will be .

[Mick]

Originally Posted by entwisi

The man who played the Green cross code man was a start character in Star wars, I can't remember his name though and what character he played.(Although darth vader rings some distant bell, Yep! http://www.swindonevent.com/darthvader.htm)

Entwisi checkout your own link his name was David Prowse

[Tinkerbelle]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

When I stopped my car and told these children they were playing a very dangerous game I was met with a stream of abuse......the eldest of these children was perhaps 8years old.

Play them at their own game Margaret drive up slowly next to them and smack them on the backside with your wing mirror then winde the window down and tell them you will do a better job if they ever step out in front of you again! The total shock they are in means you won't get a stream of abuse and you can drive on with a smile on your face, 1-0 to the adults!

[Tealeaf]

Correct, Mick & Enti...it was Dave Prowse. He was the 6ft 7" tall bodybuilder who was on t'telly in the early '70's as the Green Cross Code Man...and he also played the part of Darth Vadar in the first 3 Star War movies (although George Lucas did'nt use his voice)

[entwisi]

Wot, no Ackers! Geesh, we used to win prizes once of a time

[Debbie J]

My son has very good road sense having been taught by me and his school. The problem comes when he or I are crossing a quieter road which runs off a main road eg Steiner st Blackburn road. We could stand there for ages waiting to see if traffic will turn into Steiner street so rightly or wrongly I have taught him to look at car indicators to see if a car is turning or not. Now if a car turns into Steiner st without indicating & my son is knocked down whose fault will it be? Mummiboo my Brother was knocked down by an ice-cream van in a culdesac as a child the van had too many boxes in the back to see him & was fined. It's not always the childs fault!!!!

[Doug]

Originally Posted by entwisi

As a new parent I will be making sure that the GCC will be drummed into Siobhan. As will cycling proficiency and road sense. I take it as part of my parental responsibility to do so.

Then again, I was brought up not dragged up.

Ian

Ian, I totally agree with your opinion. The reason that I didn’t allude to it in my post is that I expect that all reasonable parents have done or will do the same with their offspring. The first responsibility of a parent is to be a good parent and educator to our children. The states role is that of reinforcement and example. My point is that if we emphasise the value of safety to the group as opposed to the individual we may enforce and support the parent’s role, which may in turn reinforce other values like respect.

What I mean to say is that as a responsible adult and parent we teach our children the green cross code, cycle proficiency and ensure that our children can swim and know how and when to use a condom and this is then reinforced by the education system and made to be something that kids perceive to be a value then surly we would be on our way back to a society of values and respect. Unfortunately not ever parent is responsible or interested in the welfare of their offspring and I believe that the education system can and should be there to reinforce the parent’s values and teach those values to those that miss out through poor parenting as a group.

[entwisi]

Unfortunately we seem to live in a worls where people think t escools are the only source of education. Remember those three girls 12, 14 and 16 all with kiddies, The mum complained that the scools hadn't educated her children well enough.

My parents encouraged us to learn more and more, even today I am sat in a training course in Liverpool(just finished my exercises before everyone else in teh group so I thought I'd check Accyweb ) to get another technical skill so my job can be split across three areas making me more valuable to the company as I can be moved where the demand is greatest. I asked to do it because I enjoy learning.

Ian

[WillowTheWhisp]

I can relate to what Mummiboo is saying because my daughter was knocked down after looking both ways and crossing when there was no oncoming car in sight. It's difficult to explain the location but there's a long bend in the road and the car that hit her was somewhere out of sight round that bend. As she crossed the road a car pulled out of the school driveway and obscured her view until she had passed behind it, at which point she was hit by a car which came round the bend and which must have been perilously close to the car coming out of the school drive.

I've looked at the location and timed cars as they come into view round that bend and I can walk at quite a reasonable pace and cover far more ground than the width of the road before the car gets near enough to hit me and I've done that with cars and vans and all sorts. None of them would have hit me so I conclude that the car which hit my daughter must have been going faster than any of those.

Unfortunately the police didn't do any checks or measurements at the time but the council did put those pathetic half bumps in the road to slow traffic down which I don't really think solves it. What we had asked for was a zebra crossing outside the school drive as it's a very busy road and hundreds of children cross there morning and afternoon. Will they wait until a child is killed? My daughter was lucky. She survived. There have been several others knocked down but none as seriously injured - yet. My daughter does have road sense and was using it. She crossed when the road was clear.

I also agree about cars which don't use their indicators. There seem to be some drivers of the opinion that only other drivers need to see indication of here they are going, it doesn't seem to matter to them about pedestrians and yet it's as much use to a pedestrian to know if a car is coming round the bend at them.

I don't think we have "The Green Cross Code" as such any more because it was deemed too rigid and lulled children into a belief that once they'd looked and it was clear then it was going to stay clear. We have those funny little hedgehogs now which sing a song as they trot along and talk about avoiding busy areas as well as how to cross roads safely. I still agree that it is parents' responsibility to teach things like this to their children though.

[pendy]

When you have a situation like in Lambeth, where Tufty the Squirrel was banned from schools because it was racist, it's no wonder children don't know how to cross the road!

However, it is no good telling children what to do if when you are with them you drag them across the road behind you without looking. I am constantly amazed that more pedestrians are not killed or maimed on our roads every day. They walk between buses, try to cross from your blind side, and often run across the road in front of traffic - then they stroll over to a shop window and peer in, so they're not in that much of a hurry.

I remember an American girl at the traffic lights at Russell Square, someone ran across the road in front of a bus. She was horrified and said to me "Why do they do that?". The answer is "Because they can get away with it". If we introduce a penalty for jaywalking, like many other countries have, fewer people will do it. If a pedestrian is injured through their own fault, by jaywalking, they should have to contribute towards their hospital treatment. The accident rate would go down immediately, and stay down.

[yerself]

Originally Posted by pendy

When you have a situation like in Lambeth, where Tufty the Squirrel was banned from schools because it was racist

I'm baffled (not unusual), but how on earth can Tufty be considered racist? Is it because he's a native red squirrel and the Lambeth powers that be feel he may be offensive to the illegal American immigrant the grey?

[cashman]

every parent should show their kids how to cross the road safely,started teaching mine before they were of school age even,if they don't or can't be bothered to show the kids then they shouldn't have children.