RLX-Sport Hybrid

I am super upset. When walking back to my car at the local mall today, I saw what had to be a 90 year old woman back up directly into the corner of my car!!!!!! There are minor scratches on the plastic bumper cover and the reflector lens as well as the surrounding accent chrome is cracked! I’m pissed!! If you voted during the time in which Harry S. Truman was elected, your drivers license should be immediately revoked. I’m going to my body shop tomorrow to see about getting it fixed. I parked about 50 yards away from everyone and this woman still hit me! She took off oblivious that anything happened and I did not get her license plate. She drove over the curb on the way out of the parking lot!
:shocked :

woropallo

Sorry to hear about your car, report it to the police, maybe they can help find her.

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

So sorry...

thoiboi

hondamore

Wow! I'm so sorry. I'll echo woropallo's suggestion of reporting the incident, getting caught might be the only way this woman comes to the realization that she shouldn't be driving.

krava

Damn shame everyone is having bad days. I park away from everyone else too but haven't been hit for doing it atleast not yet. How the hell did she get close to you? Old people can't walk far away from the place, she would have parked close up. I park 20 spaces back in the back usually.

usdmJON

If I saw that I would have sprinted full speed to my car and followed her and been on the phone with 911 before she even made it to the next light.

Id tell the cops also she hopped the curb on her way out so I think she was fleeing the scene.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

whats worse than not knowing you hit some one?

lying.

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

Sorry. Hit and runs suck.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I parked so far away from the normal parking that the woman had to be disoriented about how to get out of the mall parking lot to be anywhere near me, much less hit me. As I was sprinting towards my car the old lady was far enough away that I could not make out her license plate. I was not sure she actually hit me from a distance until I got up close to my car for an inspection. She was driving what looked to be a late 90's black Buick Century with New York plates. There are 3 elder communities near by that mall, so I will drive through today to see if I can spot the car, but since most properties in my area have garages and the cars could be parked inside I may never find it. I called the police to file a hit-and-run report, but since I did not have a license plate, only a description of the car and driver, they likely will not find her unless she is involved with another accident or is pulled over for some reason. Since nobody was hurt, it is not an event that will be escalated. It will not be enough damage for an insurance claim, and I looked last night for the replacement part online and it appears to be a $35 cost plus labor to install it. There will have to be some labor to take care of the scratches which are superficial, but if the bumper needs painting that will make me really furious. It is just maddening that someone would not realize they should not be driving anymore and continue to do it, putting themselves and others in harms way. Where are the families not stepping in to take the keys away? Very frustrating. For as particular as I am about caring for my cars, when something like this happens it makes my blood boil. An accident can happen anywhere, but this was just flagrant moronic behavior.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I don't believe she realized what she did and it was not intentional.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

right, usdmjon, suggested to lie.

morals, Jon, Do you have them?

Jakes_tl

man that really stinks! I agree shes probably didn't even notice that she just hit someone or even seem the curb that she jumped. I really do think that a person at that age should not be driving but that's my 2 cents.

NBP04TL4ME

Unfortunately, that's all too common

George Knighton

I did that a few years ago and ended up feeling badly about it.

I chased a guy down after he brushed my bumper in a parking lot, and the police showed up around the moment that I started talking to him.

Turned out to be an immigrant who was barely an Anglophone at all, and turned out he hadn't any insurance or a drivers license.

Ended up being a much bigger deal that it should've been, and I felt badly that they carted him off instead of giving him a ticket.

:-(

I was in the right, but didn't feel very good about being in the right.

Now...on the other hand....

On another occasion somebody who must've been inebriated and driving a large vehicle bashed in the nose of another car of mine. I'd parked just barely out of camera range, too, so we never knew who did it...but we knew it must've been a pretty big vehicle.

Over six grand in damage that time.

Thank goodness for State Farm.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

Off to the body shop now. I will report back with details. It is NOT a big deal and most would never see it, but I do. Very aggravating!!!!!!

George Knighton

My grandfather was born in the nineteenth century, and told me once about a brief conversation he had with...(are you sitting down?)...Queen Victoria.

He drove until about 85, I think, and seemed to do okay. His feeling was that cars were just becoming too fast and he was happy to leave it to the people.

The Queen is 90 years old and still drives a green Rover in the park around Windsor where it's reasonably safe.

The grounds around Windsor are basically well protected and people on the grounds are well vetted. There's also security around who look exactly like the other people.

So although it seems odd to Americans, you'll still see her piloting her own vehicles, frequently very close to other cars and other people.

In Scotland she drives an older car and prefers to do her own gear changing.

