car written off :o(

[arthur.daley]

Hi All

Had my car written off by a rising car park barrier - bugger.

Arthur No Wheels Daley

[ArferMo]

what one of those pillars that come out of the ground ?

Your fault or theirs ?

[arthur.daley]

what one of those pillars that come out of the ground ?

Your fault or theirs ?

Now theres the $64,000,000 question.

I say its theirs.

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they have stone monoliths like this around the site indicating where car parks are and also on the entrances to car parks. So the one above is at the front of a building that I was making a delivery to. It clearly directs me to the rear of the building.
At the rear of the building you are greeted with this scene.

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and a close up of the top of the monolith

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If you came across this scene - with the barrier down, would you think it was the entrance to the car park and the deliveries area?

If you said "Yes", then you would be wrong! This is in fact the car park exit! The entrance (also with a rising barrier) is another 50 yards down the road and has no stone monolith!

As I approached the barrier at no more than walking speed, up it came and lifted my car. The edge of the barrier lifted me by the radiator (and ripped it apart) and the car came to a very abrupt stop and slid back off of the raised barrier, damaging the front valance and bumper on the way down.

Unfortunately, whilst I thought I might get away with £500 for a new radiator and secondhand bumper, it turns out that the damage is much worse than it at first appeared. The air con is shot, radiator mountings, bent sub frame, knackered fog light, valance, bumper, grill, assorted cooling and aircon pipe work. The estimate is £1200 parts and the same again for labour and painting. There is also a note on the estimate saying that this is for the damage that can be seen and undoubtedly once the strip the car down there will be more damage, especially to things like body panel mountings and possibly the suspension.

Now at this point I am pretty sure you will think that its obvious that the university has been negligent in its use of inappropriate signage and that its negligence has caused damage to my car.

However.......


Closer examination of the scene reveals this

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if you look carefully on the right of the image, in the garden there is a small blue sign that says 'Exit Only' - the letters are 40mm high.

The university is of the opinion that this sign quite clearly identifies the barrier as being the car park exit and you might tend to agree. The incident happened in daylight when the sign can clearly be seen. Even I would be forced to admit that any one with decent eyesight ought to be able to see that sign.

However, bearing in mind that this is Cambridge, the city of the cyclist, how about this.....

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All of a sudden the sign has disappeared.

What I noticed when I took this photo was that the sensor in the tarmac on the other side of the barrier is being tripped by bikes going over it - depending on where the cyclist was coming from in the car park they tip the sensor and the barrier is lowered (although not in this case - need to go back and take some more photos). So now you have the scenario that greeted me - barrier down, exit sign obscured and a big stone monolith that says parking and deliveries.

Personally, I don't think they have a leg to stand on. I now have to present my case to their insurers who will either accept or decline my claim. If they decline my claim as being beyond the scope of the universities insurance I then have take the University to the small claims court - or at least lodge the necessary paperwork and pay the fee, they then have the option of settling before it goes to court or defending the action. Either way this could take months. In the mean time I have no car - well thats not exactly true. At the moment I have a loan car from the garage who quoted my for the repairs - which they would like back some time soon if I am not going to have my car repaired. Given my car is worth about £2.5k - that repair is never going to happen, it will be written off.

So I now need to find myself another car pronto - the dilemma is that if I buy what I can afford at the moment - ie a £750 or £800 banger to tide me over until the cheque comes through for my car, can I add the cost of the banger to my insurance claim or would they only pay out for a hire care - which could conceivably be in the order of £150 or more per week.

I hear you say - why are you not claiming on your own fully comp insurance? Well - if I put in a claim and it is not paid in full, to the last penny, my insurance premium will go through the roof next year - it could easily double and possibly triple. That hike in premium would be with me for the next five years so we are talking a huge sum of money. I have protected no claims bonus - but that doesn't stop a hike in the basic premium before the discount is applied. If I pursue the case myself, I am in a position where I could potentially negotiate a quicker settlement by agreeing a lower final figure or not claiming in full the cost of a hire (or other) car.


It never rains but it pours (


Arthur

[GoonerGary]

"We accept no responsibility for damage caused" blah blah. Car parks are lethal places for cars, drive up the multi story ramps and look at all the scraped paintwork on the walls. I reversed into a very low wooden bollard in a forest car park and wrecked the hire car's corner panel.

You are not alone:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Crash-b ... story.html

[GoonerGary]

That exit sign clearly looks like an afterthought after a cock up by the planners. I mean, there is a massive monolith welcoming you into the car park, why do they need a massive monolith sign for the exit facing the road!!! They could have erected a huge sign on the monolith saying NO ENTRY. There should also be black and yellow chevrons on the ramp in case you didn't see the camouflage grey ramp. I'd sue certainly. Get a report of similar accidents for that barrier, but that could backfire if there aren't any. Nightmare.

[ArferMo]

Isnt that blue exit sign side on as you drive in so you would not see it if you are watching where you are going. Also cant see anything about cars parked at own risk. Defo go the small claims route.

[arthur.daley]

Isnt that blue exit sign side on as you drive in so you would not see it if you are watching where you are going. Also cant see anything about cars parked at own risk. Defo go the small claims route.

you can see the small blue sign as you approach but not if you don't have xray vision to see through any pedestrians or cyclists who may be in the way.

I have just been out and photographed some of the other signage on other carparks on that site and wherever a monolith or similar type thing has been used, they are all placed at the entrance to the car park not the exit.

Interestingly one of the other car park exits had a blue sticker on the gubbins at the side of the barrier where the mechanism is which said 'no entry'

Its also interesting to note that (on this site at least) the university is actively removing these rising barriers in favour of drop down arm type barriers.

[Justin]

Just flicking through the thread so please forgive me if I repeat anything If your no claims is protected you should be able to have 3 claims with no loss of discount so this should make little or no difference to your payments surely? I did notice the Exit Only sign but completely agree that it is not clear enough and would agree that that was the entrance. Does your policy not allow for a courtesy car?

My wife had 9+years no claims, we let this lapse and had to start from zero again, it's amazing just how small a maximum no claims discount really is. Her policy went up about £20 for the first year starting at zero.

Are you sure they'll write it off?

[JMugs]

I would use the insurance. They like a good easy win, as they throw in their cost as well. Plus why have fully comp protected insurance if you aren't going to use it when you need it?

Janners

[arthur.daley]

The big issue with putting in a claim is that little blue sign. If I make a claim, that claim must be paid in full, every last penny - damage to car, car hire, storage fees for my car, my excess yada yada. If I am forced to make a compromise on the claim ie they say they will only pay a percentage of the claim because there is a sign which clearly indicates that the barrier is an exit, that means that my claim has not been paid in full by the universitys insurer. I have 80% protected noclaims discount. This means I get an 80% discount off of the insurance premium. This year the total premium was over a thousand quid and the NCD took it down to less than 300 quid. Having made a claim that was not fully met by the otherside my premium would then be loaded - I would be viewed as a higher risk. The problem is that the loading colud double or triple my premium. I would still get my NCD but it would be 80% off 2000 or 3000 quid instead of 1000 quid. Plus this would not be just for this year, it could potentially stick with me for the next 5 years.

Go to another insurer who takes a more sensible view of the situation I hear you cry. Not quite that simple. I am limited to who I can get insurance from as I happen to also be a licenced broker, dealer and carrier of waste - a scrapman and most companies won't touch me with a barge pole.

The other reason for not going via my insurer is that they will take months to sort this out and make a payment. I spoke to the universitys insurer yesterday afternoon and they have said that they should make a devision on the case within 5 days of receipt of my claim and photos.


Arthur