[HighRevving]

I personally think it is reckless on her part to do this. This was 100% avoidable accident, she saw it coming a few times before she actually hit the car - so I don't know if her apology has any significance. In a reversal of roles, imagine if she was the owner of the BMW and someone ran into it knowingly!

She could see it's an expensive BMW, so the least she could do was call someone to help her or park somewhere else until help arrived - it's not even as if she is stranded in some dark place or in heavy traffic that it was a do-or-die situation.

With people like her, the problem is reluctance - they have limited skills but still want to drive - the root cause of our traffic situation today. If she cannot make it here by reversing a few times by steering in the opposite direction, she does not deserve to be behind the steering wheel. I hope people understand their limitations and not cause damage to others' property but then, maybe I am asking for too much.

[Turbanator]

Sorry state of affairs on issuing Driving Licenses. She should get herself enrolled in a driving school. Absolutely not fit to drive on road given the way she is trying to take out the car in a parking lot.

Commendable patience by OP

[Rachet]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

18k is a bit too steep for the lady to pay don't you think considering she is a humble Maruti owner. I would have helped her out a bit by asking to pay say half the amount after all she did owe up her mistake. I am not saying she should not pay at all and that you should bear all the cost all yourself but in the end we are all humans and we tend to make mistakes.

I understand where you are coming from. I would never judge a person with what he/she drives. She is an owner of a flat just like me. She has no issues paying 18k and she never raised any concern as well. If this has happened with someone who cannot afford to pay 18k then I would definitely work out what's the best way to sort this out. I would also do the same as long as I am able to compensate for my mistake.

And we are talking about sharing the burden here because she hit another car. Imagine if she had hit another person and something terrible happens. Can we really ask the victim or victims family to share the burden? So I think shelling out 18k is some lesson she learns and make her not repeat the same mistake again preventing her from getting in to much more serious trouble.

[s4ch]

That lady should not be driving on either the road or in a society, full stop. Only once she learns how to drive should she be operating her car without a fully qualified instructor next to her. I mean she couldn't even do a simple 3 point turn with loads of space in a tiny car.

I think more than praising her for owning up to the mistake she made, you should guide her that she should get some serious driving lessons else it is only a matter of time before she hits another vehicle or worse.

A few months ago I was selling my immaculately maintained Polo GT. A buyer comes up and says they want to test drive. Had a license too. Two mins into the test drive it was obvious to me that they couldn't drive as they couldn't even do a 3 point turn on an empty road that was wide enough for at least 4 trucks. Had to tell them sternly to turn the car off and let me take over. Needless to say the sale did not go through with them and I was super cautious about anyone test driving until I could trust they actually knew how to drive.

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by Rachet

It was one fine morning, I was enjoying a cup of tea when I heard my phone ringing. I sensed something was urgent as I never get any calls at that time of the day. And when I saw that the person who was trying to reach me was my neighbour I thought it was for some help. It never occurred to me that it might be something involving my car. For a few seconds I did not know what to say or how to react. Cursing my luck I rushed downstairs to my parking lot to assess the damage.

Rachet, admire your presence of mind and calm demeanour when she called you. It would have been easy to lose it on the phone and recover later after seeing that the damage was not too much. She must be relieved and happy to have a neighbour like you

Enjoy your car and drive safe.

Cheers

[shifu]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

She should get herself enrolled in a driving school. Absolutely not fit to drive on road given the way she is trying to take out the car in a parking lot.

Completely agree. In the footage, she kept the wheel in the same direction multiple times, going back and forth. Finally she seemed to have run out of patience, and decided to see if the car goes through if she goes a bit fast...

She needs to get an understanding of spatial awareness. Unfortunately, this isn't taught in any driving school. Driving school will teach her to accelerate and brake - both she did well as per the footage.

[Rachet]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

Rachet, admire your presence of mind and calm demeanour when she called you...

Thank you. When I saw the damage I was relieved a bit but I felt more pain when I saw the intensity of the impact in the footage after that.
In the end you got to accept that it had happened.

Originally Posted by shifu

Unfortunately, this isn't taught in any driving school. Driving school will teach her to accelerate and brake - both she did well as per the footage.

