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??

Put a post on Facebook and you may find her nastiest relative comes forward to deal with you...

Contact school . 10 minutes away is a bit far for the school staff to be supervising but they may be able to remind the children about bike safety, riding on the road, making sure their brakes work properly.

If the junction is the issue, contact the council. They can get the hedge cut back if it makes the junction dangerous by blocking the view.

The next child might be hit by the car rather than hitting the car.

I wouldn't expect her to pay. Pedestrians and child cyclists are not really responsible for the safety of cars on the roads. I would either use my insurance, leave the dent or get it fixed myself.

Hi OP

I lived in a very similar set up and I would contact the school, I have had kids run out infront of me, because its a not a main road and you literally just start off, so are never going really fast but it takes just a split second of not doing something right, which could end up in a death

I am in the US.That kid's family would be in looking for the $$$ compo by now- I would be just relieved the kid did not get hurt. I must have become yankified to think like this....

Sobeyondthehills this girl must have been one of the first out of school, if i come to the top of the road a couple of minutes after they just stream across, don't seem to care about how they go round the car when you're waiting at the junction. I've given up walking anywhere that's in the ideation of the school at that time as the pavement is impossible

*direction

Just a thought - if you couldn't see her because of the hedge, then at what point would you have become visible to her from behind the hedge?

It may be worth contacting the highways department at your local council to see if they could lower the height of the hedge. If it's blocking views of pedestrians, it sounds very dangerous.

YANBU to tell the school and ask them to address road safety.
I am not sure I would bother pursuing or following up the scratch issue even if you find out the identity of the child. IME every car I have had has ended up with minor dents and scratches from car parks - presumably from doors being opened carelessly. It's annoying but not worth stressing over.

If she was cycling on the pavement she was in wrong full stop even before she got to you.

Seeline I'm wondering if I should try the council and see if they are in a position to look at the hedge it literally follows the inside line of the pavement and is probably 8ft... never found it to block my view coming out of the junction before but it does stop anyone on the pavement seeing down the cul de sac ...
Coronapop you're right, having slept on it I don't believe it would cost much to get the dent out and it's no different to coming out of a supermarket and finding someone has caught my car with a trolley... annoying but there's worse things that could happen
Imoen this is what I'm hoping the school could address they seem to walk 2 deep in the road and the kids on bike stay on the path

A school local to my Mum had a scheme where children could only cycle to school if they registered at the school. They were then issued with a registration plate to be fixed to their bikes. The local community were informed that if they saw anyone cycling irresponsibly, they should report hte incident to the school along with the registration number on the bike. There was outcry at the time, and I don't know if it continued but it seemed a got idea to me. Might be worth suggesting a similar scheme to the school OP?

Does the hedge belong to a private house? It might be worth sending them a letter to let them know what happened and that you're concerned that the hedge causes some visibility issues for the kids on the pavement. You can't really ask them to do anything about it, but if someone said our plants were causing a risk for kids on bikes then I'd chop them back, you never know but it might help.

Apart from that I'd let the school know. Are people mean enough to make kids pay for tiny accidental car dents? I don't remember that being a thing when we were kids, I only remember when one of the boys over the road hit the neighbour's van and he dusted them off without getting grumpy about it. I'd offer to pay if it was my child, but I suppose her parents don't know.

MRex I often see the homeowner so will let them know. No, it was an accident and you wouldn't expect the child to have the presence of mind to hand over their parents details unless asked for them, I imagine she was shaken. If it was my child and I was out with them and it happened somehow I'd of course offer to pay but it's hard to know what I'd think if they tracked me down after the event, I'd be skeptical. I've emailed the school this morning.

Some of you are assuming that the girl's parent/s have the ability to pay for damages caused. Just because you could afford it doesn't mean that they could.

If she was cycling on the pavement she was in wrong full stop even before she got to you

Does the girl honestly sound as if she's competent to cycle on the road yet? Full stop?

How did she hit you exactly if she was on the pavement and you were on the road? Can’t understand how she would have got close enough to you without falling over unless the pavement is the same level as the road?

Honestly. My mind is boggled.

Whole thread unanimously agreed that the child was at fault, and the OP is cross that the girl didn't look properly, and people are saying the child should have been on the road?

Not until she's been on a bikeability course, she shouldn't!

it sounds like she has trouble keeping balance while turning/braking with both hands on the handlebars, and you think she's going to be able to signal properly on the roads? That requires controlling a bike one-handed, folks.

If she goes on the roads, she'll be another child death on the way back from school. Brilliant.

Well done, mums net..

UserX she just kept moving off the stopped kerb and into the side of my car

I've emailed the school and they are going to send an email out to all parents asking them to have a chat about road safety.

*dropped kerb

Sobeyondthehills this girl must have been one of the first out of school, if i come to the top of the road a couple of minutes after they just stream across, don't seem to care about how they go round the car when you're waiting at the junction. I've given up walking anywhere that's in the ideation of the school at that time as the pavement is impossible

We had the same, the main difference was that our pavement has a bike lane, which ended at my road (its a wee bit difficult to explain) but from the bike lane you then have to go on the road, the kids don't and just shoot across the road, on bikes, scooters or walking. Normally without looking. I stopped driving at school drop off and pick up time when it was possible.

Although I am now the parent with the child on a scooter and have had to drum it into him about roads, especially this one (we still pass it)

Sobeyondthehills it's a pain isn't it?? I pick my daughter up from preschool 3 days a week and it's close to the secondary school, the only reason Ive been driving is I've got a 2 1/2 year old who won't go in his pushchair anymore, not very good on his scooter and won't ride his balance bike for long enough, if we do walk we struggle along the path as the floods of students are coming the opposite way , they don't seem to want to not walk next to their friends so they can let us pass or they ride scooters and bikes at you because again they're not looking. Plus I started potty training him over half term so want to be out and back as quick as I can. But I think in future I'll just suck it up walk, only a few more weeks and dd finishes preschool and ds is not going to the same one

"Pedestrians and child cyclists are not really responsible for the safety of cars on the roads."

They are legally responsible in Germany, if at fault
which seems fair to me.
Parents responsible for their DC, of course.

When I worked in Germany some years ago, a cyclist aged about 9 years old badly scratched my parked car (parked properly in a regular space)

His parents had the standard liability insurance that almost all German households have and this covered my repairs in full, which were about €700

The parents took full responsibility, no argument about it

• it seems the standard social attitude there is that parents are responsible financially if their kids cause damage to anything, including accidentally, not just to cars.

So my insurance was not affected

If she can't avoid a stationary object, she's not safe on the road yet.

As you say, it's up to her parents, but circumstantial evidence suggests they think the same as me, as she wasn't on the road.

By the way, I'm one of those people everyone likes to hate: a non-driver. Yep, I only walk and cycle. I walk far more than I cycle, and easily achieve my 10,000 steps a day, just walking on pavements, and I say I'd rather see her on the pavement. I get very annoyed by adult commuter cyclists on the pavement, but not the wobbly under-13s.

As a cyclist, it terrifies me seeing the 10-13 year old age group on the roads. I see them trying to be all adult on the roads like big boys and girls when they can't hold a straight line yet, have no idea when they do and don't have right of way, and have sod-all idea what to do with a roundabout.

If you wouldn't merrily wave your 12 year old off in a fully MOT'd Volvo with airbags and fully-functioning seat belt, don't send them out on to the public roads without checking they can actually cycle safely.

Recently I've seen a kid cycling on the road with MP3-player earbuds in, and two kids cycling on the wrong side of the road. I had to brake hard to avoid them, and I just thank the lord that it was me on a bike who encountered them and not a car whizzing round the corner at speed.