Car park crash. Would you leave a note?
You’ve wheeled your packed shopping trolley out to the car park and loaded all your goodies into the car. You deal with the impossibly narrow parking space by gymnastically squeezing into the driver’s seat.
Seatbelt on. Engine on. Reverse engaged. With an eye on the rear-view camera screen, and the occasional look over your shoulder, you begin reversing. Fully focused on avoiding the vehicles behind, you suddenly realise you’re leaving a neat scratch along the side of the adjacent vehicle.
There’s no-one around. What do you do?
The next steps
Whether it’s a bingle on the Southern Expressway or a minor scrape in a shopping centre car park, a driver must stop at the scene of a crash and provide relevant information to any other party involved.
This includes the name and address of the driver and owner of the car, the registration number, and any other information necessary to identify the vehicle.
If you’ve bumped into a parked car and can’t locate the driver, leave a note containing all the relevant details in a secure place on their vehicle. Take a photo of the note and the damage caused.
If you’re unable to provide relevant details to the other party, you must notify the police about the crash. So, it may be worth contacting the police just in case the note disappears before the other driver finds it.
You must also advise the police if anyone – including occupants of your vehicle – are injured or the estimated damage is more than $3000.
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Insurance
Comprehensive insurance policies generally cover a vehicle damaged in a car park. However, if you’re the driver who caused damage to another vehicle, an excess may be payable – which is probably why some people don’t leave a note.
If you have a comprehensive insurance policy, an excess may be payable if it’s your car that’s been damaged and the other driver’s left the scene without providing identifying information.
Your conscience
Finding your pride and joy damaged in the car park is frustrating. It’s not just the cost involved but also the inconvenience of having to organise repairs. And if the person who caused the damage doesn’t leave a note, it certainly doesn’t improve your faith in human nature.
If you feel this way, it’s likely everybody else does too.