very low skip about a meter high,hiden behind a parked car. Does it need by law to have any lights or cones around it? Is there anyway i can check if it has a liecence. As you can tell i dont fancy paying for the damage.

And yes BALLS!!!

How on eath did you not see it?

anyway o.3 seconds with google gives this. You do need some sort of hi vis stuff on the skip and maybe cones depending on areas

http://www.valueskiphire.co.uk/regulations/skip-permit.asp

So what you’re saying is that you’d also have reversed over a 3 foot high child?

Help I’m shit at parking and want to make it somebody else’s fault. 🙂

Only teasing. I think it needs flashing lights. And chevrons, no?

It is your fault.

I have sympathy, you must be gutted… but I hate this blame culture. You could also have reversed into a small sports car like a caterham…

You weren’t wearing headphones, perchance…?

DOH!! its a stationary object so your fault, now if the skip was on wheels thats a different matter althogether!!

They should have lanterns around the skip if there on a road, so I would say its illegal. Check with your council though!

lanterns only after dark I think.

Some guidance in my link but its local authority specific

You need some of These 😆

I know how you feel. Like a total numpty, I reversed into a large industrial wheelie bin a few years ago. I saw it, but was so used to the rear reversing “beepers” on my main car that I just kept reversing until I hit it (I was in a car without parking sensors). Dentmaster and Chipsaway sorted it.

There should be a name on it, and phone number as well as a flashing beacon after dark.

You obviously hadnt ordered the optional mirrors pack for the BMW had you 😯

Was it on the public highway?

Yes it was on my road, although they had placed about 2inches on the pavement. It does have some reflector cheverons on the side, i have just been out to photo it.

Yes i am trying to blame someone else and yes in someways it is my fault however why do you think there are cones / barriers around excavations , you wouldnt say well if it was a child in the road…

And its a golf by the way

I reversed into a tree outside my own house a few years ago. Now I come to think of it, I’m going to complain to the council – it was a really low-viz brown colour one.

I know the very annoyed-with-yourself, stupid, angry feeling all to well though, as anyone who read my post on Sunday will be aware. Not much you can do really other than chalk it up to experience.

It’s your fault full stop not some way, you hit a stationary object.

yes in someways it is my fault

Only in some ways?

thanks for all your sympathy people

I reversed into a skip once. Put a nice crease in the bumper. Never occurred to me to blame someone else. It’s a big enough, stationary object. I didn’t see it the blame was entirely mine.

MTFU and admit you made a mistake.

We will have to put cones round parked cars soon!!!!! Your fault just deal with it.

Yep, you are a numpty – but If you make a claim on your insurance I’m sure you’re insurance company will want to know whether all legal procedures had been followed for it to be on the road. They won’t want to cover the cost of your repairs if they don’t have to!

I never said i wasnt a numpty. But i do work in insurance so maybe thats why i am trying to make a recovery. Right time to phone the insurance company me thinks.

In my job I have a lot of contact with skip operators. I’d love to hear the phone call you make to them after you try and blame it on them.

Learn to drive properly you moron!!

so cones that are lower than the height of the skip and it would have been seen? not convinced, myself. 🙄

thanks for all your sympathy people

Do you really not realise you don’t deserve any? If you don’t then I’m afraid we can’t help!

But i do work in insurance

Aaaaaah! We come to the root of the problem! 😀

Get real. Its a skip. You ran into it. Your fault.
Now if it had been on a blind bend at night with no flashing lights then you might have a case.

I ran into a bollard at cadbury world a few years ago (just over two feet high, in my blind spot, reveresed straight into it). It taught me to drive more carefully, never dreamed of claiming.

Yes, OP is a numpty, yes, it’s their fault.

However,

If the skip owners haven’t followed legal requirements, they’re probably liable.

In the words of James Hetfield, “Sad But True.”

I agree with the overall tone of this thread so far.

It’s nothing personal.

in someways it is my fault however….

you reversed into a large piece of static pointy metal.

The reason they put cones around holes is that holes tend to be flush with the ground. In fact, one of the few things that are both flush to the ground and hazardous.

But yes. You gotta be aware of these things.

I had a near miss on the motorway a while back. The Passat (like many modern cars I think) has windowsills quite a bit higher than cars used to. I can’t comfortably put my elbows on it anyway. I found a nice driving position quite low in the car too. So in dusk one evening with loads of traffic moving at 50 and loads of lights (so visibility wasn’t great) I signalled to pull back into the inside lane (slowly and carefully as I always do just in case), when there’s a beep. I looked again, and there’s a Honda S2000 right next to me with its top down completely below the window line of my car. Only the driver and the windscreen were visible.

My fault for not checking properly in difficult light. But consequently, I now look out for low cars, and I also sit higher in the car for visibility.

I suspect you’ll look more carefully into parking spaces from now on!

I work in insurance, and given the pathetically low levels of blame motorists routinely will accept, and having to dish out hard truths to them every day, I am disappointed to see you reflect a frankly growing problem.

These days, people will argue anything, and claim for anything.

How was the skip at fault in your view? What did it do so wrong whilst you operated your 3/4 ton of motor vehicle, which can so easilly kill and maim, carelessly, and without any regards for your surroundings. Is a skip, on the side of roads, so unusual that it was not forseeable?

No sympathy from me, but I have had a very bad day at work, including a call from a motorist who has run over a child on a bike, asking why we’re not going to chase the badly injured childs parents for his excess. And I get this crap most days, whereas at least a decade ago, people were less self-centric.

Nice story molgrips. Echoes my point entirely.

yes in someways it is my fault however

‘cos you’re a shit driver?

These days, people will argue anything, and claim for anything.

If insurance companies weren’t so quick to take your money and so reluctant to give it back, I’d have more sympathy.

How was the skip at fault in your view?

There will be legal requirements for its placing. If these aren’t adhered to, it’s at least partially at fault.

Do I agree with that? Maybe not. Point is, whether it’s ‘right’ or not is irrelevant, what you’re looking at here is ‘is it legal?’

well i work in subsidence so i am normally chasing people for not cutting their trees down. Yes it is my fault but i just wanted to get out of paying £450 excess

So lets all be honest here, would you?…

a) Admit you’re a numpty and cover all repair costs yourself.

or

b) Admit you’re a numpty, but try not to hand over hundreds of pounds from your own pocket and at least have a stab recovering some of your expenses.

But the reason we have health and safety is so numpties like me do kill ourselves and each other.