Crash in Work Car Park

[Poonster]

Hi all,

 

I’ve been following some of the threads on this forum and was just hoping to get a bit of advice on my particular situation! I hope I've posted this in the right forum, it seemed most applicable.

 

Essentially, my car was parked in my work car park when it was hit by a 3rd –party. They caused significant damage but left without leaving a note. There were, as of yet, no witnesses.

 

With regards to the car park, it is provided for staff only (and signposted as such) and run by a private parking company. We pay a monthly and daily fee for the use of the car park and it is supposed to be barrier controlled – this, however, broke some time ago, and actually lies by the side of the road, so the public do have free access to it (and it is, to all intents and purposes, open access). Due to the position of the car park, members of the public do enter it on occasion to turn their cars around. There is CCTV covering the car park, but so far no one at my work place (Security, the Private Parking Company, Facilities and Estates) is actually owning up to having access to the footage! I’m working on tracing this at the moment. There are also the usual signs up disclaiming responsibility for any events that take place within the car park.

 

My questions relate to liability here:

 

-I would hope to be able to identify the ‘perpetrator’ here through the CCTV footage (if I ever get it), but is this a civil or criminal issue? Does it make a difference as to whether the ‘perp’ was a member of the public or a fellow employee?

 

-Does the PPC or my employer bear any responsibility for this given the barrier has been in a state of disrepair for some time now? Presumably this is only an issue if a member of the public caused the damage?

 

-If I am unable to trace the CCTV footage, is there an employer liability issue here (given that there are several cameras covering the area, but no one is owning up to having access)?

 

-I’m not sure how long they keep the footage for, but given that it’s already taken 2 days to get this far, if the footage gets erased before I get to it, is there another liability issue here?

 

Sorry if these questions are elementary but many thanks in advance for your help!

 

Cheers and Merry Chrimbo to all!

 

P

[Kitten1]

I had a similar issue a few years ago. My parked car was pranged and I didn't realise until I got home. Luckily, it was a private works car park and we had access to the cctv footage. A works colleague went back through the footage and I found it was a colleague who had done the damage.

 

Even though I had the incident on film, she tried to deny it at first but it was eventually sorted through our insurers as she couldn't afford to pay for the damage.

 

Somebody must have access to the cctv footage. Security guards maybe? It depends on how the cctv footage is stored as to how long you have to find it. Management should know this information really.

[sailor sam]

Not sure that the PPC or the land owner can be held liable unless you can prove in someway that were responsible for causing the accident by their negligence. However, they should assist you in identifying the other car. In the meantime, you should notify your insurers.

[stu007]

Hi

 

As it is a staff only carpark I would speak to your company about this incident and request that the CCTV footage for that day is look at to find the perpertrator.

 

(Are there any disclaimers on the carpark or anything in the staff handbook about use of the staff carpark)