Son's bike damaged WWYD?

[cm8]

I just dont see how this can be made any more easy to understand..
Ask the driver what happened.
Driver, what happened? 'I ran over the bike'
Why? "I didn't see it"
There's two "I's" right there.
NOW DO YOU SEE?

 

[robinb]

its called the bye bye phenomenon and is very common - and sad. many children have died doing this.

A 2-year old here in the Madison area was accidentally run over by her grandmother today. She was seriously injured and airlifted to the hospital.

 

[tinkarooni]

No one talked about criminal liability...I think everyone was referring to civil liability, where you are liable for money damages. Whether the driver is civilly liable or not doesn't depend on whether he ran over a bike, a pet or a person. Liability either exists or it doesn't exist- it doesn't only exist if you killed someone, but not if you injured someone or only damaged property. The liability is the same-it stems from the driver breaching a duty to operate his vehicle carefully, and thus the driver is liable for any resulting damages, whether it's a $60 bicycle, or something much more tragic. I guess I don't see why people don't understand that?I do agree with your last paragraph. I personally think that would be the best case scenario.

Howdy there fellow liability adjuster.

 

[plummer925]

I have to respectively disagree with those who said that the boy shouldn't have parked his bike in the driveway. Where else should he have parked it? On the lawn and risked damaging the lawn? He parked it behind a PARKED car - not one that was on and ready to back up. If it had been MY son, I'd have been really upset with the driver of the car. A driveway is the PROPER place to park a vehicle - and a bike IS a vehicle.

 

[crisi]

In the lawn. Or on the sidewalk/patio. We have a great place for bikes and toys that works next to the garage, paved even. And I'm always yelling at the neighbor kids to move their bikes. They park them in the driveway and then when I pull in from work I have to move bikes to pull into my own garage. At our house, driveways are for driving. Parking is done in the garage or on the street.

When we visit other people, we don't use their driveways to park if it will mean parking them (or anyone else) in or not giving them access to the garage if they aren't home. That's rude.

 

[Justsyd2]

I have to respectively disagree with those who said that the boy shouldn't have parked his bike in the driveway. Where else should he have parked it? On the lawn and risked damaging the lawn? He parked it behind a PARKED car - not one that was on and ready to back up. If it had been MY son, I'd have been really upset with the driver of the car. A driveway is the PROPER place to park a vehicle - and a bike IS a vehicle.

I'm certain that most people meant that you park a bike IN FRONT of a parked car in a driveway, or near the garage, or on its kickstand at the edge of a driveway. You do not lay it down behind a parked car. Just makes sense. That's why they said it wasn't properly parked.

 

[Daddy_of_Princesses]

At our house, driveways are for driving. Parking is done in the garage or on the street.

When we visit other people, we don't use their driveways to park if it will mean parking them (or anyone else) in or not giving them access to the garage if they aren't home. That's rude.

I feel the opposite, at least for where I live. Everybody has a driveway around here, yet they park their cars on the road. Even at the crest of a hill, so you have no idea if someone is coming as you are trying to drive around the car that is in the road. The road is for driving, your driveway can be used for parking.
Of course, I also get annoyed when people are riding their bikes on the road, even though there is a bike path 2 feet in from the road, but that is a rant for another thread.

 

[wvjules]

If the bike had been properly PARKED using the kickstand it would have most likely been seen by the driver. But it was not. It was laying down behind the car, not parked.

 

[DisneyMissy318]

The owner of the car is responsible for hitting the bike. As a driver you are required to make sure your path is clear before backing up. The driver didn't make sure that there was nothing in his/her way before backing up and hit something.

Maybe your child shouldn't have left a bike behind a parked car, but that is really not the determing factor as to who is responsible for the damages. The responsibility is always on the driver to make sure the path is clear when backing up.

In a court of law the driver would be held responsible.

FWIW - ITA with this poster! Substitute any other word for bicycle - someone left a car behind another car and istt backed over it - drivers fault! Say the car backed over a dog that was laying there - drivers fault! Driver backs over a mailbox... the driver is totally responsible for anything they back into, run over or hit. What if it were a motorcycle parked behind the car? Granted your son probably could have made a better choice of where to put the bike - but not totally his fault.

