I Only Hit it a Little Bit
I Only Hit it a Little Bit
Cars are bigger, parking spaces are smaller, cars are closer together, which just means we should be more attentive when pulling in and out of parking spaces and opening and closing car doors. But it’s simply amazing how many people just don’t give a damn when they hit your car in a parking lot.
This latest event occurred about an hour before I wrote this rant…errr article…when I stopped at the drug store to get aspirin for a headache that is now worse. I was with my son, who happens to be learning how to drive, and we just came out of the store and were walking to my car. A compact car driven by a middle aged person swung past us, turned into the spot next to my car, hit the curb on the right side, and parked on an angle in the spot. I told my son, “Watch, their car door is going to hit my car”. We approach the car as the drive was getting out and “bam” their driver door goes directly into my passenger door.
I could blow my stack, laugh it off to stupidity, or do a combination of each. After looking at the nick it put in the paint (among all the other nicks from previous parking lot incidents), I proceeded to tell the driver my exact thoughts and opinions as to how stupid they were and where their body parts are wrongly located. The driver response was a carefree “I only hit it a little bit”. That’s not the point.
After the incident, my son asked me how I knew they were going to hit my car. Stupidity and carelessness (hitting the curb pulling in) is usually followed by stupidity and carelessness (hitting my car) was my answer.
Just a few days ago, while at the hockey rink, my son and I saw a car come into the lot, and while turning into a space, hit the rear end of a car in the next spot. The driver got out, looked at the damage, got back in the car and was pulling out when the owner of the hit car came up and stopped him. Wait, it gets better. The owner of the car that got hit was an off-duty policeman, who ended up arresting the first driver for attempting to leave the scene of an accident.
It was another lesson for my son in how important it is to be attentive not just when you are driving, but to everything you do concerning the use of a motor vehicle. Paying attention neither begins nor ends with turning the key.
For additional reading see Another Driver to Be.
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Any car that's worth buying will have a rubber strip along the side to prevent damage to your paint. You can even buy the kits to install these for about $15. YOU should have made a smarter investment.
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My car does have a door strip on the side, but with different car sizes and different door designs, not everything is preventable. I find it difficult to believe that I would be at fault for someone else's carelessness. Based on your comment, we should all be driving rubber encased cars.
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I know exactly where you're coming from, while I'm only 17 and still on my provisional licence here in Australia, I was in a car park last week in a long queue of cars as the centre was quite full.
All of a sudden, the woman in her mid-20s in the compact car in front of me switched straight into reverse and immediately came full speed into my front bumper without any warning or waiting whatsoever, to let some car in front of her out of a parking space.
She then took that empty space, so I pulled up alongside the spot and got out of my car to inspect the damage. The woman just got out of her car and hurried off clearly disinterested in being confronted.
Luckily there was no damage at all, not even a scratch, because I have a feeling if I had've confronted her about her stupidity she would accuse it of being my fault somehow due to being a provisional driver.
Some people either lack any consideration for others or are just overcome in their own stupidity.
(Provisional licences are required in the state of NSW in Australia for two and a half years before you get a full licence, you are speed limited and must have "P" plates on the front and back of the car, but you are not required to have a supervising driver.)
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You're absolutely correct about how thoughtless people are these days.
It's not only stupidity; so many people think they have some kind of entitlement. They think YOU were in THEIR way to whatever it is they think they're entitled to.
However, telling the offending driver your "exact thoughts and opinions as to how stupid they were and where their body parts are wrongly located" these days could possibly have some ugly consequences. Heck, even an Old Broad such as myself could hit you with her walker.
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