[nitrogen]

That's a pretty big straw man. Even at 8mph if a toddler wanders into the road you are going to have a pretty big jolt from slamming on the brakes. If you've never been driving at or below posted and safe speeds in a neighborhood and still had to slam on the brakes because a child's ball bounces into the street (invariably followed by the child), you are quite lucky.

Even with 100 feet to spare, you still slam on the brakes because when a kid wanders into the road, that's what is safest.

[jacquesm]

Even if I would have braked I would have hit the little guy. So I just swerved to the other side of the road. If it had been packed with cars I would have probably killed him, there was absolutely no way the car was going to stop in time. Very bad experience. I got out very fast to scoop the little man+bike out of traffic and hand him back to his mom, we were both shaking like leafs. They're so quick.