To think if you park so far across the pavement that even f**king slenderman would struggle to get past, it’s your own damn fault if your car gets scratched?

[AngeloMysterioso]

Walking into town today with DS in the pram (in the pouring rain). I was walking up a road that is in a residential area, but this particular road is part of a cut-through between two main roads into/out of the town centre and is on a bus route, so it gets a lot of traffic.

It’s a fairly narrow one-way street, on one side are parking bays painted onto the road and dickheads people will often park like dicks across the pavement on the other side if there isn’t a free space and they’re too fucking lazy to park round the corner. The other side of the road is single yellow line so parking is restricted 8-6 Mon-Sat.

Apparently this arsehole bloke didn’t think those restrictions applied to him however, and had parked right the way across the pavement, leaving a tiny gap between the car and a garden wall.

This was close to the end of the road and a lot of cars tend to turn up the road without slowing down at all, so my options were to a) squeeze past the gap between the car and the wall or b) go around the car and into the path of oncoming traffic on a rainy day. It’s uphill too, and between DS, the pram, and my 23 week pregnant baby bump I was already fairly out of puff so wasn’t moving particularly quickly.

So I chose option a. Unfortunately, because it was such a tight squeeze the pram came into contact with the side of the car and left a bit of a graze. I didn’t really give a shit to be honest, so I just carried on walking.

What I didn’t realise was that the arsehole driver of said vehicle was sitting in the driving seat on his phone. When he realised what had happened he got out of his car and came running after me, yelling that I’d damaged his car and demanding I give him my details. I refused, pointing out that he was parked illegally, the pavement is for pedestrians and my and my son’s right to not get hit by cars overrides his right to not have to park somewhere thats a bit inconvenient for him.

He followed me a short distance and then went back to his car, saying he’d be contacting the police.

WIBU?

Once again, OP didn't deliberately damage this car. Just because she is not showing sufficient remorse for some people’s liking, still doesn’t mean it was deliberate. How much damage can a buggy pushed uphill by a tired pregnant lady do, if she still managed to get past. Certainly not like the damage a motorised vehicle can do. OP, you are probably right about some T-cut and elbow grease sorting it out!

Come on, she obviously did do it on purpose. You can't scrape a car without knowing you're doing it.

And she was right to.

I would've done the same OP. I get this too and it really pisses me off. We live on a really busy B road and idiots park on the pavement all the time rather than on the road. I came back from soft play on Friday with my 3 year old and his baby sister in the pram to a van parked completely on the pavement. No way to get past it so had no choice but take the kids into the road and go round. Took a photo and reported it to the police.

@ChainJane

You're wrong to knowingly cause damage to another person's property regardless of whether they are a dick or not.

You should have just gone round, there's a good chance it would have been fine because usually motorists are paying enough attention not to hit a woman with a pram.

What if the OP was blind?
Then it would be unwise to be using a pram as a makeshift cane, and if the gap was wide enough to squeeze a pram through a blind person would also be able to squeeze through (probably with less damage to the parked car.

Oh yes, of course the OP should have just gone onto the the road because usually motorists are paying enough attention not to hit a woman with a pram. Do people not realise how completely uncaring they are to spout this shit! Why oh why do certain people seem to care more about a hunk of metal than human safety. So fucking depressing.

Yanbu

Park like an arsehole, deal with the consequences.

@davidsong

You're not unreasonable if and only if you're okay with someone damaging your stuff if you piss them off, and you're willing to accept the consequences if you're caught.

Sounds like you wouldn't be, and you didn't take responsibility for it either, so you're unreasonable and will feel aggrieved when you get your comeuppance or something similar happens to you.

Also you're shitting on your doorstep here, if he finds out where you live be might decide that one good criminal damage deserves another and take it out on your property. I know would.

You must be another one of those dicks who parks on the pavement with no thought to pedestrians.

I have no sympathy for people who park on the pavement and then find some damage to their car.

And it's absolutely not accceptable for drivers to expect pedestrians to walk around their car into the road.

