Think I know the answer but just in case....

54and56

This is an annoyance to me.

Was parking in a car park managed by https://www.bestcarparks.ie on Friday. I drive a commercial jeep and was reversing into the parking spot. As the jeep is quite long and I didn't want the front to be protruding out onto a pedestrian 'path' (marked out in yellow to allow people walk along in front of the parked cars) I reversed back as close to the wall which marks the back of the parking spot as possible but didn't see a grey steel cage about 4 feet off the ground which is bolted to the cement wall to protect some gas pipes and sticks out from the wall about 12-18 inches and ended up scratching and denting the hatchback of the jeep which is going to cost €180 to have repaired.

I know the general rules are:-

1. The car park accept no liability for injury or damage regardless of circumstances.
2. If it's not moving and you hit it it's 100% your own fault.

€180 isn't the end of the world and no one was injured etc so it's not really a big deal but I'm annoyed and don't know whether I should just be annoyed with myself for not seeing the cage on the wall or whether I should be somewhat annoyed with Best Car Parks for marking out a parking spot with a steel cage sticking out into the marked out parking space and/or for not putting a bollard on the ground in front of the cage to prevent it being hit by high sided vehicles or painting it bright red/yellow so it stands out and can be seen more easily as grey steel against a cement wall isn't easy to see when reversing into a parking spot.

Here's the spot in question:



Does anyone here know if I have any chance of getting Best Car Parks to pay or contribute towards the cost of the damage or would I be just wasting my time and probably getting even more annoyed trying to get them to pay up?

I'm quite prepared to accept it's 100% my own fault but just wanted to ask here for validation one way or another before I swallow my pride, pay the €180 to get it fixed and move on

CIARAN_BOYLE

Pay to fix your car, if your bring it up with the car park operators they will find a way to make you pay for the damage to the cage from you hitting it.

jcd5971

Tbf this one is all on you, also I second the previous poster, you'd risk getting charged for damaging the cage

54and56

No damage done to the cage (that I could see anyway) as it is pretty heavy gauge steel but fair enough, I hear ya

Samuel T. Cogley

Not meaning to High horse for one second as accidents happen, but out of curiousity how did you not see the cage? Very, very rarely I'd drive a Transit (or similar) and I'm paranoid about what's behind me. Perhaps (and again I'm not trying to scold you) familiarity breeding contempt?

GritBiscuit

My first thought was; I wouldn't be in a huge rush to put your hand up to crashing into a static object in a private car park, far more likely they would try to stick you with their bill than they contribute towards yours.

the_pen_turner

its pritty obvious ,
were you not watching where you were going

Ursus Horribilis

The way I see it, it's no different to someone pulling up too close to a high kerb and almost pulling their front bumper off when they reverse or reversing into a parking space and bumping into a lamp post or a tree. It's unfortunate that it happened but it's down to driver error only.

54and56

Libertarian Kant wrote: »

Not meaning to High horse for one second as accidents happen, but out of curiousity how did you not see the cage? Very, very rarely I'd drive a Transit (or similar) and I'm paranoid about what's behind me. Perhaps (and again I'm not trying to scold you) familiarity breeding contempt?

I was reversing into the spot so was reversing around the pillar on the right of the picture. My focus was on the wall behind me, the pillar to my left (as I reversed) to make sure I didn't clip the passenger side mirror off it and the car in the slot to my right which I obviously didn't want to hit.

It's a tight enough spot and I had a number of variables I was keeping track of. I guess the pillar to my left must have taken all my attention when looking in the passenger side mirror and I judged the depth of the wall at the back of the parking space primarily from monitoring the drivers side mirror and as you can see from the picture the cage doesn't extend all the way across the parking space so when looking in the drivers side mirror there is no cage to be seen.

I've been driving 25 years and have never had an accident of any sort (bar a small tip on an iced road down the country once which didn't warrant an insurance claim) so I consider myself to be an experienced and careful driver but I guess every day is a school day.

