Anyone ever hit a parked car and not left a note?

peteri

I had one car some years ago (BMW 7 series), had five replacement doors on it in five years - all from people hitting it in car parks.

The problem was the car was pretty wide, and would tend to fill spaces, so people in 4x4s etc as they swung in would hit it. I was always parked straight and in a bay.

Only had one note left, got all excited - only to read 'People think I'm leaving my number'.

Bastard!

munckee

@Philly_Q I don't envy your position my dad is 70 and its a discussion I will have to have in a few years, like the one I had years ago with him to say having a few pints and driving home was no longer socially acceptable!

capo4th

Hi I am writing this note to you as a number of people are watching me have a nice day! 

TheBigDipper

I've been hit when parked in a car park as I was actually loading up the car! Who knows what would have happened if I'd still been in the shop.

These days, if I find myself in a space that's a bit tight, or one of the cars either side has parked in a sloppy way that makes me doubt their ability to leave without hitting me (or just denting my door with theirs getting in) I take a photo that clearly shows the lines delineating the spaces and their registration. I've never been dented or hit since!

RobDavies

A friend of mine bumped or scraped another car twice when he was a kid - no more than about 21 years old, if memory serves.  Shamefully, on neither occasion did he leave a note.

Karma is an amazing thing though, because since then, it's happened to my friend a number of times - once resulting in a complete right off.

My friend is a much more mature and considerate person nowadays and wouldn't dream of not doing the right thing should such an incident ever arise again.

TheBigDipper

m_c said:

Not personally, but I've witnessed it.

Best was my old foreman. 
<snip>
Or his fantastic trailer reversing skills, which involved 8 cuts before jack-knifing at the workshop door before finally pushing the trailer in, which always made us question how he managed to get a trailer license.

I've got a driving licence that allows me to drive a minibus (as long as it isn't being used for hire or reward, so I can transport people for free, such as for a school trip,  but not run a bus route and collect fares) with or without a trailer. I'm also allowed to tow trailers with my car and drive a medium-sized truck (class C1) with or without a trailer. I've never taken a test for any of those things because I got my licence in 1976 and they just gave them to you in those days. How daft is that? Never done any of those things and don't intend to... 

Wolfetone

Legionreturns said:

Majorscale said:

Legionreturns said:

It's happened to me. That's why I now have a hard wired front and rear dash cam with parking mode. 

Thats an idea, which make and model?

There are loads out there, just don't be tempted by any of the cheap ones. They fail after a very short time and the picture quality isn't good enough. Best bet is to contact a local independent fitter and they'll supply and fit. 

Also, ignore the shite that Halfrauds sell. 

I bought my hardwired Nextbase from there and it certainly isn't shite in fact far from it. It's superb.

Winny_Pooh

Got swiped on the rear corner last month. People are shit, I fear how I'd have felt if it wasn't an old car.

capo4th

TheBigDipper said:

I've been hit when parked in a car park as I was actually loading up the car! Who knows what would have happened if I'd still been in the shop.

These days, if I find myself in a space that's a bit tight, or one of the cars either side has parked in a sloppy way that makes me doubt their ability to leave without hitting me (or just denting my door with theirs getting in) I take a photo that clearly shows the lines delineating the spaces and their registration. I've never been dented or hit since!

How would you prove what happened ?

TheBigDipper

capo4th said:

TheBigDipper said:

I've been hit when parked in a car park as I was actually loading up the car! Who knows what would have happened if I'd still been in the shop.

These days, if I find myself in a space that's a bit tight, or one of the cars either side has parked in a sloppy way that makes me doubt their ability to leave without hitting me (or just denting my door with theirs getting in) I take a photo that clearly shows the lines delineating the spaces and their registration. I've never been dented or hit since!

How would you prove what happened ?

You can't. At best, your car has a white scrape and their white car has a blue one (as an example). 

capo4th

So why would you waste your time getting out your tripod and taking various landscape photographs every time you park in a tight space?

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

http://www.olderdrivers.org.uk/driver-assessment/find-a-driver-assessment/

@Philly_Q this is what Age UK recommend for people over 70 who feel they might need some support with driving. 

With my father in the end the GP said he wasn't fit to drive and wrote to the DVLA. He found it very upsetting, although the same happened with my father in law who seemed completely non plussed. 

@EricTheWeary ; thanks, I shall give this some thought and discuss with my brother.  One of many issues to think about in the not-too-distant future, I'm afraid.

Emp_Fab

I will be the first to admit guilt on this one.  Many many years ago (over 30!) I came home from the pub and finding the cupboard a bit bare, had a mad craving for a chinese.  (This was in the days when nobody delivered !).  I decided to hop in the car and nip up to the local takeaway.  I wasn't drunk, but I was definitely over the legal limit.  It's the only time I've ever drunk and driven (drinked and drived ?).  Anyhow, I go to take a bend on a steep hill and as I'm halfway round, a dog appears right in front of the car.  I slam my brakes on (as I would unquestionably have ran over it otherwise).  Unfortunately, due to the steepness of the hill, the curve of the bend and the wet road, I skidded at 45 degrees downhill instead of straight ahead.  I collided with the rear corner of a parked car.  No major damage but there was some crunching of metal.

I panicked and drove off.  I'm not proud of it.  I was young and stupid.  Had I not been over the limit, I would have knocked on the doors of nearby houses until I found the owner.  As it was, if I'd done that, it would have been a dead-cert that I would have lost my licence - which is why I panicked and drove off.  The reality is that I would have hit the car whether I'd been drinking or not as I'd still have slammed on my brakes and still have skidded the same way.  I've never drinked and drived since that day.

skunkwerx

Haha, around here you get hit by a car when you’re in it on the road and you’d be lucky if the offending vehicle stopped. 

axisus

Emp_Fab said:

 I've never drinked and drived since that day.

I'm sorry Sir, but I'm going to have to fail you on the sentence composition module.

Majorscale

axisus said:

Emp_Fab said:

 I've never drinked and drived since that day.

I'm sorry Sir, but I'm going to have to fail you on the sentence composition module.

Go easy on him, he’s been drinking ;-)

fishfingers

Soon after I learned to ride a bike I cycled into a neighbours car parked across the pavement. I guess I wasn't looking where I was going; anyway, I was a bit stunned but as soon as I could scramble back onto the bike I was off. Only to be caught by the neighbour as she came flying out of the front door! Since then I've always had a deep sense moral obligation and a fear of Hillman Imps

Deadman

I'd be reluctant to own up after my only experience of this.

About 10 years ago I backed into a Mondeo, I had a 50p sized dent on my car, the Ford however, I wasn't quite sure what I'd done as it was pretty knackered anyway. The front end that I'd hit had had previous damage all over it. It was parked outside a doctors surgery so I went in, found the (very nice) lady who owned it and exchanged details. She simply said not to worry about it as her car was knackered anyway.

Fast forward 24 hours, she'd got the military police involved (it happened on a military base) who pulled me in for not reporting an accident and had her car written off as I'd caused all of the major front end damage. They were initially going to try and throw the book at me.

I don't know if her claim was successful but when the MP's compared the damage on my car they left me alone. 

It doesn't always pay to be completely honest in this world.