They teach you to drive on the straight road without having to turn the steering much :(

[itisK]

It's good to see a cordial outcome from an event like this. Credit to both the parties involved for that.

However, the lady should definitely enroll in a good driving school before getting behind the wheels again. Having learnt driving from a driving school during the lockdown, I can vouch that they definitely teach these basic maneuvers, and much more beyond that.

Maybe this is my confidence speaking, now that I know how to drive. But before they let me in an actual car, they made me practice on a simulator for around 10 days, practicing different scenarios and what not. So when I got behind the wheels for the first time, I could easily do such maneuvers.

So yeah, driving schools are important and must be adhered to for our own good.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

18k is a bit too steep for the lady to pay don't you think considering she is a humble Maruti owner. I would have helped her out a bit by asking to pay say half the amount after all she did owe up her mistake.

Ideally she should use her insurance to claim 'own damage' and 'third party damage'.

[Raghu M]

New or old, the driver did not gauge the exact turn radius properly and banged her car. And people mentioning about the yellow line, not all cars come with same dimensions. The parking lot is created to get maximum space, so the big cars always get a raw deal. Doesn't mean the longer cars are at fault here. That car did not come overnight, the driver knew about it well in advance and there was ample space to turn and go. Costly mistake, always good to have such experience while you are newbie, you will be very careful when you are at the wheel always.

[robby0707]

I do not understand how people are justifying the lady saying that she is learning how to drive. It is this attitude that makes people think that they can slap on an ‘L’ sticker on to the back of their cars and then do whatever they want on the road.
We have two categories of drivers. One is where the driver holds a valid license where in he has passed the requisite driving tests which includes proper road test and manoeuvring test ( which includes parking and reversing or the ‘H’ test) and the other is where the person holds a learner’s license where in he has to be accompanied by an person with a valid license.
In this case it is very clear that the lady is absolutely not fit to drive on the roads. However, had the incident not happened, she would have definitely gone out. Today, luckily, it was another lifeless car. It could have been some harmless guy having chai on a roadside stall or a poor beggar on the footpath.

[Gansan]

If she could not reverse, turn to her right and exit from the parking place, she has no business driving a car inside a housing society. Note how during every attempted reverse she is turning the wheel right instead of left. There is no cramped space, it appears fairly uncomplicated. The clumsy attempt has "novice" written all over it.

She should be made to pay for the damage. It will make her wiser and more careful in the future.

[Chetan_Rao]

Always nice to sort things out amicably.

Looking at the footage, this person is a 'slammed A pedal instead of B' disaster waiting to happen, if they ever get anxious in traffic. Not ready to drive unsupervised in their own car, yet.

[anjan_c2007]

Rarely happens in the real world where one upmanship, putting the blame on the other party, quarrels and ultimately police plus court cases are the usual sequence of events that follow.

Confidence with the steering takes a long time to develop. Only when the new driver is fully sanguine about piloting abilities should he or she should venture out.

[krishnakumar]

Well she most definitely deserved to pay the full 18k and also should give away the car for free because with those kind of skills, there is really LONG way to go before she should get behind the wheels without supervision!

I really don’t care how apologetic she was, the mistake was extremely stupid and completely unbecoming even for a novice driver. That situation is probably Level 0 - an extremely basic 3-point turn with acres of space around.

I’m of the opinion that we should stop cutting slack to such drivers and only then we’ll see the conditions on our roads to improve. If she’s still learning, she has no business being in that car alone without supervision. Period.

And yes, my opinion on this may sound quite ruthless but I’m saying that after being fully reminded of how I got myself into the driver seat. It was only after I was fully confident of driving out of any situation without any help that I started driving the car alone; otherwise, my dad would always be there. I remember him asking me to stop the car on a steep incline and taking it forward without rolling back and made me master it for clutch control; all this when I was still on my learner’s. I’m not trying to boast here, there is hardly anything to boast on this one. This is the very minimum that should be done and no two ways about it. I’m sure many in the forum learnt driving the hard way and today stand to reap the benefits of it because you can sit in ANY car and drive that with confidence.

Let’s not give praises where it is not deserved. I really hope OP gives a true feedback and asks the lady to go and get her basics right.