Shoppers and workers whose parked vehicles have been damaged by motorists who then flee without taking responsibility are right to express their despair and disgust.
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It is an all too frequent occurence in shopping centre and other car parks.
And the victims are left with the repair bills. If insured, they face a cash outlay because of the excess amount in their policy.
Then there is damage caused by people careless with shopping trolleys, which if heavily loaded can cause a fair-sized dent, or thoughtless vandals “keying” the sides of cars.
A shopping trip, doctor’s visit or parking for work could end up being a fairly expensive outing.
NRMA Insurance says it deals with nearly 20,000 claims for car park incidents a year. Typical collisions involve hitting other cars, runaway shopping trolleys and cars scraping pylons and poles. It says 46 per cent of incidents happen while vehicles are reversing. Those are figures from just one insurer!
Last week a Dubbo couple took to the media and Facebook to express their frustration over $3500-$4000 in damage to their vehicle while it was in a shopping centre car park for just 30 minutes.
The perpetrator did not leave a note or details. He or she just took off.
The angry couple offered a $500 reward to anyone with accurate information on who damaged their car.
Community condemnation of such “smash-and-run” incidents was swift. Certainly accidents happen, but it would be simple common decency for an errant driver to own up and pay for the damage. In most cases, they would be covered by insurance anyway.
They certainly would not like to be on the receiving end – and it could happen to them the next time they venture out. They may well deserve it.
Car parks are crowded places with a high turnover of vehicles and almost impossible to police.
Some residents have suggested parking spaces need to be wider given the volume of larger passenger vehicles on Dubbo roads. Others suggest greater use of CCTV cameras.
Given a “parking police force” is unlikely, car park operators could consider bigger spaces rather than the sardine packing effect. There may be costs, but it would be customer service. Errant drivers should take responsibility or, if observed, be dobbed in.