She's not allowed to have a drivers license or license plates, which will also seem odd. But she learned to drive very well and her skills were enhanced when she was in the Army working as a mechanic.

Some 90 year olds do fine behind the wheel, and we mightn't want to actively promote the disenfranchisement of an entire class of people.

Tonyware

So... the RLX is a chick magnet LOL LOL

PS. George: The Queen, was working as a tech during WWII... so she probably knows a lot more about cars than most of us here !

George Knighton

At meeting with Sir Alec Issigonis, she held a 30 minute conversation about the differences in design between the Morris Minor and the BMC Mini, and about the future of transverse engines and small FWD cars.

Sir Alec was the Greek refugee who invented the Mini and who was a pioneer of what has become the predominant basic modern car design.

At his investiture, she reminded him of the conversation and mentioned how very well the transverse engine/FWD idea had worked out.

woropallo

Agree, She probably back out, did not realize it and thought nothing of it. I remember when I had to talk to my father about giving up his licence after an accident, lucky no one was hurt. It was a hard chore since he felt like he was giving up his freedom and did not want to admit he was getting too old to drive safely. I believe, folks over a certain age should be tested periodically. I am no spring chicken, in my 60s so this is not coming from a young whipper snapper. It just the way I feel, my wife parks where ever with her car and been hit a few times especially in the mall and shopping center. For some reason she loves to park by, or across, from handicap spaces. Which I have told her to not do since in florida almost anyone over 65 can get a handicap, they all drive big older cadillac and are not good at looking in that rear view mirror or measuring distance. Just my two cents.

George Knighton

I do that just because you can open the door wider. :-)

pgeorg

I am so sorry to hear that RLX Sport-Hybrid:-(. Unfortunately there is no real way of avoiding things like this.......I am sure it will hurt less when some time passes by. I just hope you do not have to repaint the bumper.....

sooththetruth

OK, all of this sounds crazy, but in May of 1985 I met the Queen. I was in London, of course, taking a celebratory lap around Europe after graduating from Medical School, and I was dressed in typical american student fashion: Blue Jeans and a Polo shirt, and I am standing at one corner of Hyde Park, though I can't remember the crossing, and up pulls a Rolls Royce with an image of the crown on the plastic centerpiece on the roof where a taxi would normally have it's marker. She pulls up right in front of us, there is no entourage, her two security men open the back door, and she gives us the warmest smile, bows her head to me and my two colleagues, and asks if we are visiting from the United States (we are), and asks us if we are enjoying England, (we are) and then she walks off with no more than the two guards, and the chauffeur takes the car off to park, I presume.

I was so in shock, that I really didn't even realize it was the queen until she was 15 paces away, and I had to convince my traveling colleagues as to who it was. The next building we walk into there is a photo of her, and they both see I am right. She was wearing her usual long coat, with her purse on her arm (no i am not fashion sensitive, but it seems to be the most common image of her).

In any case, she was remarkably elegant, gracious, and.....I am a fan of the queen. I can't imagine a better representative for a country, even if she is really just a figurehead.

I am also a fan of testing drivers every two years after the age of 75. Many old people drive just fine, but some people become dangerous, and no longer have the judgement to stop driving on their own.

However, that is not going to happen to Queen Elizabeth, I am sure. Asking such a test of her would be a travesty.

George Knighton

No, not really. :-)

And you can't get within 100 feet of the President without being First Class Yankee White.

LOL....

fsmith

RLX-Sport Hybrid - Given that when we met you saw how unhappy I was to spot for the first time the idiot-parker damage that had been done to my SH-AWD's bumper, you will know how sorry I am to read about this. Also, given that when we met I saw how immaculately clean and polished you keep your SH-AWD, I know how pissed (George: that's angry not drunk) you must have been. Incredibly annoying and seemingly unnecessary. I am really sorry that happened, but of course you will keep in mind that it is, in the end, only money and your car will be as good as new again, and the upset will pass.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

Back from the shop. The repair will be what I thought. A $35 part and labor. The bumper will likely NOT need painting and it can be done while I wait for it. My wife looked at it and could not see the damage until she squatted down and looked exactly where I was pointing. She would let it go, but she knows me well enough that this is the kind of thing that would get my socks in a bunch. It is just a small cost to repair (around $200), and in the big picture it is no big deal. Just frustrating.