The cage isn't very easy to see against the cement wall when reversing but I accept I should have seen it. Circumstances conspired against me a little so c'est la vie <Mod edit.>

endacl

Those grey on grey cages are a menace. It's easily done. Would it not be as easy to paint them bright yellow...

Ursus Horribilis

I've every sympathy for you. Some of those car park spaces are very narrow and a bugger to manoeuvre into if you're driving anything larger than a 1995 Nissan Micra.

Rubberchikken

these things are done that way in car parks for some reason best known to whoever and they are in a bad spot imho.
designed differently they could have been placed higher/more out of the way.
i wouldn't go admitting anything to car park. they might just 'find' a little dent in their cage.
you're willing to admit you made a mistake that'll cost 180 euro, you can't do any more than that.

54and56

endacl wrote: »

Those grey on grey cages are a menace. It's easily done. Would it not be as easy to paint them bright yellow...

If it was I'm sure I'd have seen it and avoided it. The great big pillar is painted yellow but not the sneaky grey steel cage bolted to a cement wall sticking out 18 inches into the rear of the marked parking space.

I know I should still have seen it.

the_pen_turner

those cages are galvinised not pained so if they were to paint them it would add a lot to the cost. you need special paint an d primers to paint fresh galvinised metal.

is it sticking out 18 inchs. it looks from the perspective of your pic to be a lot less maybe around 6".

54and56

the_pen_turner wrote: »

is it sticking out 18 inchs. it looks from the perspective of your pic to be a lot less maybe around 6".

Maybe not 18 inches to be fair as I didn't measure it. I estimated 12-18 inches but I guess it could be less. I'll take a closer look next time I'm there.

pillphil

Just don't get too close :P

54and56

pillphil wrote: »

Just don't get too close :P

Boom boom :-)

Andrea B.

Advised by posters here and as I have learned the hard way before, and which is the first point of any such situation; a driver is always in the wrong in a reversing scenario

54and56

the_pen_turner wrote: »

is it sticking out 18 inchs. it looks from the perspective of your pic to be a lot less maybe around 6".

It sticks out exactly 12 inches

NUTLEY BOY

The only possible line of argument is that the cage was not reasonably visible and was therefore a hazard. Onus of proof of that rests with OP. I sympathise with OP but would not be too optimistic.

Mind you there was a HC case in 2015 where a pedestrian walked in to a bollard on campus in UCD and fell over receiving a serious injury. The bollard was not obvious when pedestrians were around. The plaintiff pedestrian won. Link http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/2015/H90.html

Kimbot

Its just sheer bad luck dude, once your only paying out for your own car and not damage to a cage I would just leave it be

plodder

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

I know the general rules are:-

1. The car park accept no liability for injury or damage regardless of circumstances.
2. If it's not moving and you hit it it's 100% your own fault.

I don't think those general rules are worth the paper (or whatever it is) they are written on. But, in this case, as others have said, it's hard to argue that you couldn't have seen the obstruction.

54and56

NUTLEY BOY wrote: »

The only possible line of argument is that the cage was not reasonably visible and was therefore a hazard. Onus of proof of that rests with OP. I sympathise with OP but would not be too optimistic.

Mind you there was a HC case in 2015 where a pedestrian walked in to a bollard on campus in UCD and fell over receiving a serious injury. The bollard was not obvious when pedestrians were around. The plaintiff pedestrian won. Link http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/2015/H90.html

Thanks Nutley but there's no way on earth I'm going to get litigious over €180!!

Also, I just noticed in my own photo's that there is a white line painted on the ground underneath the cage. It seems to be directly underneath the furthest point of the cage from the wall and I'm guessing, from the car park operators perspective, that the white line rather then the back wall marks the edge of the parking space so if I hit the cage I must be parking outside the designated parking space.

Even more reason why it's my own fault

I think I'll record the €180 cheque to fix the dent as "mature driving lesson" in my cheque book :rolleyes:

NUTLEY BOY

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Thanks Nutley but there's no way on earth I'm going to get litigious over €180!! SNIP SNIP

Wise man

Just one of those unfortunate things which could have been worse...