Car Park Accident

When we put our car in a car park, side road or designated parking space, we assume that it's safe but we may return to find that our parked car was hit whilst we've been away. There isn’t much we can do if the driver of the other vehicle involved didn’t leave their details but there are steps that we can take to prevent another car park accident from happening again.

Reduce the risk of a parked car being hit

• Make sure you are in the white box if you are parking in a designated space off road because if you are slightly out of the box, cars trying to pass may clip or scratch your car.
• Close the side mirror on the road side to prevent cars from smashing or clipping it.
• If parking in a car park, try to park evenly in the box.
• If possible park in an accessible space so others won’t find it hard to get in and out - there are some terrible car parks which have awkward spaces that are too tight and these should be avoided.
• Parking in a car park that has CCTV will prove useful if you do get hit as there will be hard evidence and the other driver will be caught eventually.

Many people try not to avoid parking in a car park due to the unreasonable cost but sometimes paying a little bit extra can save you money. Most car parks, whether a multi storey or a car lot will have surveillance cameras, so if there was a break into your vehicle or accident involving your vehicle, it would have been captured on CCTV or equivalent.

In the UK we have public parking and private parking - public parking is when you put your car some place which is owned by the local council and private parking is when it’s an external company which supervises or maintains the parking space. If your car was hit in a public car park, the police will investigate the case and find the guilty party for you. If your car was hit in a private car park, then the police have no obligation to investigate and the company do not have to hand over the CCTV tape to you.

If you would like to save yourself hassle and money, then stick to public parking and should your car be involved in a hit and run while being parked, then you have a better chance of catching the person who did it. If this is not possible just remember that the police do not have a legal obligation to investigate this matter for you and you will have to resolve it privately to find out who was responsible for the car park accident.