My issue would be with two other adults jumping on my child! I'm sure your son was in a very uncomfortable position - especially being blamed for an adults mistake!

To answer your question - the driver definitely owes your son at least half if not all of the repair cost!

 

[MineMail]

I'm guessing the guest arrived first. When the guest parked, there was no bicycle - why would s/he expect there to be a bike behind his/her car? Unless your son made a point of saying that his bike was behind the guest's car, he set the stage for getting his bike damaged.

Sorry, your son made an expensive mistake. The guest/homeowner shouldn't have to replace the wheel. Your DS should have put the bike in front/on the side of the car where it could be seen easily or in the alley/backyard where it wouldn't be in the way at all. Small items (bike, trike, toys, wagons, etc.) that aren't easily visible to a driver backing up don't belong behind the car in a driveway, especially if the car was there first! It's just common sense.

A mailbox is different - it's a stationary object on a pole off to the side of the driveway. Yes, the driver should know it's there, but a guest might hit someone else's box. That would be their responsibility to have repaired. Now, if the neighbor pulled his up and left it lying in someone else's driveway, I think the DRIVER would be the victim. (Story: the driveways from one side of a one-way street were in the perfect position for a driver backing out to whack the mailboxes on the other side of the street. One of my sister's neighbors repaired/replaced their mailbox FIVE times before my nosy BIL said "Maybe you should move it over a few feet since it's in a bad location." Problem solved, lol.)

Motorcycle riders are more careful: they don't park behind cars in driveways - they pull up in front or next to the driver's side. A dog would get up and leave when the car started, unless it was dead. Who leaves their dead dogs laying around, anyway?


As for their yelling at him, realize that you're only hearing one side of the story. At the pool last week, I overheard a teenager telling her mother that the snack bar guy yelled at her "for nothing." I had been on line behind her - she was really fresh and rude to him from the first minute, so IMO she only told Mommy one side of the story. (I was packing to leave before she started whining, so I didn't hear the rest of the conversation.)

While the repairs could end up costing $150-175, that probably less than the insurance deductible, so you're asking people to give you money for your son's mistake. You need to decide if you want your family to be welcome at that house again. Asking for the money will prevent that in the future.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Why would you not expect, or at least think there's the possibility, that as time passes, things appear? If you put a lamp on a table, and don't dust for a week (extreme, I know, but it's the first thing that came to my head), there will be dust on the table but not under the lamp. Why? Because the lamp came first and the dust appeared later.

If you park your car at 2 PM - and I know we have NO idea of the timeline involved - why would you not think its surroundings/environment may have changed by 5 PM when you leave wherever you were?

Motorcycle riders are more careful: they don't park behind cars in driveways - they pull up in front or next to the driver's side.

Even in single-width driveways? How would the motorcycle rider do that? It would make absolute sense to park BEHIND the automobile.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

FWIW - ITA with this poster! Substitute any other word for bicycle - someone left a car behind another car and istt backed over it - drivers fault! Say the car backed over a dog that was laying there - drivers fault! Driver backs over a mailbox... the driver is totally responsible for anything they back into, run over or hit. What if it were a motorcycle parked behind the car? Granted your son probably could have made a better choice of where to put the bike - but not totally his fault.

My issue would be with two other adults jumping on my child! I'm sure your son was in a very uncomfortable position - especially being blamed for an adults mistake!

To answer your question - the driver definitely owes your son at least half if not all of the repair cost!

Sorry, substitute any item placed behind the car and it is the placers fault. If a mom put a baby in a carseat behind a car, I'd sure as heck be blaming the mom.

 

[MineMail]

My son took the bike in to the shop.
Repairs will cost approx $60. Certainly not something I would consider sueing for or ruining a cordial relationship over.
My son feels like it was his fault. He will pay for it and learn from it. I just felt like there is shared responsibiilty, but I won't pursue anything. (Yes, he layed it down and didn't use the kick stand) One of the first lessons in drivers ed is checking the surroundings of your vehicle. Still fresh in my son's mind!

That's good that it wasn't too expensive. I didn't realize his bike was laying down - that's actually a good thing. If it was standing up, the car could have done much more damage. However, that also reduced the driver's ability to spot it before driving off. Hopefully, he'll be able to learn where not to leave your bike in the future.

