Parked the Audi is Asda's car park yesterday. Although it was relatively quiet, I'm paranoid about door and bumper dings in supermarket car parks, and as usual went for a space furthest removed from the store entrance, with no other cars close by. When I came back, the rear bumper had been stoved right through, possibly by a towbar! God knows how.
No witnesses, no note. I was hoping there might be cctv but got "sorry sir, not in that part of the car park", so the cost is down to me or the insurance company.
But here's the question: if you'd accidentally wacked someone's parked car, would you leave a note? Are they any honest and decent folk left out there? Very few, I'm guessing.
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 20 May 11 at 18:06
|
There is almost no appetite these days for taking responsibility for what you do, countless examples of how people do things they shouldnt and seem to get away with it are out there.
Permissive attitudes have lead to a rather relaxed attitude to 'doing the right thing'.
I saw a car get a nice parking crunch this morning, offending driver didnt stop, but then at no point did I expect them to, which means even I have rather given up on people behaving with any decency.
As such, it would be rather exceptional to see anyone leave a note. I know one person who did, very minor scrape, but they are devout a Christian and there was no question that they not hold their hands up to it.
|
My wife dinged a rather tatty looking Fiesta in a town centre car park about 10 years ago, leaving a small crease in the rear wheel arch. We had literally nothing to write on for notepaper, so my wife actually went to the nearest shop to buy some, and I waited by the car in case the owner returned before she got back.
In the event, the owner and my wife, complete with a newly purchased WHSmith notepad, returned at the same time. My wife explained what had happened and offered her contact details. The owner glanced rather carelessly at the damage, shrugged and explained that the MOT ran out in two days, the bill to get it through another was over four hundred quid, and it was off to the scrappie as soon as the ticket expired. Thanked us for our honesty, told us not to give it a second thought, got in the car and drove off.
We were absolutely gobsmacked.
|
My missus scraped a car in a car park about 6 weeks ago.
Wrote a note and put it under windscreen wiper. Then, in case it disappeared, wrote another note and jammed it into the window rubber on driver's door.
Haven't heard a thing since.
Mind you, she has never told me what her note said!
People who see me writing this think........... :)
|
|
I hope I would. Somebody put a ding the size of a dinnerplate in the Xant's door when it was less tha 2 yo and still my pride and joy. Strong suspicion that it was a jeep type thing belonging to another regualr user of the station but as was done in Feb when I only see the car in daylight in saturday & Sunday I ws not even sure what day the deed occurred.
|
I leave a Note everytime I park.......well, if I didn't I'd just be sat in it all the time !
I'll get me Note.
Ted
|
|
After the several scrapes in the old car which i bought brand new if i could get away with it in this car i think i would.!
|
I would. I have.
I was fortunate enough to be called a couple of days later to be told it was a tiny ding, thanks for my honesty, but not to worry about it.
|
I stopped to turn round in a layby after it started snowing in the Highlands some years ago - the car I was driving decided it didnt want to play and gently slid straight into the back of a Megane at about 5-6mph, unhinging the Megane's rear bumper and mashing my headlight.
I looked around in the blizzard and couldn't see anyone (car was empty, occupants presumably hillwalking), and there were no other cars around.
Left phone number in a plastic wrap under the wiper.
Owner called my 6 or 7 hours later and the insurance sorted the damage.
If I dinged someone with a door in a carpark I'd not leave a note, equally if I bumped a car and couldn't see any mark/damage, I'd not leave a note.
If there was damage then I would - rather than a few hundred quid sting to the insurance than a chunk of penalty points for driving off.
|
|
I didnt leave it note when I ran the bus off the road. Mind neither vehicle was going anywhere.
|
I have done so. Scraped a nice shiny BMW in a car park, leaving my paint and a bit of a gouge in his door.
Left a note.
Heard nothing.
|
Never left a note yet but equally not so far felt inclined or found it appropriate to drive into a stationary vehicle either. Would I leave one if I did? Jolly well hope so.
:-)
|
|
Not sure if I would leave a note. Had so many dings, dents and scrapes to my car and never had a note left that it leaves me feeling rather inclined to not bother leaving one, although my conscious may dictate otherwise.
|
Thirty years ago a tin bumper bar would have acquired a little dent and nobody would have thought anything of it.
Ten years ago the door would have had a rubber fender along the edge (I never knew why all cars couldn't manage them at the same height).
