[Rachet]

Hello BHPians,

Accidents are inevitable , be it on the middle of the road or even at your parking lot where your car is safely parked.How much you try to safeguard your car , there are other external factors which you cannot control.

So this happened in my parking lot when my neighbour was taking her car out and ended up crashing into my car.

Sharing the video here.

https://youtu.be/0EyJaqz8xyw

It was one fine morning, I was enjoying a cup of tea when I heard my phone ringing. I sensed something was urgent as I never get any calls at that time of the day. And when I saw that the person who was trying to reach me was my neighbour I thought it was for some help. It never occurred to me that it might be something involving my car.
Then she told me in a panic tone that she accidentally crashed her car into mine and she wanted me to come down to the parking lot to take a look.For a few seconds I did not know what to say or how to react. Cursing my luck I rushed downstairs to my parking lot to assess the damage.

She had managed to hit the front bumper. After taking a closer look I could not find any dents.Less damage, less issues for both of us. There were minor scratches in the paint protection film at a few places and even this time the PPF did its job perfectly to safeguard the paint.




There was scratch in the PPF installed in the head light as well. Luckily the headlight did not break.



As my car escaped with few minor scratches in the ppf , her car ended up with a broken and dislocated bumper. I had to push the dislocated bumper to its proper position as it had come out of the clip hold it.



My neighbour had not come out of the shock and she was so frightened thinking about how I was going to react. Because she used to see me taking care of my car and she knows how much it means to me.I then helped her with parking her car and told her that there is nothing to worry as there is no major damage and a PPF reinstallation in the bumper is what's needed to fix it.

It had been couple of days since she had bought the car and came to know that she is going for driving classes. One can easily argue that she should have been careful or may be she should not have taken the car out without somebody with her because its a parking space and there will be lots of cars. But like I said, an accident can happen anytime anywhere if it is bound to happen, no matter how careful you are or how good you are when it comes to driving.

I really appreciate her for her good gesture that she rang me up when it happened and told me that "Hey , this happened . Apologies and I am ready to compensate for the damage."Under similar situations, accepting the mistake , an apology and the willingness to compensate for the damage caused to the other person should end anything then and there.This is applicable for the person who had caused the damage and the victim as well.Most of the time , it's the negative attitude of the both parties which makes the situation worse.Having said that keeping your calm might not help your way out in all situations. Last year when a truck hit the back of my car, if I had remained calm then it would not have ended up well for me. Below is the link where that incident is captured.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-...takeaways.html (Two accidents in my BMW 6 GT | My takeaways)

I took the car to OCD(where I had done the ppf installation for the whole car) to get an estimate of getting the PPF reinstalled in the front bumper. The same 10 year warranty product and got an estimate of 18k. I conveyed the same to my neighbour and asked her to pay OCD straight as I do not want to get in to all these cash related transactions.

In the end , it turned out to be a costly mistake for her but she has earned respect from all of us here for her good gesture which I think is what matters most at the end of the day.

Drive safe my friends.

[zandot]

Is there anything behind her that's preventing her from reversing further into the gap in front of your Bimmer? Perhaps something we can't see in the camera angle? The amount of back and forth made me think for a second the video was stuck on a loop as the repeated reversing and forward didn't seem to get any better

Sorry this happened to your GT!

[tharian]

That is quite a bit on the wallet for those scratches. Probably because the car in question is a BMW.

On a similar situation, I came across this post soon after I read yours;
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...ml#post3993632 (Unusual / funny / heartwarming experiences on the road) Post 434
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...s-road-78.html (Unusual / funny / heartwarming experiences on the road) Post 1161

[AutoNoob]

Originally Posted by zandot

Is there anything behind her that's preventing her from reversing further into the gap in front of your Bimmer? Perhaps something we can't see in the camera angle? The amount of back and forth made me think for a second the video was stuck on a loop as the repeated reversing and forward didn't seem to get any better

As mentioned by OP, she's a new driver and the way she operated her car she's still learning the way vehicle steers while reversing. My sympathy and best wishes are with her. Hope she turns out to be a confident and safe driver in future.

t had been couple of days since she had bought the car and came to know that she is going for driving classes.

On personal note: Once I hit (scraped) bumper of a parked car as I failed to judge the front overhang of my new vehicle. This happened when I had close to 15 years of driving experience. Paid the owner for my mistake.

[speed79]

Originally Posted by zandot

Is there anything behind her that's preventing her from reversing further into the gap in front of your Bimmer? Perhaps something we can't see in the camera angle? The amount of back and forth made me think for a second the video was stuck on a loop as the repeated reversing and forward didn't seem to get any better

It is just lack of parking skills that many people suffer from. Such people do not understand that they need to turn the steering wheel in opposite direction in each back and forth.

