Killing children in Eltham

A 14-year-old boy has died after a road accident in south-east London. He suffered serious injuries when he was hit by a pick-up truck on Westhorne Avenue, Eltham, at about 1700 GMT on Friday and later died in hospital.

A 48-year-old man has been arrested and bailed on suspicion of driving dangerously.

Eltham was where, at the start of the year

Murphy, 22, of Blackfen Road in Blackfen, had been driving at 72mph in a 30mph zone when he lost control of his Ford Fiesta and hit the bus stop.

He killed a 17 year old girl, but according to his defence barrister

“it was a moment or two of bad driving as opposed to prolonged bad driving”.

Ah, yes. A mere moment. Could have happened to anyone.

Murphy will be back on the roads when he’s 26, since he was only

banned from driving for four years.

Killing children on the roads is something British drivers are very good at:

Edward Leigh, chairman of the public accounts committee, warned that the picture is "not so good" when the road safety of pedestrians and cyclists is examined.

"In terms of the number of child pedestrians killed as a proportion of the population, we are way down the league.

But then we get the usual victim-blaming crap:

He continued: "The Department for Transport needs to establish more effective ways of communicating with and preventing accidents among vulnerable road users.

"Its current Think! media campaign takes over half of the road safety budget, but it cannot prove that it has an effect on reductions in road casualties."

To which the blood-drenched car supremacist Department for Transport retorted:

"We have launched a groundbreaking children's Think! campaign and new website with materials for children, teachers and parents to learn about road safety."

Business as usual, on behalf of the motor manufacturing lobby, and not a word said about the responsibility of drivers, speed governors, or the temptations of cars designed to break the speed limit.