by Carole Ligi

Created on: May 31, 2010   Last Updated: July 19, 2010

Accidents and vehicles are a part of life.  Locations where accidents with vehicles frequently occur are parking lots.  No one goes to a store with the idea in their head that they are going to deliberately hit a car that day in a parking lot.  But it does happen. 

The reasons this most often occurs is being in a hurry and not paying attention to your surroundings.  Everybody is in a hurry nowadays and everyone's time is equally important, but these accidents can be avoided by taking a few extra seconds to assess the area while doing your errands.  

Take some extra time when parking your vehicle to consider what parking spaces your vehicle will actually fit into.  One example is a man was driving a large pick up truck and was witnessed actually running on top of a small compact vehicle when attempting to park his truck in a parking space.  He should have parked further away from the store in a space that would allow him room to maneuver his vehicle.  Witnesses wrote down his license plate and forced the man to accept responsibility when he tried to simply walk away to the store and pretend the accident never happened.  

Also take the extra time to look around and make sure that no persons are vehicles are in front or behind you when leaving your parking space.  Just those few extra seconds could ensure that an accident does not occur.  

Take your time and drive slowly through a parking lot.  How many people have witnessed a near accident by a driver speeding through a parking lot and almost hitting another vehicle or worse a pedestrian?   

Being distracted is another reason.  Make sure that the children and others in the vehicle are secured and calm before starting your vehicle.  Take the time to explain to your children or others if necessary that you need to focus on your driving so that you can go from Point A to Point B.  And that you will get there quicker if accidents are not added into the scenario. 

 Should an accident occur, even though it is hard, do not become upset and let anger take over?  Most accidents occur when the vehicles are not occupied.  If you do accidently hit another vehicle take responsibility and leave contact information if the other driver is not present.  If the police need to be called do so, but also keep a camera handy in your car for proof of damage.  Don’t let an accident escalate into major car repairs that you are not responsible for.  A case in point was a woman was observed accusing another driver of hitting her car.  The accused driver re-parked the vehicle and with the woman walked around the woman’s vehicle  to observe any damage.  Then the other driver offered to let the woman walk around the driver's vehicle to observe any damage.  The bottom line is the woman making the accusation was looking for repairs to previous damage and was making false accusations to have someone else pay for repairs. This is unethical and sad, but unfortunately it does happen. 

Accidents are a part of life and because they are not done on purpose is why they are called accidents.  Taking extra time and precaution can help avoid many of these accidents.  An added benefit is by parking further away from the store then you can get in extra exercise by walking the extra distance and do your own part to avoid accidents at the same time.  

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