Now a car is just waiting to be bashed.
I did drive into somebody once (in a 4x4; poor Fiesta needed a new door skin) and paid for it. But certainly a car parked on the streets of London soon begins to pick up dings and dints and bashes and scratches.
|
|
Deviating slightly, what colour is the Audi? One reason I buy a brightly coloured car is to minimise the chance of it getting bumped when parked.
|
|
how does that stop it getting bumped?
|
You are wasting your time asking him or giving him advice on the Computer questions. Hasn't he said that he isn't talking to you and that he is ignoring you?
|
|
doesnt stop me expressing incredulity that the colour of a car will stop people opening doors onto it or deflecting supermarket trollies.
|
|
Whilst statistically meaningless, the two cars of ours that have picked up the most parking knocks/scrapes/dings over the years were both greyish metallic in colour... Counterbalanced by the fact that a beige (sorry, cubanite silver) Merc Estate the size of a small yacht remained unmarked despite its nondescript colour!
|
Oh I'm sorry to hear Diesel fitter. i too am paronid about car park dings as they are often costly. I would of left a note. The person that hit you runs a serious risk if a witness saw it and reported it to the police !
I know as i did just this when I saw a guy hit a focus then drive off in tesco's car park. The police treated it as a hit and run ! The owner was really gratefull when she found out it had been reported.
I know I have mentioned these before but I have an in-car camera and when I park in a supermarket I reverse in the bay and switch the camera to on ! whilst its parked just in case someone does to me what they have done to you.
www.roadhawk.co.uk £200.00 easy to fit and mine has been a life saver. there are those that have a bee in their bonnet about video survillence and are dead against it !
|
Well, the Audi is camouflage grey, but I tend to go with Zero that this can't make much difference to car park injuries.
For those interested, an Audi bumper costs around £300+VAT, and paint and labour take the bill to about £600. With no identifiable third party, I'll be paying the £300 excess.
Is the roadhawk able to see in all directions? I know we've debated these before.
|
I witnessed a driver hit another car in a Tesco car park. She got out of the car and denied it etc but I noted her reg number etc and went to customer services. Turns out the car belonged to a member of staff. He reported it to the police and I had forms to fill in as a witness. The police were then going to visit her and as you say it's treated as if hit and run.
I did try to tell her at the time she'd be in more trouble if she didn't leave a note.
And the reason it was interesting to point out it was a member of staff? I gave a description to the staff member and he (illegally?) used the CCTV footage to find the woman. And then they worked out from that the till she paid at.... and then the Clubcard used.... and therefore he looked up her address! All must have been very illegal but she deserved it.
|
Ah!
Clubcards = Big Brother, (including the DSS & HMRC), is watching you and your spending!
["Loyalty" (Oxymoron!) Card operators WILL divulge your spending if required by "authority!]
|
>> I know I have mentioned these before but I have an in-car camera and when
>> I park in a supermarket I reverse in the bay and switch the camera to
>> on ! whilst its parked just in case someone does to me what they have
>> done to you.
>> www.roadhawk.co.uk £200.00 easy to fit and mine has been a life saver. there are those
>> that have a bee in their bonnet about video survillence and are dead against it
>> !
>>
You need to be careful around Section 36 of the Data Protection Act when doing this.
There are clear rules which have to be followed (as the supermarket car park is not your property) if you are to use a video camera to record people going about their everyday business.
|
...You need to be careful around Section 36 of the Data Protection Act when doing this...
This is a thorny one, but I wouldn't concern myself too much about 'private property'.
It's accepted you may take a picture in public, a street scene or a landscape.
Inevitably, this will involve taking a picture of private property, and often people on that property.
Practically, it's the use to which the picture is put which may cause a problem, not the taking of the picture itself.
No one knows injection doc has a recording device and I'm sure he only uses the footage if he has to.
No worries.
|
>> ...You need to be careful around Section 36 of the Data Protection Act when doing
>> this...
>>
>> This is a thorny one, but I wouldn't concern myself too much about 'private property'.
>>
>> It's accepted you may take a picture in public, a street scene or a landscape.
>>
Are you being deliberately obtuse ?
A video camera is not "taking a picture". The DPA states you must make it clear to the public you are monitoring them and you must make that data secure.
Storing data on a card in the car which can be broken into and taken is not secure data storage. Worst case the car could be lifted and stripped. Try explaining that to Nick Freeman when the data appears on YouTube.
|
...A video camera is not "taking a picture"...