@Obbydoo

Two wrongs don't make a right. He is a dickhead and you are also a dickhead. But, causing costly damage to someone's car ourweighs his dickheadness. I hope he tracks you down in order to ensure you pay for the damage you have caused.

Yeah what a dickhead you are op! Fancy wanting to use the pavement to actually walk on and push your pram on and stuff. Don't you know motorists are entitled to do whatever they like?

You can tell who the pavement parkers are on this thread can't you?

Op you have every right to feel a bit gleeful, the idiot is an entitled bloke who deserved what happened in my opinion, this sort of parking makes me mad!!

[quote BungleandGeorge]@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

It’s totally irrelevant whether he was parked illegally. Is she unreasonable to be upset or to report him so he can get a ticket-absolutely not. However that doesn’t negate the possible consequences of what she did. As she’s able bodied, there’s a clear pavement on the other side the only 2 options were not either scratch the car or walk in the road. If would be pretty unlikely that the gap was big enough for her to fit through but that she couldn’t possibly avoid the car with more care anyway. If it was someone in a wheelchair then you could probably argue that crossing the road would not be possible.[/quote]
A foot-passenger is entitled to use the public footway; it's a right of way. The wanker parking his topplewagon so that it blocks the right of way is not entitled to prevent the free passage of pedestrians on a public footpath. The illegality is as you say irrelevant, but since it seemed to be a point of contention I was clarifying the reason the parking was illegal regardless of whether it blocked a right of way or not.

So his phallic substitute got a scratchy-watchy. Poor diddums. Point a, he will have to prove that this was done by the woman he tried to intimidate; point b, find a policeman prepared to pay any attention to his pathetic complaint.

How is she to get to this "clear pavement" on the other side of the road without walking in the road, by the way? Her choice is absolutely clear: either walk between the car and the wall, or walk in the road, whether to get past on the same side as the illegally parked car or to gain access to the far side. The only other option would be to take to the air and fly herself and her toddler over the top of the obstruction: which would be fun, but improbable.

BungleandGeorge
I doubt anything would be flying round the corner with cars parked on both sides, it doesn’t look as if traffic would be able to get past at all in that scenario.

Which would be why parking on one side of that road is restricted, as the OP says. It's a bus-route; those need to be able to get through, even if fire-engines didn't exist.

As for "flying round the corner": a car travelling legally at 30mph round that corner would probably kill a toddler in its path in a pushchair and thus at the level of maximum impact; an adult on foot might only have both legs broken and damage to pelvis, possibly ribs, possible cranial shock and concussion (pedestrain impact against the road would be almost inevitable and is likely to be to the head). At over 35mph pedestrian fatality is the norm: and I don't think anyone is under the impression that motorists never do more than 30mph in a 30mph restricted road.

morayclaims.co.uk/how-speed-affects-the-outcome-of-pedestrian-road-accident-collisions/

"At speeds of up to 15 miles per hour (mph), pedestrians were more likely to sustain minor injuries than no injuries;
"Above 20 mph, pedestrians were more likely to suffer non-minor injuries than minor injuries; and
"At impact speeds of less than 30 mph, the majority of pedestrians survived.
"Significantly, at impact speeds above 35 mph, most of the pedestrians suffered fatal injuries."

@GoldenOmber

tbh, I wouldn't even have crossed the road if it hadn't been bad weather and a dangerous corner. You shouldn't have to zig-zag back and forth across the road as a pedestrian to dodge the cars of people who think the pavement is their own private car storage space.

But I think a lot of people do park on the pavement, and get defensive and prickly on discussions like this because they know damn well they've left gaps too narrow for a pushchair to get through themselves.

I wonder if they'd feel the same if you stored something of yours on their drive, or right outside their front door? "How dare you squeeze past it, you risk damaging the paintwork! Go round and use the back door instead."

This.

