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Car park exit ramp damage, advice please

5K views 26 replies 12 participants last post by  Jahjaman 
#1 ·
My local hospital has installed one of those speed ramps with about 8" long metal spikes on it to avoid people going in the wrong way or reversing back.

Drove over it very slowly yesterday for the first time and the noise under the car was shocking, sounded like all the spikes hit in to the bottom of the car.

I checked when I got home and one of the under trays seems to have taken the brunt from the spikes. Its close to the front of the car caused by the wheels going up and over the speed bump they spikes were on.

Spoke to the car park operator who said to send in pictures but I would have to get my insurance company to contact them to look at options, I can see where this will go which is my paying for the damage.

Before I start getting BMW to look at it and the pain of insurance etc, does anyone know what is under this cover and if the damage really matters. The car goes back in 7 months and is a personal lease car, suspect they wouldn't look under it on collection.

The damaged are is about 2" square.

Advice welcomed
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#3 ·
On face value the car park operator is liable, though you either need to prove that the "spike" did the damage, or they need to admit liability. Then there is no need to involve your insurer (which could hike you premiums even if the claim is not against your insurance), simply get a parts and labour quote, send it to the operator requesting payment within 14 days.
 
#4 ·
NISFAN said:
Those things are feckin annoying.

Is it the flap part dangling down?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yep the flap it about 2" square tear the unde rtray in that area seems to be made of thin material almost like thick cardboard

If this is just cosmetic then I will leave it as the car goes back in 7 months and pretty sure they won't look underneath
 
#5 ·
50pence said:
On face value the car park operator is liable, though you either need to prove that the "spike" did the damage, or they need to admit liability. Then there is no need to involve your insurer (which could hike you premiums even if the claim is not against your insurance), simply get a parts and labour quote, send it to the operator requesting payment within 14 days.
Car park operator came back on email and said it has to be done via my insurance company to them directly.

As per my other post if it's just cosmetic I might just push it backso it almost level and forget about it.
 
#6 ·
hampshire said:
50pence said:
On face value the car park operator is liable, though you either need to prove that the "spike" did the damage, or they need to admit liability. Then there is no need to involve your insurer (which could hike you premiums even if the claim is not against your insurance), simply get a parts and labour quote, send it to the operator requesting payment within 14 days.
Car park operator came back on email and said it has to be done via my insurance company to them directly.

As per my other post if it's just cosmetic I might just push it backso it almost level and forget about it.
This is bullsh*t.

If you crash into me, my insurance company don't need to be involved. I may need to advise them but the settlement has nothing to do with them.
There are plenty of templates online for this sort of thing. Do what you have done and say you have 14 days to pay to account x or you will be contacting a solicitor and resolving via small claims court.

Probably go and take a picture of the spikes.
 
#7 ·
Can I ask which hospital it is?

The car park operator isn't always liable. Especially if it was the land owner (and not the car park operator) who actually installed it to meet H&S concerns.
 
#8 ·
Its Basingstoke hospital the main visitors car park. I went back today in the wifes 4 x4 and can see why its so dangerous for low cars. The spikes only retract when the weight of the vehicle pushes them down and only the one pressed NOT all of them. So as the car goes up and over the spikes are still up so low cars will get hit. The force to make them retract is also significant.

Off to BMW tomorrow to see what is has done then will decide if I should involve any kind of legal team etc.

It doesn't look too menacing in the pictures and for most cars its probably not too bad but there is quite a bit of pain removed from the spikes.
 

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#9 ·
That looks absolutely retarded. Have never seen those in Australia.
What's wrong with a boom gate? Yes, more expensive to set up, but then again, it's not retarded like those spiked humps look to be.
 
#11 ·
andydavy said:
Having worked with these ramps the ramp is broken / faulty. When one spike is pushed down by a tyre they should ALL retract!!
That's what I thought too but going over in the wife's heavy 4x4 only the spikes that were driven over retracted. Thinking I should go back and video the other staying up
 
#12 ·
andydavy said:
Having worked with these ramps the ramp is broken / faulty. When one spike is pushed down by a tyre they should ALL retract!!
This is only the case if they're not "modula", where by each unit works individually. Also they'll only press down when the wheels are in contact (so when half way over, the wheels won't be there to hold it down anymore)

OP: is your car lowered/modified? That could be their excuse if the case. Easiest way to find the operator is by the "front of house" sign. Either located at the entrance of the hospital or parking zone. Within the T&C's will be the operators head office details. It's not my company (thankfully) :lol2:
 
#13 ·
Dan116i said:
andydavy said:
Having worked with these ramps the ramp is broken / faulty. When one spike is pushed down by a tyre they should ALL retract!!
This is only the case if they're not "modula", where by each unit works individually. Also they'll only press down when the wheels are in contact (so when half way over, the wheels won't be there to hold it down anymore)

