I remember the days....
It's going to make me sound old, but I remember the days when people used to find their own way and it actually took some effort to navigate to somewhere you'd never been. In fact it was part of the fun of going somewhere new. It's not that I actively dislike sat navs, but I don't own one because I don't tend to get lost.
I think people are blaming too much of this issue on sat navs as well. I see posts talking about how there is so much more traffic on their street now, has anyone considered it may just be because the main roads are getting more and more congested and more people feel the need to try and find alternative routes? I don't use a sat nav (as I stated) but still if I know one route will be congested, I might choose to take an alternative "around" the blockage. Of course, I consider myself a careful and considerate driver and don't tend to come close to running kids over, but that's another point.
The main issue is not the sat nav, but the impatience and lack of responsibility some people have behind the wheel. Contrary to what some people think, it tends to be people very familiar with the road who cause/have the majority of accidents in residential areas. When on familiar territory, people tend to relax and their concentration slips, and they drive a touch faster because they "know the road". This not only shows in statistics but I have also seen from my own observations.
Oh, the only time I EVER came even close to injuring a child on a road, I was doing about 20mph approaching a junction and a kid simply rode out into the road on his bike without even looking (from an alley which you cannot see from the road). He then panicked, hit his brakes, fell off his bike and I managed to stop about a metre from his head. If I hadn't been going slowly, I would have probably killed him, and I am sure there are people who would say it was my fault, even though I'd have still been within the speed limit. Fact is, kids also have to be made plainly aware of the dangers of roads, especially in these times of growing traffic volumes.
I never saw the kid since, but I'll bet he started looking more carefully before riding across roads after that.
And sorry golverd, but you sound like an idiot. You rant about safe driving in one area and then tell everyone you regularly speed at muppet-like levels in others. So it's much better for you to speed (by your own admission at up to 150mph) on a motorway, plough into a car with 3 kids in the back and kill all three then? Yeah because that admission really backs up the rest of your argument.......