I knocked my neighbours mirror off squeezing past with my pram and toddler 🤷‍♀️
I'd told him loads of times about parking on the pavement and he just grunted😡
Funnily enough he now parks all four wheels on the road 🤣

Nice one, Santa. That taught him a lesson.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime must be really inconvenient if you can never cross a road. You see the obstruction you cross well before it with a good view down the road. It’s not too hard on a narrow one way street.
Civil cases have nothing to do with the police. If he had a camera in the car or recorded with his phone she’s admitted liability

Good for you, OP

I don't know about legally but morally you absolutely have the high ground after squeezing past the cunt's car to reach it

@ChainJane

You're wrong to knowingly cause damage to another person's property regardless of whether they are a dick or not.

You should have just gone round, there's a good chance it would have been fine because usually motorists are paying enough attention not to hit a woman with a pram.

What if the OP was blind?
Then it would be unwise to be using a pram as a makeshift cane, and if the gap was wide enough to squeeze a pram through a blind person would also be able to squeeze through (probably with less damage to the parked car.

Don’t be ridiculous. How on earth would a blind person navigate that (without a pram )

The driver was in the wrong

[quote BungleandGeorge]@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime must be really inconvenient if you can never cross a road. You see the obstruction you cross well before it with a good view down the road. It’s not too hard on a narrow one way street.
Civil cases have nothing to do with the police. If he had a camera in the car or recorded with his phone she’s admitted liability[/quote]
Yes, I do find it inconvenient crossing roads near a corner round which a vehicle may come at any moment at thirty miles an hourl particularly in poor visibility ie rain. And that is what I would have to do in order to get to the far side of someone parked as is clearly shown the wank-mobile was parked in this instance.

In any event, why the hell should I or anyone have to cross a road in one direction and then cross in the other within a few yards of the corner in order to get round an illegally parked wanker?

Civil cases are expansive for the person bringing them: rather more than the cost of some t-cut and elbow-grease. Also, the back view of a woman in the rain is unlikely to be particularly good ID, since it has no number-plates -- OP declined to give him her details; and even if it is and you do manage to find out her name, evidence that a scratch on someone's paintwork (if indeed there is one) was made at any particular time would be very hard to produce.

Incidentally, the wanker said he would be contacting the police, not bringing a civil suit for damages. And without a name, I suspect the police would look at him in that tired way they do and log his complaint, then do nothing whatever about it. They do nothing about assaults on the person, so why on earth would anyone expect them to do something about damage to a motor vehicle parked in a way which made it unsafe?

Hahaha
Twat (him)

Very minor damage, at that. Hell, they do nothing about a car careering down a row of legally parked cars, scraping down the sides of ten or more of them, and causing hundreds of pounds' worth of damage to each! (That is said slightly bitterly: l lived for a while in a narrow street, and precisely that happened to my and most of my neighbours' cars. We had no redress, as it turned out.)

I've done exactly the same OP, and would happily do it again. Couldn't give less of a fuck if I tried, about damaging someone's car if they were blocking the pavement.

If you park like a cunt you get what you deserve.

Well the OP's on 88% YANBU, so she's winning decisively.

Park like a dick, get a problem. The police won't give a fuck about the dick driver's scratch - it won't be on their 'crime matrix'.

Anyway, he could have moved his car. His fault.

OP why did you not knock on his car and say you couldn't get past?

Very aggressive tone to your posts

Absolutely with you on this. Cars parking all the way across the pavement really riles me. It's illegal and inconsiderate and dangerous to force some walkers into the road (visually impaired, prams etc).

@Darkchocolateandcoffee

OP why did you not knock on his car and say you couldn't get past?

Very aggressive tone to your posts

Read the OP, even if you CBA to RTFT. What I didn’t realise was that the arsehole driver of said vehicle was sitting in the driving seat on his phone.

Perhaps she didn't see that he was in the car, what with the rain. It's there in the OP: "What I didn’t realise was that the arsehole driver of said vehicle was sitting in the driving seat on his phone."

He could equally well have seen her, realised he was blocking her passage along the pavement, and moved his frodding car.