My auto body shop I have used in the past works primarily on high end cars and has guys with years of experience with carbon fiber, aluminum, etc... In fact their work space is so clean that when the owner walks through the shop to show a customer where their car will be worked on, he wears clean white socks and no shoes to prove how OCD they are about the cars while in their care. There is an Enzo getting repaired right now in their shop, but I couldn't get a clear view of it for a photo. I know they know their stuff and will take very good care of me. They and my detailing guru are the only people I would allow to touch my paint other than me. That says a lot.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I appreciate your thoughts and know that you have felt the pain (in my presence) of disgust when discovering something like that. Accidents happen and many times they can't be avoided, but flagrant ingorant acts of stupidity or simple biological age where reflexes are muted, that makes me upset. My wife's grandmother had her driving priveleges revoked by the family when she drove to the end of Key West from Ft. Lauderdale. She traditionally never drove more than 10 miles in any direction, always to the same places, and never on the highway. When she dissapeared for hours and we could not find her (no cell phone), she finally was discovered by a police man in Key West who questioned why she was trying to drive out of the parking lot into the sand at the end of the road. She said that she was trying to get home and was lost. She thought that driving into the water would help her get home faster. The end of that story was she was diagnosed with Dementia and had hid the symptoms for a while without us knowing it. How many accidents she caused without her damaging her car we will never know. I am sensitive to the elderly but there are times in which family (my own included) needs to step in and take the keys for a driver who is impaired or simply to old to handle things properly in the fast paced world we live in.

The car will get repaired and this will be a memory.

Time to salute the troops. It is Fleet Week in New York City. If you see military personnel, shake their hand and thank them for their service. It does not happen enough.

JM2010 SH-AWD

Glad to hear it can be fixed without a repaint.

Several years ago, we parked my wife's car along a curb late at night in a motel lot, well away from other cars, but behind some behemoth SUV/pickup. When we went to the car at 6 the next morning to leave, we discovered that Mr. Behemoth had launched his mega-vehicle right into and over the top of our hood and fenders, to the tune of about 5K in damage. Of course, he didn't feel the need to leave a note. A little different from your circumstances, but I believe if I had witnessed it, I might have tried to strangle the lout.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

It is mind numbing how ignorant some people are. An iddiot ran through a red light about 20 minutes ago and blasted the car in front of me right on the passenger front door! The light had been red for that guy for 2-3 seconds already when he hit the car at probably 60 mph! The driver in front of me was banged up very badly. A cop was right behind me and saw it himself as well as got it on his dash cam I am sure. I offered to be a witness, but he said that he saw the whole thing. What a shame. I'm going to keep it in my garage for a while. Be safe out there.

getakey

I think I found a video of her


painful to watch

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I could not watch it. Not today.

JM2010 SH-AWD

I believe I see her multiple times on the way to/from work everyday. Wow.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

It is like someone saying "look there is a bear in the woods, now all you see are bears everywhere you go".

wstr75

George, about once a year I scratch my head and look up an acronym you mention. I appreciate the education you are providing to the less informed masses like me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_White

pgeorg

Yes, thank you George.....although it happens a little more often than once a year for me:-)

Majofo

You're a fucking toolbag.

Majofo

OP.. sucks dude.. I saw some lady bash in the front bumper cover of my TL years ago. She was driving this big fucking suburban and couldn't see over her hood. I lost my shit and started yelling at her before realizing she had the fam bam with her. There were some marks, but the bumper cover did it's job for the most part.

She said she'd pay to fix the bumper.. I let it go, shook my head and I apologized for yelling at her. I told her to enjoy their evening (out for dinner with fam) and don't worry about it. These fucking things happen. Bumper buffed out mostly. I just came to the realization that I wasn't going to be the dickbag and ruin their family outing over a mistake that could easily be rectified. It's a car, it's not worth losing your shit over.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

It is ok to be irritated though. I don't blame the old woman per se'. It is her family that should have made sure that she could not drive if her abilities were reduced. Age and biological degradation limit one's physical attributes and thus a legitimate reason to turn in one's license. I'm not saying that all old people should not drive, but someone who was clearly as confused and disoriented as this woman was means that although I am irritated this happened, I'm not angry at her. It is sad. I have a soft spot for the elderly as they have lived more than we have, experienced life more than we have, and can teach us from life experience that we might not know for decades to come. They are to be respected, not shunned. They are kind, not crude. They don't look for trouble. They want to be surrounded by their families and enjoy the people who are most important in their lives for however many days they have left. This woman did not bump into my car intentionally, nor did she drive off to attempt to get away with something. I am sure she did not know she did anything at all, nor did she likely realize that she ran over the curb on the way out of the parking lot. I just hope she does not cause an accident where people and property are lost because nobody explained to her that she should not be behind the wheel anymore.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

^shows how good hearted you are.

woropallo

Nice language!