OP: is your car lowered/modified? That could be their excuse if the case. Easiest way to find the operator is by the "front of house" sign. Either located at the entrance of the hospital or parking zone. Within the T&C's will be the operators head office details. It's not my company (thankfully) :lol2:
Spoken to car park operator who said they have had other cases and it ups to insurance/legal teams to contact them. Will use legal support from work and see what happens they are free and highly effective
 
#15 ·
Dan116i said:
andydavy said:
Having worked with these ramps the ramp is broken / faulty. When one spike is pushed down by a tyre they should ALL retract!!
This is only the case if they're not "modula", where by each unit works individually. Also they'll only press down when the wheels are in contact (so when half way over, the wheels won't be there to hold it down anymore)

OP: is your car lowered/modified? That could be their excuse if the case. Easiest way to find the operator is by the "front of house" sign. Either located at the entrance of the hospital or parking zone. Within the T&C's will be the operators head office details. It's not my company (thankfully) :lol2:
No car is totally standard, just the design of the shi66y speed ramp
 
#16 ·
You can raise a small claims case online now really easily for 35 quid (I think).

I'd maybe go down that route. If you have it in writing from the operator that they have had other cases then they have admitted it's a problem and will be hard pushed to get out of it.

Then you avoid insurance etc.
 
#17 ·
Barney McGrew said:
You can raise a small claims case online now really easily for 35 quid (I think).

I'd maybe go down that route. If you have it in writing from the operator that they have had other cases then they have admitted it's a problem and will be hard pushed to get out of it.

Then you avoid insurance etc.
Nothing in writing this was verbal.
 
#18 ·
hampshire said:
Dan116i said:
andydavy said:
Having worked with these ramps the ramp is broken / faulty. When one spike is pushed down by a tyre they should ALL retract!!
This is only the case if they're not "modula", where by each unit works individually. Also they'll only press down when the wheels are in contact (so when half way over, the wheels won't be there to hold it down anymore)

OP: is your car lowered/modified? That could be their excuse if the case. Easiest way to find the operator is by the "front of house" sign. Either located at the entrance of the hospital or parking zone. Within the T&C's will be the operators head office details. It's not my company (thankfully) :lol2:
No car is totally standard, just the design of the shi66y speed ramp
It sounds like you've just been unlucky here. I'm in Basingstoke and have been to the hospital a couple of times recently, and going over that ramp made me whince a bit, but no damage to the underside of my car which is also standard. Whoever is responsible for the car park really needs to do something, but as a relatively quick and cheap repair you could just try something like this -
 
#19 ·
OP: You may well have legal cover on your household policy.

It is emphatically not the case that only your insurers/legals can deal with it. That is simply trying to put you off.

If you go it alone you are a long way away from issuing a small claims case just yet.

You need to make genuine attempt to settle the dispute, you need to issue an appropriate letter before action, produce compliant particulars of claim and a host of other things. Complying with the pre action protocol is time consuming.

You also need to consider costs. In the small claims track you can only claim the litigant in person rate of 19/hour. That wont pay any legal firm acting on your behalf. However most legal firms are pretty good at persuading the other side to settle their costs as part of an out of court settlement.

Whether or not you actually have a claim is a different matter (though I think you do, ultimately district judges can and do make their own decisions).
 
#20 ·
Jahjaman said:
That looks absolutely retarded. Have never seen those in Australia.
What's wrong with a boom gate? Yes, more expensive to set up, but then again, it's not retarded like those spiked humps look to be.
Hospitals in the UK do everything they possibly can to make a stressful situation 100 times more stressful. So firstly the car parks are normally full and have narrow spaces so you have no choice as to where you park. They then have silly entry systems like this, and finally they charge us a ridiculous amount that can only be paid in 8 hour chunks!

So when my son was in Bradford RI for 2 nights I had to park my 240 on some deserted night time car park which cost £16 per 8 hours and they expected me to walk out at 2am to top the ticket up leaving my son on his own. And to top it all off you can only pay using £1 coins, so I had to keep getting mountains of them from the bank!!

And if you're hospital staff, parking is even worse than that. Our gov't don't operate much common sense over here.
 
#21 ·
Great service from Vines BMW Guildford today, they said to drop down anytime so went their at lunchtime to their body shop just up from the dealer.

Arrived and was up in the ramps in 10 mins, their verdict was not to worry they have seen far worse and the panel damaged is the one that runs the entire length of the car. They checked the entire under side and took me out to look too. The damaged piece hanging down pushed up almost level.

Great service
 
#23 ·
Surely whether they all retract or not, when you're straddled across it with only front wheels over, the spikes will still pop back up and scrape the bottom of the car until the rear wheels push them down again, or should they not pop back up for a couple of seconds once pushed down?
 
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