To go to the press?

[29herzie]

So, WIBU to take the following to the papers or does anyone have a better suggestion?

We hired a car a few weeks ago on holiday. It turned out that it had an electric parking brake (no handbrake). DH discovered that the only way to know if this button hand been pressed (and if the brake was on) was a tiny red light on the dashboard. DH is colourblind and couldn't see the light in the sun. The car then rolled off down the hill, luckily without my DCs in the back and ended up 'only' demolishing a fence. We were in the Alps and so could have been much worse.

We are currently still waiting on the outcome of the dispute with the car hire company about this, but I also contacted the car manufacturer. I believe there is a design flaw that they need to address. They have just come back to me to say that it's nothing to do with them and we need to make our needs known to a hire company in future. I am not happy with this and feel that they should be thinking about making sure their cars are safe to drive, DH can't be the only driver who is red/green colourblind?

What do you think?

[OfaFrenchmind2]

Sad face for the DM!!

[Wombatinabathhat]

The light comes on when the hand brake is applied, so surely if he couldn't see the light then he knew the hand brake wasn't applied?
Why would he walk away from the car knowing or believing the brake wasn't on? Colour blindness does not seem to apply

[limitedperiodonly]

Presumably there would be nothing newsworthy if the journalist could not find others with the same issue?

In this case, no. But there might be other people. You don't know until you look and everything has to start somewhere. That's the job of a particular type of journalist.

The worst the OP is going to get is: 'Sorry, that's not for us.' But she might get someone saying: 'Funny you should mention it because someone called a while ago about that...'

I'm baffled by people scoffing and saying sarcastically: 'Hold the front page'. That's just nasty and naive.

[sofato5miles]

His mistake. His fault.

[LurkingHusband]

With the leaving in gear thing, does that do no damage?

As long as the car is stopped, the engine off, and clutch fully depressed. no.

Don't try this at home if you never check the gear and depress the clutch when starting the car (as you were taught) - it can be dangerous.

[Theoretician]

The car sounds shit. It sounds like it has an electronic parking brake, but not an automatic parking brake, which is a separate feature. On a car that has both, like mine, it is close to impossible to leave the handbrake off. I almost never actually think about the handbrake, I let the car decide if it should be off or on. (The exception is if I can't be arsed to put my seatbelt on, the automatic parking brake knows whether or not your seatbelt is on and behaves differently depending. When putting the car into the garage without fastening my seatbelt, I have to operate the parking brake manually.)

[Theoretician]

Before I fully worked out how my parking brake worked, I was involved in a comical situation where I had to enter a car park through a barrier that I raised by getting out of the car and typing in a pin. Five times in a row, after typing in the pin, I got back into the car but was unable to get it to progress forward before the barrier started coming down again. I didn't realise that not fastening my seat belt before trying to move forward meant the automatic parking brake was disabled, so I had to manually turn the parking brake off. The parking brake that I didn't know was on, because I hadn't put it on, the car had, when I had first pulled up, while still wearing the seat belt.

[Theoretician]

And part of the reason I didn't put fasten my seatbelt was because I was in a hurry to get through the barrier before it came down...

[limitedperiodonly]

See, I'm kind of interested in what Theoretician said about the car park. Sounds like a design fault to me...

[29herzie]

I'm not sure why I am continuing to try an explain things seeing As so many posters seem to think they can comment without bothering to read the thread or those who feel free to assume all sorts. But I will repeat the following.

There is no liability issue. The vehicle was not parked on the public road and no damage was done to it so no we are not trying to get out of paying an excess. In fact the car rolled off and and got stuck in a snow drift causing minor damage to the neighbors fence which DH mended. That is all.

Our issue with the car hire company is only about their crap customer services when we tried to exchange it for something more suitable. Also I think they need to know about a potential problem which might make certain models a safety risk for approx 1 in 12 male drivers.

DH only left the car long enough to come and grab me to help him. ( was in the house changing a nappy... ) was he supposed to sit on the drive and wait for me to come and find him ( after 3 hours of enjoying some peace and quiet...)

we both looked at the manual of course but it was not clear (I hope all the posters on this thread who suggested this are competent in every language they might face on a holiday rental. In this case French and German manuals were provided. I have degree level German but still did not help with this issue)

DH certainly did try shielding the display to try and see if he could make it out. He certainly believed that he had put the handbrake on or he wouldn't have left the car would he.

So perhaps all of this is just a whole shoal of red herrings ( was just trying to explain the context)

What I meant was

Should I maybe contact some consumer journalist/motoring correspondent and see if they are interested, in the hope that some publicity might persuade the manufacturer to look into their safety indicators?(Didn't realise how many mumsnetters just read the sensationalist pages of the daily fail). Wanted to make sure that if there is a problem for other people, on this very new model, it gets addressed. All it need is an audible click or even a brighter light. But would have liked a better response from the car company than I have received on here.

So shoot me.