Someone might be taking video clips of their family at the seaside using a mobile.
That must be OK, so how about doing the same with a proper video camera?
Is 10 minutes allowed? Or an hour?
When does innocuous videoing of that nature trip over into monitoring the public?
Bear in mind injection doc might only be parked for five minutes while he nips to the supermarket cash machine, or he might be there for a couple of hours while Mrs ID gets some serious retail therapy.
Is the one instance monitoring the public, but the other not?
I haven't the time to trawl through the act, but I suspect the answer may be the public monitoring/secure data storage sections of it don't apply to one man and his video camera.
If anyone knows relevant legislation, please feel free to post.
|
Straws, grasping at...
How is "taking video clips of their family at the seaside using a mobile." the same as switching on a video recorder inside your car in a supermarket car park without authorisation from the supermarket ?
Unless you make it obvious to the public i.e. Video suverylance signs inside the car. Bear in mind the supermarkets have signs at the entrance informing as such.
You still have not addressed the issue of data security! The car cannot surely be classed as secure at source !!!
|
...You still have not addressed the issue of data security! The car cannot surely be classed as secure at source !!!...
What has authorisation by the supermarket got to do with it?
If I am taking video footage of my family on the promenade, I don't have formal authorisation from the landowner.
No one does - they just turn on the camera spontaneously, point and shoot.
To give a closer analogy to a supermarket, I could be on the pier, which might be owned by a private company.
Or in the garden of my hotel.
Nor, when using my video camera, am I obliged to get involved in 'data security issues'.
As I said, it's a question of what is classed as 'monitoring the public' for the purposes of the act.
|
As I said previously are you deliberately being obtuse ?
InjectionDoc specifically mentioned parking in a supermarket carpark. You then went off on a tangent of "If I am taking video footage of my family on the promenade, I don't have formal authorisation from the landowner.
No one does - they just turn on the camera spontaneously, point and shoot.
To give a closer analogy to a supermarket, I could be on the pier, which might be owned by a private company.
Or in the garden of my hotel."
What has that to do with the supermarket carpark ? Fact is you don't own it...
If you wish to record individuals for the purpose of prosecution then 'data security issues' then comes into question.
|
...What has that to do with the supermarket carpark ? Fact is you don't own it...
It is precisely the same - you are taking video on land you don't own to which the public has access.
If it's legal to do so in my examples, why is not legal in a supermarket car park?
A supermarket car park doesn't have any special legal status.
...If you wish to record individuals for the purpose of prosecution then 'data security issues' then comes into question...
Who is to say for what purpose a single video camera in a car is recording?
Would it be any different if injection doc took the same footage standing beside his car, holding the camera?
I think we might agree a single camera in these circumstances is different to a multi-camera installation with a control room.
You've asked twice now if I'm being obtuse.
What I am doing is pointing out what a minefield the general area of pointing a camera in public has become.
I'm told some previously keen amateur photographers have given up because of it.
|
>> What I am doing is pointing out what a minefield the general area of pointing
>> a camera in public has become.
>>
Define camera.
|
...Define camera...
Exactly, even that's not easy.
A mobile which takes stills or video, a laptop's built in webcam, a dedicated device such as my little compact, a fixed device on a pole which can record hours or days of footage....
|
|
There are differences, a fixed device on a pole is usually authorised. The "recording"/video camera in your car is generally speaking not authorised. That's the difference.
|
>> There are differences, a fixed device on a pole is usually authorised. The "recording"/video camera
>> in your car is generally speaking not authorised. That's the difference.
>>
But what about a camera (of any kind) in your hand?
You are saying iffy is being obtuse, I think both of you are!
|
How on earth do you think that stops it being bumped?
I can see it might stop it from being hit in a car crash on a misty morning. But parking incidents are generally a result of a moment's inattention whilst opening a door - distracted by a small child perhaps, and with the door on a strong hinge.
|
>> How on earth do you think that stops it being bumped?
I said minimises, not stops.
>> I can see it might stop it from being hit in a car crash on
>> a misty morning. But parking incidents are generally a result of a moment's inattention whilst
>> opening a door - distracted by a small child perhaps, and with the door on
>> a strong hinge.
