Asda Van hit my car!

kittiej

^^ Yes this is true, however if you drive a van for a living as the Asda chappie then you are a professional driver and should know what both you and your vehicle is capable of.

The opposite can also be true with Joe Public on the roads, how many times have you thought "come on dear - you could get a bus through that gap" lol.

catieeb06

Well the argument isn't about the state of my parking, it's about the stupid ignorant van driver!!

Anyway, heard nothing from my insurance company, do you think I should chase it tomorrow?

Nicki

Azari wrote: »

What are you suggesting?

That it is legally or socially acceptable to damage someone else's vehicle if the inconvenience resulting from not doing so is great enough?

No, not quite! :rotfl:

But that if it is a tight gap, and the only other option is to sit blocking the traffic for an indefinite period of time (ie because the driver of the offending car is not in sight) that MOST people whether driving their own car or a company van would try to squeeze through it, particularly if they were likely to be disciplined at work for being unable to complete their deliveries in time or at all. And therefore to say that you would not try to pass unless you were certain you could get through without incident, as one poster did, is somewhat naive in these circumstances.

ETA an ambulance or fire engine who needed to get through on an emergency call would have no compunction in scraping past a badly parked car, so drivers who choose to park inconsiderately in a narrow one way road are assuming a certain level of risk in any case.

Azari

Nicki wrote: »

But that if it is a tight gap, and the only other option is to sit blocking the traffic for an indefinite period of time (ie because the driver of the offending car is not in sight) that MOST people whether driving their own car or a company van would try to squeeze through it, particularly if they were likely to be disciplined at work for being unable to complete their deliveries in time or at all. And therefore to say that you would not try to pass unless you were certain you could get through without incident, as one poster did, is somewhat naive in these circumstances.

You have a, shall we say, "inventive", take on driving. Most responsible drivers will not risk damaging their own or other vehicles. There is no excuse in law for hitting a stationary vehicle in those circumstances.

ETA an ambulance or fire engine who needed to get through on an emergency call would have no compunction in scraping past a badly parked car, so drivers who choose to park inconsiderately in a narrow one way road are assuming a certain level of risk in any case.

And I have a feeling that it would be their insurance that would have to pay for the damage to both vehicles - although it would be nice to believe, in those circumstances, that it wasn't.

Nicki

So how long would you wait Azari in all honesty. Half an hour? Two hours? Overnight? Blocking the traffic all of that time. Would you stay in your car for the whole of that time. Or would you illegally reverse down a one way street causing a dangerous situation for anyone turning into that road/children/cyclists who quite reasonably won't be expecting someone to drive down the wrong way.

I haven't been in this situation thankfully but if I'm driving somewhere I don't often have hours to spare before I get there to literally get stuck immovable in a one way street until a driver has finished their shopping/meal out/whatever. I DO though live in a busy city with some narrow one way streets and I NEVER leave my car without checking it is correctly parked and not blocking the road.

I do have some sympathy for the drivers predicament and I am sure he would have got a lot of grief from all his customers if he was late for all their time slots and in trouble at work. What was unacceptable was driving off without leaving a note, bit taking the risk and misjudging the gap is more understandable in my opinion.

Azari

Nicki wrote: »

So how long would you wait Azari in all honesty. Half an hour? Two hours? Overnight? Blocking the traffic all of that time. Would you stay in your car for the whole of that time.

The correct action is to call the police.

Failing that, reverse, very slowly back along the street. If someone appears STOP! You are very unlikely to get into any trouble for reversing carefully back along a one way street if it is blocked.

There is no justification for scraping someone's car and if you do it you will be responsible.

gjs6385

Nicki wrote: »

What would you do though given OP has said:



As you couldn't turn round or reverse once you realised that you couldn't get through, would you have just sat in your van until the offending driver returned however long that took (maybe most of the day) blocking all the narrower vehicles behind you, who wanted to get through, and not being able to complete your deliveries for the day and letting down all those customers waiting in on their 2 hour slot for their groceries to be delivered?

What would I do - this...

Azari wrote: »

The correct action is to call the police.

Failing that, reverse, very slowly back along the street. If someone appears STOP! You are very unlikely to get into any trouble for reversing carefully back along a one way street if it is blocked.

There is no justification for scraping someone's car and if you do it you will be responsible.

What if you were in the OP's position - wouldn't you argue that a stupid van driver who clearly couldn't fit down had damaged your precious car and then driven off?!

It's all too easy to cast blame when you aren't in that position. I had it happen to me and was very annoyed to say the least and it was only my bumper that got knocked slightly!

Remind me never to park on a one way street that you may be coming down - mind you, it depends what morals you have.

You could of course always stop and knock on the door nearest where the car is parked, as you never know, it may belong to the person that lives there! But oh no, can't be doing that, I mean Mr Smith might have to wait another 2 minutes for his apples to be delievered and we can't have that now can we?!

dizziblonde

The number of times I come out to find that, despite having parked with my tyres touching the kerb I've almost lost wing mirrors to idiot van drivers is insane. I'm not going to park up and blocking the pavement because a few numpties can't reverse properly - heck the council binwagon, much bigger than the average yob in a white van, manages to make it up and down our street with the cars unscathed so it's a lack of care pure and simple (our street is such that you have to either manage quite a tight three point turn or reverse back out). Like I say - bin lorries and even house removal vans have made it up and down without damaging cars - it's just the small white van idiots who can't be bothered (or Wickes home delivery as mentioned before) to take any care over it at all.

And no I'm not prepared to park blocking the pavement - the street's wide enough, it's just yobs who don't give a monkeys about damaging other people's property - and invariably it's supermarket delivery vans and the ilk we have issues with.

Oh I see we chucked in the children argument for some brownie points as well! Where's my "I'm losing the argument so I'll throw it all in" bingo card?

girl_withno_name

It starting to sounds like, on those multiple occasions when people inconsiderately (inappropriately) parked across to front of my drive ("an unsuitable place") that I should've just driven into the side of them and shunted them out of the way so that I could get out... just to make 100% sure I didn't get disciplined for being late for work (picking up my apples on the way home of course!).

By the way OP - sorry to hear this has happened to you, I hope you get it sorted out quickly and painlessly, although it sounds like it could be several months before reaching a resolution.

kazzah60

ETA an ambulance or fire engine who needed to get through on an emergency call would have no compunction in scraping past a badly parked car, so drivers who choose to park inconsiderately in a narrow one way road are assuming a certain level of risk in any case.

Actually- this is FACTUALLY INCORRECT - my husband was a Firefighter for 18 years before an ill health retirement and I can tell you that they would be buried under a MOUNTAIN of paperwork explaining what had happened and quite possibly disciplined for driving without due care and attention if they hit a civilian car ( or another fire engine in fact)

it is much more likely that if the way was obstructed they would park where they could safely and then run hose to the fire rather than risk damaging another vehicle