[Wombatinabathhat]

I have read the thread 29 What I don't understand is - if DH couldn't see the light, then he must have known or assumed the hand brake was NOT on

[limitedperiodonly]

Is anyone seriously suggesting that when they pick up a hire car on holiday, maybe quite late at night, they set aside an hour to read the manual before turning the ignition?

I realise this question is a hostage to fortune...

[Theoretician]

The car park issue was just me not understanding a new car with lots of technology. Having said that, there is actually (arguably) a design flaw that I've read about on-line: the automatic parking brake will usually automatically hold you on a hill, but if you start the car while facing downhill and put it in reverse, it doesn't. (People whose driveways run downhill have found themselves unexpectedly rolling forwards down the drive when they don't press the accelerator quickly enough after engaging reverse to exit the drive.)

[limitedperiodonly]

What I said about a design fault is that if averagely intelligent people cannot get to grips with it without reading the manual or having a tutorial, then it's a problem. Mostly it's annoying, but it could be dangerous. Millions of us drive cars.

It's like when you are having a problem with your computer at work that is stopping you being able to do your job.

You call IT and sometimes get someone who sorts out your problem but makes it plain they think you are an idiot.

I am sometimes temporarily hampered in my job because I don't work in IT and have to call for assistance. The thing is, those people in IT can't do my job either and yet I am the idiot for not being able to negotiate their over-complicated technology or more accurately the rules the company puts in place which luckily keeps most of the IT dept in a job.

So far I've not pointed this out. But one day...

[WhirlyTwos]

Merely a reference to the insignificant nature of the subject in hand, not a personal slight Ourblanche

OP it's not necessary to read everyone's posts in order to understand yours, or the issue. But really, there are too many obvious reasons as to how this could have been avoided to make a successful claim against the hire company or car manufacturer viable. It really has nothing to do with colourblindness.

Which is why it would be completely unnewsworthy.

[29herzie]

Who said anything about making a claim. I just want them to look at it. How has this got nothing to do with colour blindness. I could see the light only as a colour in the sun. DH couldn't see it at all. red on grey is invisible to him. I don't think you understand how being colour blind works. Like I didn't until I tried to choose curtains with DH.

Would you dismiss another SEN as the users stupidity so easily?

[WhirlyTwos]

It has nothing to do with colourblindness since in each of your posts you refer to the sun as being the problem. The sun glare could have been mitigated by your DH being more careful in his observations. So it's not a great idea trying to make it a SEN issue.

Granted re: "making a claim", my mistake, simply that most people are trying to do such when they are seeking to portray an incident as the fault of manufacturer, service provider etc. However, if you're not making a claim, it's even less likely the manufacturer will be in any way interested.

[AnyFucker]

I love my electric handbrake and hold assist < misses point >

[randomsabreuse]

I've got friend with severe colourblindness. He described that lots of colours he sees as textures rather than colours and can recognise "red" from context. We share a hobby where red and green coloured lights are pretty important and he's fine because he developed effective strategies.

I can see how an unfamiliar car dash would be a massive issue but having had manual hand brakes fail I definitely don't trust the electronic ones! Have also seen a stranger's car wander off in snow and ice as the tyres just lost grip while parked!

[specialsubject]

whoever - yes, before you start up a strange car you do need to familiarise yourself with important controls such as the handbrake. This is why car hire straight off the plane, jet lagged and tired is risky.

[29herzie]

Whirly. a normally sighted person could see it in sunlight. I could. He could see it in the dark /shade. But he was seeing the illumination not the colour. How can you possibly observe more carefully if it is a colour you cannot see?

So it's fine that they make all their new cars with this feature? Mistakes can happen in car design (I have a good friend who works for VW, who has told me some corkers - albeit not safety related) surely all cars should have their fundamental safety features accessible to as many people as possible?

[TeaStory]

If the sun was causing the problem, why didn't he just shade the little light from the sun?

[etsiketsi]

I've driven a lot of cars with this type of handbrake and I'm struggling to think of a single one that doesn't have a light indicator on the dash panel in front of the steering wheel/driver. You know the bit of every car I can think of that's specifically designed to be inset so no sun glare gets in so you can see your speed/fuel/hazard warnings/important stuff.

[AdjustableWench]

It's unfortunate that the car rolled down the hill, but like many previous posters I really doubt that any journalist will think it's newsworthy. Frankly, if no one is injured or facing penury it's not really news.

On the other hand, there's clearly an important lesson for your DH to learn here: if there's any possibility of doubt, test the parking brake until he's absolutely sure it's on, or leave the car in gear. The car is perfectly safe to drive as long as the driver takes responsibility for it!

[CatchAPlaneToBarcelona]

We hired a car with this feature in France once. We had to park in a marked parking space that faced at an angle out into a busy street and it was also on a sharp slope.

I can't remember exactly what happened now but I remember my DH going Whoah!! WTF?! As when he released the park break he found there was no automatic clutch control and nothing at all to stop us rolling backwards into the road before he could actually control the cars movement through the automatic transmission. I'm not describing it very well I know but he said it was a loophole in the design that meant that when parked on a slope the driver had no way of controlling the car for a moment. Luckily nothing wAs coming behind us.