[Rachet]

Originally Posted by zandot

Is there anything behind her that's preventing her from reversing further into the gap in front of your Bimmer? Perhaps something we can't see in the camera angle? The amount of back and forth made me think for a second the video was stuck on a loop as the repeated reversing and forward didn't seem to get any better

Sorry this happened to your GT!

She is still learning and they are yet to teach her how to turn the car properly. It happens during the very early stages of learning how to drive.

Originally Posted by tharian

That is quite a bit on the wallet for those scratches. Probably because the car in question is a BMW.

On a similar situation, I came across this post soon after I read yours;
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...ml#post3993632 (Unusual / funny / heartwarming experiences on the road) Post 434
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...s-road-78.html (Unusual / funny / heartwarming experiences on the road) Post 1161

Yeah, the PPF installed is costly and we are talking about doing it again on the whole bumper of a big car here :( .

[d.w.w.]

She lost some money, but she will end up being a better driver because of the way the whole incident was handled. If the situation was handled bad, next time she takes the car out or when some other vehicle pulls close to her, she will be scared and eventually would give up driving. Most women are scared to drive because of the way they were teased/commented when they got into tricky situations while learning to drive.

[Rachet]

Originally Posted by d.w.w.

She lost some money, but she will end up being a better driver because of the way the whole incident was handled. If the situation was handled bad, next time she takes the car out or when some other vehicle pulls close to her, she will be scared and eventually would give up driving. Most women are scared to drive because of the way they were teased/commented when they got into tricky situations while learning to drive.

Can't agree more. She even wanted to park somewhere else away from my car. But I insisted her that she should not do that and get comfortable with her parking itself. And again we made her take her car out from the parking by herself guiding her how to do it so that she learns. Small help that we can do which will help everybody.

[shancz]

This is an example where installing a PPF has actually saved costs.
Thank you for sharing the experience and also kudos to your neighbour for owning up to her mistake, this is how it should be done.

Hope she gets a better driving instructor soon.

[balenoed_]

But isn’t your protruding in the front beyond the yellow line. The other cars parked there seems to be not. Was there no enough space at the rear for you to fit in the car? If so, May be the car that hit you would have sneaked out without hitting, by chance.

[PrasadS]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

But isn’t your protruding in the front beyond the yellow line. The other cars parked there seems to be not. Was there no enough space at the rear for you to fit in the car? If so, May be the car that hit you would have sneaked out without hitting, by chance.

I was of the same opinion. The parking space and yellow lines seem insufficient to hold long vehicles. Most of the cars in that lane seemed sub 4 meter. I think op has parked the car properly but space is insufficient to hold the car.

I would be paranoid to park my car at that spot, regardless of length, as it seems the parking is right in front of a turn and there seems to be a blind spot while turning right (the direction the neighbours car was turning to). Kids on cycles are scratch machines for cars parked on turns. I stay in a locality with 32 buildings so i know.
The spot where the neighbours car was parked on the video seems nice and out of harms way.

[Rachet]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

But isn’t your protruding in the front beyond the yellow line. The other cars parked there seems to be not. Was there no enough space at the rear for you to fit in the car? If so, May be the car that hit you would have sneaked out without hitting, by chance.

That's the max my car can go to the back. And all parkings here in the apartment are small and are not of standard size. These builders Sigh!!! we have had enough fight with them on the parking spaces. That's a different topic altogether.
Anyway there is enough space around the corner where even other big cars turns. You could see in the video that after the incident I was able to make the turn properly when I parked her car. We have multiple XUV700s , Safari, Innovas, carnival and other sedans which makes the turn with ease. All cars have to go that way to get out and get in.

[lapis_lazuli]

Originally Posted by Rachet

accepting the mistake , an apology and the willingness to compensate for the damage caused to the other person should end anything then and there.

Very nice outcome!

If she had been extremely polite, accepting of the mistake, apologetic as well, but requested you to claim insurance, would you still be equally happy? I am just curious. Because, at the end, the insurance is for these type of incidents even if we like to not claim it, for reasons of NCB, resale etc.

[Rachet]

Originally Posted by lapis_lazuli

Very nice outcome!

If she had been equally polite, accepting of the mistake, apologetic as well, but requested you to claim insurance, would you be equally happy? I am just curious. Because, at the end, the insurance is for these type of incidents even if we like to not claim it, for reasons of NCB, resale etc.

First thing, since this is a PPF damage, I cannot claim insurance. If there was other damages then I would have make her understand about the NCB and how much I will be loosing out on claiming the insurance. Like I said, it is all about the willingness to compensate for the damage caused for the other person.

[sumeethaldankar]

18k is a bit too steep for the lady to pay don't you think considering she is a humble Maruti owner. I would have helped her out a bit by asking to pay say half the amount after all she did owe up her mistake. I am not saying she should not pay at all and that you should bear all the cost all yourself but in the end we are all humans and we tend to make mistakes.