Restricted licences
Discussion
The other week I came home to my flat and noticed my 996 had been damaged - nothing structural, scuffs and streaks down the side.
Now this isn't the first time, in fact it's the 4th in 3 years that the car has been damaged whilst parked outside the flat, and after the 3rd (which involved lots of panel damage and no note under the wipers) I decided to put a camera on the windowsill.
So when I looked at the footage I see a middle aged woman in a brand new range rover trying to parallel park, there's plenty of space to get into, but she manages to f***k it up and drag her car along side mine before getting most of the way into the space behind. She gets out, looks at the damage, looks around to see if there's anyone there and promptly gets back in and high-tails it out of there.
The registration plate was '44c' which was easy to report to the police.
It did occur to me after the initial waves of anger had subsided that here was an individual who couldn't execute a basic driving manoeuvre yet was behind the wheel of almost 600 bhp and 2 tonne of metal. I wondered why cars weren't more like bikes and the licences were staggered, so you couldn't jump straight into something like this, which would seem sensible. Not that it'd have changes the situation with my car, but it just seemed mad that someone with so little ability could be I charge of something so potentially lethal.
Now this isn't the first time, in fact it's the 4th in 3 years that the car has been damaged whilst parked outside the flat, and after the 3rd (which involved lots of panel damage and no note under the wipers) I decided to put a camera on the windowsill.
So when I looked at the footage I see a middle aged woman in a brand new range rover trying to parallel park, there's plenty of space to get into, but she manages to f***k it up and drag her car along side mine before getting most of the way into the space behind. She gets out, looks at the damage, looks around to see if there's anyone there and promptly gets back in and high-tails it out of there.
The registration plate was '44c' which was easy to report to the police.
It did occur to me after the initial waves of anger had subsided that here was an individual who couldn't execute a basic driving manoeuvre yet was behind the wheel of almost 600 bhp and 2 tonne of metal. I wondered why cars weren't more like bikes and the licences were staggered, so you couldn't jump straight into something like this, which would seem sensible. Not that it'd have changes the situation with my car, but it just seemed mad that someone with so little ability could be I charge of something so potentially lethal.
So your theory is that if there was a staggered licence that this ‘middle age’ woman wouldn’t have been behind the wheel of this vehicle? I wasn’t aware that you had to be an old fart to progress in your bike licence and as you don’t, if there was a staggered licence system she would have passed it years ago and would still be allowed behind the wheel of it.
Saying that bikes are based on CC and not size and weight. So that theory does not work either as you’d then have to have it by class of car and given how many different types of vehicles there are these days you it would A) cost a fortune to sit all these tests and B) take forever to pass no doubt.
Plus how many people out there pass a test without actually having to demonstrate a parallel park. Maybe making that manoeuvre mandatory in a test would help.
Saying that bikes are based on CC and not size and weight. So that theory does not work either as you’d then have to have it by class of car and given how many different types of vehicles there are these days you it would A) cost a fortune to sit all these tests and B) take forever to pass no doubt.
Plus how many people out there pass a test without actually having to demonstrate a parallel park. Maybe making that manoeuvre mandatory in a test would help.
According to the MOT site, 44C is a petrol Range Rover Sport. Current engine list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_Rover_Sport#Se... - fanciest possible is the 575 hp supercharged SVR edition - don't know if this would be called out if that's what this was, though it does say the car is blue, which sounds a bit unusual for a Range Rover.
The normal supercharged one is 525 hp, the V6 is 340 hp. "Almost 600 hp"? - well, you decide. OP has photographic evidence, of course, and we don't.
I don't support licence restrictions for people that occasionally f
k up a basic manoeuvre; we already have fines for people that fk up sticking to the speed limit (which is pretty straightforward), and we already have mandatory car insurance (cost of which roughly reflects driver's ability to not cause trouble) - and look how much people complain about both of those! But property damage does require compensation, and I hope that OP is appropriately compensated financially to make up for the inconvenience and expense of getting their car fixed.
The normal supercharged one is 525 hp, the V6 is 340 hp. "Almost 600 hp"? - well, you decide. OP has photographic evidence, of course, and we don't.
I don't support licence restrictions for people that occasionally f
k up a basic manoeuvre; we already have fines for people that fk up sticking to the speed limit (which is pretty straightforward), and we already have mandatory car insurance (cost of which roughly reflects driver's ability to not cause trouble) - and look how much people complain about both of those! But property damage does require compensation, and I hope that OP is appropriately compensated financially to make up for the inconvenience and expense of getting their car fixed.Edited by to3m on Monday 20th May 01:32
BarcelonaLewis said:
So when I looked at the footage I see a middle aged woman in a brand new range rover trying to parallel park, there's plenty of space to get into, but she manages to f***k it up and drag her car along side mine before getting most of the way into the space behind. She gets out, looks at the damage, looks around to see if there's anyone there and promptly gets back in and high-tails it out of there.
The registration plate was '44c' which was easy to report to the police.
Money can't buy class.. You can almost guarantee she told her partner "someone" must have done it when the car was parked. Actually that could make things more entertaining when they get a call from their insurance company, I presume you have/will be forwarding your CCTV footage to your insurance company who will then share it with the third party?The registration plate was '44c' which was easy to report to the police.
to3m said:
According to the MOT site, 44C is a petrol Range Rover Sport. Current engine list here:
The normal supercharged one is 525 hp, the V6 is 340 hp. "Almost 600 hp"? - well, you decide. OP has photographic evidence, of course, and we don't.
Ah - perhaps it's just got the SVR badge. I googled 'range rover sport svr bhp' and it came up with 576 BHP. The normal supercharged one is 525 hp, the V6 is 340 hp. "Almost 600 hp"? - well, you decide. OP has photographic evidence, of course, and we don't.
Edited by to3m on Monday 20th May 01:32
The same thing happened about a year back with a small hatchback with protruding indicators lights on the front wing, another failed parallel park and there was a line scored down the front wing of my 996 (no paint loss). The old lady who did it didn't realise and just left it parked in front, I left a polite note on her windscreen and she got in touch to apologise, then the next day her husband got in touch to say she was nowhere near and I'd made it all up. This was pre-camera, but I wasn't going to do anything about it anyway. This situation just annoys me a lot more because she saw the damage and scarpered, and she drives a two tone range rover with blacked out windows and a personalised plate!
I haven't heard anything back from the police or insurance yet, but I'll post when I do.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff