Well I think DVD that maybe a smile helped in this case. Had I gone all guns blazing it might have turned out differently!
To be honest I was a little worried getting out of my car, but just wanted to make a small point.
To the other answerers (word?) I really do think there's a time to sit back and do nothing, and a time, as Alastair says, when the meek should inherit the earth. - and *do* something.
It's just that I'm not quite sure where the line that I must tread over is.
HF
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No, no, no, no, no. HF, this is what trailer hitches and bull bars were invented for. Repeatedly smashing into his car until it was shunted out of your way was the only solution here, unless you also slashed his tyres just to make the point a little more strongly.
You know, I find the occasional rampage helps me feel less meek ... now please excuse me while I find my tablets.
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andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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I had been on the point of starting a somewhat similar thread, on one's rights to damage another car in order to get out of a tight parking space.
When I park in the road at work, I always try and leave a reasonable space front and back for getting out, and also so that my neighbours can get out. But on occasions I come back to find the others cars have changed, and now I am boxed in with 6" clearance at front and back. There is no possibility of tracing the owners and asking them to move.
So am I entitled to take the line, "you parked on top of me, so you must take the consequences if I crack your number plate getting out"? Or am I obliged to wait indefinitely until someone turns up?
I am not so concerned about damage to my own car - big Volvos with tow bars and proper bumpers are built for this kind of thing.
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I think that if someone parks very close to your car then using the bumpers is only fair. At low speeds the damage should be minimal, if any at all. I used to do this in my Volvo 340 too Cliff - it was such a tank I was never going to come off worse.
Ironically, a friend was blocked in last night after doing her weekly shop. She had parked on the road and two cars had come along and blocked her in. If it was me I would have used the bumpers, but she walked 20 minutes home. I took her down to pick her car up later by which time one of the other cars had moved.
I've seen it said before on this forum that drivers need to learn to be considerate towards their fellow drivers - and that includes when parking. Otherwise, who knows, you might have blocked in someone who has no fear of using bumpers/bullbars/tow hooks to extricate themselves...
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In the examples given above and in my day to day experiences, it never ceases to amaze me, how inconsiderate some people can be and it's obviously not just limited to motoring.
It usually turns out that these are the same people that shout the loudest at the merest hint of any intrusion into their lives and activities.
Personally, I'd like to think of myself as one of the strong and silent type. ;-)
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Someone's bad parking doesn't give you the right in law to deliberately act in a manner that would damage someone else's property, even if you feel morally correct. You could find yourself charged with criminal damage.
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Someone's bad parking doesn't give you the right in law to deliberately act in a manner that would damage someone else's property, even if you feel morally correct. You could find yourself charged with criminal damage.
But wouldn't there be an implied right to lawful egress, giving someone the right to use "reasonable" force to exercise it? I don't mean deliberately smashing someone's car to pieces with a bull bar, just causing possible minor scrapes by nudging backwards and forwards?
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No. You call the police, find a traffic warden or find the owner and ask them to move.
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Turn this around and look at it from the other side. Imagine you've parked your car, mind on other things, and inadvertently without malice or intent, blocked someone in. You then come back to your car and find your bumper damaged. I think you'd be pretty cheesed off. 'A few scratches' could easily mean a three figure repair bill if the whole bumper had to be resprayed or if the mountings were damaged.
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All the more reason to park properly,concentrating on the task in hand rather than letting your mind wander.Parking is part of driving so doing so improperly could be construed as 'driving without due care and consideration'.No one has suggested'malice or intent',it is the lack of thought that is the problem.
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Aren't bumpers and their mountings designed to withstand minor parking incidents? In most cases described so far the distance travelled is too short to gain any speed to actually do any real damage.
In any case, the expectation of parking on the road (IMHO) is that some parking damage is almost inevitable as people come and go from surrounding spaces. It doesn't help that most modern cars don't have good visibility to their corners.
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Aren't bumpers and their mountings designed to withstand minor parking incidents?
Not anymore. They're purely part of the car's design feature. My Vectra bumpers for example form part of the front and rear wings. The slightest movement of them shows up a mile by the panel gap that occurs between wing and bumper.
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No. You call the police, find a traffic warden or find the owner and ask them to move.
OK, so none of those is available. How many hours would you wait?
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However long, it's still not an excuse to cause damage.
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>>on one's rights to damage another car in order to get out of a tight parking space.>>
Common practice on the Continent, especially in Spain...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Why are bumpers called bumpers to bump cars out of your way.
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We have a problem near us of a bank on a junction controlled by traffic lights. Rather than use the car park which would involve walking 20 yards people pull up on the double yellows outside the bank to use the cashpoint. Result car blocking one lane. The other week I am approaching the lights towards the bank. A car coming towards me had to overtake the parked car, but hesitated when they saw me and stopped across the white line in line with the rear of the parked car. I had to stop and couldn't get through, it was busy so neither of us could reverse. I wound down the window and asked the driver of the parked car to move (it was a passenger at the cashpoint)as they were causing an obstruction by illegally parking on a double yellow line and lets just say the swear filter would turn the words said to me into many pretty stars! Unfortunately such selfish attitudes are common place and I suppose seeing that the Renault Clio had completely blacked out windows I should have had some warning as to the intelligence of the driver of the car before she spoke to me!
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Lots of interesting answers. I will just say that I don't think my little car would stand a chance of bumping back the large thing, whatever it was, that was behind me. I was lucky the wait wasn't really long, but to be honest if the guy hadn't come back I would have been a coward and just walked home (and then got a parking ticket the next morning!)
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As mentioned,parking should be given as much thought as when your driving.Personally i would have gone in the shop and told the guy to move his car.Refusal or beligerance would be expensive for the other driver.You can see why drivers sometimes have their cars "keyed".
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It's difficult, especially (I think) as a lone female driver. Marching into the shop to confront a rather large beefy bloke, particularly in a bit of a renowned area, might not have been a wise move. These things one has to decide and I know that I don't always pick the most sensible! But, in the place where I was, it would be far more likely for me to be the one who had my car 'keyed' or damaged in some other way. Or, more likely even, to have been damaged myself!
Impossible sometimes to know what to do...
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>>Impossible sometimes to know what to do...
Would agree HF if parking space has anything to do with C/P.just around the corner ie one way road.Sorry if it isnt?.If so they dont care what they do..I think you know the persons we are talking about.Not worth the time effort in confronting
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Steve
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Steve yep you're right. And you clearly have experience of the people!
And you're right I should not confront - that's kind of what I was thinking when I started this thread.
I could have been asking for trouble - but at the same time there's this little feeling that not everyone should be getting away with anti-social behaviour. Not for me to crusade about it but just occasionally it gets my rag. And, one time in a thousand, it gets too much to ignore. I conclude that, indeed, I might well be classed as an idiot!
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