>>
All of the damages to my car in carparks have been caused by moving cars ~ never doors being opened, nor trolleys. Other people may have had different experiences.
|
There is a possibility the driver who crunched Dieselfitter's Audi is unaware he has done so.
Easy to do with a trailer or a small commercial vehicle.
More likely they've done a runner, of course.
As regards leaving a note, I would if the damage was very apparent, but probably not for a tiny ding.
I used a park and ride regularly for a couple of years.
The car picked up quite a few minor marks which I reckon was mostly due to other drivers walking through the lines of parked cars to reach theirs.
|
|
OP - have you tried asking one of the guys like dentmaster to take a look? May be a cheaper option than a new bumper
|
I would (unless it was a Lancer estate)
:-D
|
>>have you tried asking one of the guys like dentmaster
No - big hole in bumper. Having said that, a local bodyshop did quote for repair and repaint, but the insurer's appointed body shop said it would take a lot of filler, which could crack if the bumper is given even a small nudge in the future.
Iffy's comment reminds me that our last car park injury, a few years back, was due to a transporter taking a short cut diagonally through a motorway services car park instead of using the road and clouting us as he passed, but I don't think he even noticed.
Last edited by: Dieselfitter on Fri 20 May 11 at 19:42
|
I damaged a car when the trolley ran away from me silently on the slightest of inclines whilst i was opening the boot, clumsy and stupid of me.
Didn't have a thing to write on or with so ran to the customer service desk and reported it, and left my details with them, and wrote a note for the victim.
By the time i got back the car had gone, i felt terrible, and to compound the guilt have never heard a thing.
A gentleman accepts responsibilty for his actions, apologises and tries his best to put things right.
|
Yes.
A few weeks ago I clipped a parked car's door mirror with my own while negotiating a road narrowed by parked cars. Looking back in the mirror I saw it dangling from the door, so went back with the intention of leaving a note.
But on inspection I saw the glass was missing, and there was no broken glass on the ground. I concluded the mirror had been broken anyway, and I had touched it as it swung in the wind.
So I drove off.
|
Was that in one of the Teco's in Bedford gb?
If so, it cost me over two hundred quid!
|
|
Providing all the bits of plastic are there they can be plastic welded and then a localised paint repair done by the better Smart repair outfits.
|
>> Was that in one of the Teco's in Bedford
Arrgh, the mere mention of that company brings me out in a rash.
Morrisons i'm afraid, good cast though, no flies on you.-)
|
>> Was that in one of the Teco's in Bedford gb?
My front passenger door got trollied 2 weeks ago at Tesco's. Was parked in the disabled bay at the time (yes, a blue badge was on display before anyone asks). Seems the distances between cars in the disabled bays isn't enough for clumsy numpties these days.
First door ding in over 7 years, btw. Fortunately the scratches in the paint polished out. Try as I might, I couldn't polish the dent out though. Annoyed doesn't even come close.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 21 May 11 at 20:21
|
>> Annoyed doesn't even come close.
Never mind Dave, it's...um....not the end of the World...
:-)
|
|
You still here Humph ? Guess you're not a chosen one, join the club...
|
Guess you're not a chosen one, join the club...
Aye, pity that, but then again I had a hell of a good time !
:-)
|
Yes.
Have done.
Turned out it was my dentist's car. It was a painful experience!
Have have a few dings and scratches on cars we have owned including one on my current car and no notes have been left. Couldn't do that to someone, especially with the experiance of knowning how it feels!
Z
|
Dieselfitter
In answer to your question, there is an option to buy a camera with rear view as well but its dearer. I just reverse in a space so the camera is capturing the front view !
As for the law regarding video in public places ! I see it that its OK for someone to bash your car in but not leave a note, but its not ok to video it ! I think the wrong person is being protected ! As for the data the data is overwritten within a short period of time and if someone stole the camera unless they have the specific software to open the files on the SD card they will not open.
I have had such sucess with mine I will continue to use, when the drunk kicked my door in the police didnt have an issue with the video ! they used it in eveidence. They did mention about the legality of video but not another word but sucessfully banged the guy to rights and without the video it wouldnt of happened !
|
|
To be honest I wouldn't be worried about setting up a camera as described...
|
To be honest I couldn't be bothered to set up a camera at all.
:-)
|
|
If a camera could have identified the third party responsible, then the insurance excess should have been recoverable, saving more than the cost of the camera. So it's worth a thought.
|
Would you leave a note? - Stuu
