Don't lie down in the road.

You would think it sufficiently obvious that lying down in the road is a bad idea that it would not need to be said.

Sadly, this is apparently not the case.

One of the Whitehaven Town councillors whose area includes part of my division, Carl ("Whammo") Walmsley has issued an appeal to parents in the town to educate their children that lying down in the road and then jumping up in front of cars is very dangerous and could get someone killed.

There are reports in the paper that children have been daring one another to play this foolhardy and unbelievably stupid game, with drivers quoted who have seen this behaviour on

  • Woodhouse; 
  • High Road, Kells, 
  • Meadow Road, Mirehouse 
  • and the Lowca to Parton road.

I would have difficulty believing that anyone could be that reckless had I not seen something like this myself a few years ago, not in Whitehaven but in Luton where I was visiting family.

Seeing a gaggle of youths and a young man lying in the road, apparently collapsed, I stopped the car and dialled 999.

Just as I got through to the 999 operator and started to request an ambulance, the young man got up, laughed and ran off with his friends, leaving me to explain to the operator and the driver of the car behind who was irate because he had no idea why I had suddenly stopped that I had been taken in by kids playing a silly and potentially lethal joke.

That young man and his friends might have been laughing on the other side of his face if I hadn't seen him and stopped - or worse, he might never have laughed at anything ever again.

What happens all to often with this kind of lunacy is that the person who gets hurt isn't the berk who comes up with the idea or gets a kick out of it but someone desperate for approval who's been pressured into playing the "game" to be accepted by the rest of the group.

I imagine there won't be anyone reading this who needs convincing that this "game" is deranged and dangerous. I also imagine that most parents will think they don't need to worry because their own children could not possibly be that stupid, and most of them will be right.

But I suggest that responsible adults keep their eyes and ears open - and do so even more than you would anyway while driving through the areas listed above.

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