A child biking home from school has just scratched my car!!!

[onyabikeivy]

So we live a 10 minute walk from a secondary school. At about ten past 3 I was coming up to the junction at the top of my cul de sac and as I looked left I saw a girl on her bike on the path but she had her feet down like she was stopping but kept moving along clearly hadn't seen me and when she did she tried to stop but was too late and hit my car and dragged her handle bars along the passenger door of my car causing a dent then she picked her bike off my car and started to bike away, I called out to her that she has scratched my car (I've rubbed the scratch out so now just a long dent) and she said sorry and biked away.
So aibu to contact the school and ask them to address road safety with the kids?? It's a new school So only has a couple of year groups but travelling along the road I was heading on to always means you have to avoid kids walking in the road. Also would it be crazy to suggest they mention this incident in the hope someone would come forward and take responsibility??

Thanks fair I couldn't have let her across as she was too far back for me to see before I got to the junction. my main concern is this being the start of more incidents there are only 2 year groups at the school so far so there will be more pupils every year making things more dangerous.... plus I'm hoping there will be a tiny chance if the school mention the incident she will come forward.. Facebook might be a good way to go

Got to love the instant MN victim blaming!

OP, yes go to the school and ask them to have a road safety talk and also maybe check the condition of the bikes they are using. Years ago we used to have someone who would come and check the bikes and woe betide if the brakes were worn!

I once cycled home from school with a terrible migraine and managed to ride into the back of a parked cay, doing £120 of damage... and this was over fifty years ago so a LOT of money. Luckily my Dad, Mr Cautious himself, had insured me for such stupidity.

It's not a bad idea to inform the school at all. I find in secondary school, there aren't enough- if any- cycling safety workshops. My kids have had several in primary school. But this is something that has to be refreshed. And there are more secondary school students on bikes than primary school kids. They need safety refreshment in secondary school more than ever! DC1 never road his bike to primary school. But has done so throughout secondary and believe me, I've cycled with him and have seen firsthand how undisciplined his cycling is!

I'm confused - if there was a hedge she was presumably approaching at a 45 degree angle to your car? So how did her handlebars scratch all along the side of your door? Surely it would have been a head-on collision?

can't they have got several large bike sheds all over the campus so they're clearly trying to encourage the use of bikes. Hopefully I can pass on to them what happened and get them to do something that might make a difference

I was at a junction waiting to pull out, a cyclist crossed my path, lad wobbled, sat on my bonnet, regained his balance and drove off!! Not a sorry or kiss my arse or owt!! A scratch would have given me the bloody rage!!

I did contact a local secondary school about road safety. There is a bus stop beyond a very busy junction and just before another one, opposite the school. I came up to it in the right hand lane at school finish time, lots of children from the school at the bus stop, and saw some younger ones mucking about resulting in about 5 of them being pushed off the kerb and into the path of traffic in the left lane. Luckily a big van driver d managed to stop ( with some ripe language ).

The children were about the same age as my DDs at the time and there had been a nasty accident there, with a year 7 crossing the road obliviously and being killed , so I decided to email the school to suggest a specific safety reminder for that bus stop - even if they did consider me a an interfering bat. I got a very pleasant reply and assurance that it had been done.

Schools probably hate me but anytime I see kids behaving badly in uniform eg. not giving up seats on buses to elderly people I email them.

The kids behaviour reflects badly on the school. I would definitely email about something like this.

I also emailed when I see kids do really lovely things - most often the kids from the local academy school many of whom are really considerate of smaller children in the morning school run.

One of my local schools (high performing private school) saw my signature block and roped me in to a careers evening which i thought was enterprising!

I need a diagram.

Got to love the instant MN victim blaming!

It's not really victim blaming in this case is it. It wasn't clear that the OP was stationary for a start, and even if technically the kid was completely in the wrong, it's still a kid.

adaline hold on I'll do a diagram

I would email them to raise it. They'll want to keep their kids safe out on the toad!

I can't draw and have probably added to the confusion. She dragged her handle bars down my door as she hit me and turned I think

I can't believe people are making out this is the ops fault!

Pull up slowly to a junction and stop...then someone continues to ride their bike a long the pavement until they pull onto the road without looking and hence stack it into the side of the car!

But somehow this is the driver's fault? bonkers.

I mean no matter how much you might want to give way to pedestrians or even people on bikes on the pavement, there is nothing you can do when they walk/ride blindly into the side of your car while you are stationary at a junction!

YANBU OP.

Ah okay, that makes more sense! Thank you!

Definitely not your fault - she wasn't paying attention.

Thanks M3lon was starting to doubt myself there!!

School do need to know. It is school business because the child is in school uniform travelling back from school.

My LO fell off her bike and scratched a car and the little bigger cost me £240!

adaline glad it helped, I was expecting to come back to everyone saying it's clearly my fault after seeing the diagram

I think informing the school is a pretty proportionate response

Redhanger I'm hoping it's not that much to fix my car. I imagine that if I'd got her details and approached her parents they'd say get lost anyway..

You don't know that the parents would tell you to get lost, I'd offer to pay if it were my child. Much as you deserve to have the costs paid, I wouldn't be doing to for your benefit, I'd be doing it so that my child could see the damage they'd done, learn that the right thing to do is to take responsibility for your mistakes, and I'd make them pay towards in in the hope that they'd be more careful in the future so that they're less likely to be injured.

Definitely do whatever you can to trace the parents, I'd want to know if it were my kid.

Nails you're right ... plus I can't imagine it will cost hundreds to fix. I think I'll get a post on my local Facebook as pp suggested and hope they come forward

I know it seems extreme but you do need to call the non emergency number to just log that your car had been involved in a accident with a person within 24 hours.

My sister had to do so when a child ran into the side of her car despite her car moving 5mph all the police did was take the date time and location incase the parents ever reported it as a hit and run the parents never did I don't think as they knew the child was at fault.

I can see how your situation happened and you are not at fault. A non moving car cannot be at fault of someone comes into the side of you.