I wonder if your son would feel the same way if the situation were reversed and he were the driver running over a bike that was laid down in the driveway without his knowledge?

I think it's really important to point this out to him - the worst thing that would happen is that he really WILL do a walkaround before getting behind the wheel. The best thing is that he could develop some empathy for others.

 

[Leajess99]

Sorry, substitute any item placed behind the car and it is the placers fault. If a mom put a baby in a carseat behind a car, I'd sure as heck be blaming the mom.

You might be blaming the mom but LEGALLY the driver is held liable as they failed to insure their path was clear PRIOR to moving the vehicle. Walking around your vehicle PRIOR to moving it reallys is NOT that hard and does NOT take that long.

 

[coltfan]

"Pretend for a minute the bike is actually a motorcycle parked in the driveway I suspect some of the replies may have been different."

I suspect the bike was left laying on its side, not upright on the kickstand. Motorcycles are never parked like that so there is no comparison. If the bike was upright on the kickstand, the driver should have seen it when checking his or her mirror.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Yes, and as I said earlier the law doesn't always do what is right. Someone can break into my home, hurt himself, and sue me. And, sadly enough, win with some idiot judges. This would be the same sort of ruling. Stupid.

And, no, I don't walk around my car everytime I go out. If someone is stupid enough to park a bike behind me, I am not replacing it. And they would pay for any damage done to my car. Because it would be one of my yahoos.

 

[penn19]

I don't know that it matters who is in the "right". Great. You're right. The bike shouldn't be parked behind your car, but you ran over it. So you're right, but have damage to your car. When I come to a stop sign, I might be in the RIGHT to go ahead and proceed. It's my turn. But that doesn't mean that the other guy feels the same way. So he goes also. I would much rather be careful and not have the damage, then to be "right" .

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

It took how long to write that?

 

[penn19]

It took how long to write that?

Wow. Some things never change. Still as obnoxious as always. Oh, but thats right, your kids eat well.........

 

[EMom]

I have to respectively disagree with those who said that the boy shouldn't have parked his bike in the driveway. Where else should he have parked it? On the lawn and risked damaging the lawn? He parked it behind a PARKED car - not one that was on and ready to back up. If it had been MY son, I'd have been really upset with the driver of the car. A driveway is the PROPER place to park a vehicle - and a bike IS a vehicle.

Damage the lawn? It's grass, for crying out loud! If it gets "dented" from having a bike parked/laid down on it, it will grow back. If a bike is laid down behind a car, is run over and dented, it will not "grow" back to normal. Seems to me the grass is a far better place than behind a car.

Here, we tell our kids that if they are careless enough to leave a bike/scooter/skateboard behind a vehicle and the driver damages it while backing out, then the kid is SOL and will have to do without said bike/scooter/skateboard for quite a while. They can leave the bike on the grass, but to put it right behind a car (especially flat on the ground) is begging for it to be run over.

DD knew this, but carelessly left her scooter behind DH's truck. He backed up and the scooter was a goner. It took her about 6 months to save up $50 for a new scooter and that's how long she had to wait to get a replacement. She's a lot more careful now about where she leaves things. Not long ago, one neighbor's kid left their scooter at the end of another neighbor's driveway. Our driveways are steep and you cannot see something flat on the ground from inside your car. Since the police around here advise that you NOT raise your garage door until you are inside your vehicle and ready to back out, the whole "checking behind you/ walking the perimeter" thing won't work. We get in our cars while in the garage, buckle up, lock the doors, raise the garage door and back out sloooooowly. That was the advice they started giving after people began to be targeted while getting in/out of their vehicles in their garages. Anyway, my neighbor slooooooowly backed out of her steep driveway, but just as she made it to the end of her driveway.....CRUNCH.....she ran over the abandoned scooter. It still works, but is seriously wobbly. She didn't offer to pay and the kid's parents knew better than to ask.

If DD was ever careless enough in the future to leave one of her bikes. etc. behind a vehicle and it was run over, I'd tell her it was her own fault and to start saving money for a new one because we wouldn't pay for it.