Storm Water Almost Caused Wheelie Bins to Hit Parked BMW. Who Would Have Been at Fault?

ihbh on 09/02/2019 - 16:29
Last edited 12/02/2019 - 09:47 by 1 other user

The thunderstorms in Sydney yesterday caused an interesting situation near my house.

Storm water flowing down the road to a storm water drain pushed the wheelie bins of a house down the street by about 5 metres, which would have hit a BMW that has been parking on the drain over the last few days. If the car was damaged, would the owners of the bin be liable for the damages? If they had insurance, would it be covered by the public liability cover of the buildings insurance?

To make it more a bit more challenging: What if the bin owner's neighbour had thought that they had forgotten to pull out their bins and pulled it out for them (and they have done this for each other numerous times previously)?

Automotive

Comments

  • Baysew on 09/02/2019 - 16:32
    +4

    would the owners of the bin be liable for the damages

    Do you mean the council?

    Or if it had of been a shopping trolley, the supermarket?

    • ihbh on 09/02/2019 - 16:43
      +1

      Do you mean the council?

      Caretakers of the bin - house owner.

      The shopping trolley is an interesting scenario.

      • Baysew on 09/02/2019 - 17:40

        What happens if they rent?

        If the BMW was parked on the drain, it may have stopped the water to drain away?

        • ihbh on 09/02/2019 - 18:10

          More likely the tenants liable than the landlord? But the landlord should have buildings insurance in any case.

          If the BMW was parked on the drain, it may have stopped the water to drain away?

          The water was draining away alright, and taking the bins with it.

          • Baysew on 10/02/2019 - 12:24

            @ihbh:

            The water was draining away alright, and taking the bins with it.

            Sydney Water would be responsible then.

            • resisting the urge on 11/02/2019 - 00:56
              +13

              @Baysew: The BMW owner is responsible. They are always the one at fault ;-)

            • unqualified89 on 11/02/2019 - 10:12

              @Baysew: The 'owner' of the road (ie either council or road authority) have responsibility for stormwater. Water authorities are responsible for water and sewer.

              Edit: My apologies, apparently this is not so in NSW and seems to vary state by state. In Victoria VicRoads own stormwater assets on VicRoads roads, and council own stormwater assets on council roads.

          • Seedy seed on 11/02/2019 - 01:19
            +10

            @ihbh: Act of god. If a tornado throws wood through your house the owner of the lumber isnt at fault.

      • chrisd262 on 11/02/2019 - 16:58

        Bins remain the property of the council at all times

  • tranter on 09/02/2019 - 16:52
    +3

    What if it was a Holden?

    • whooah1979 on 09/02/2019 - 16:58
      +21

      Let's make interesting. Make it a 200 AMG.

      • D6C1 on 11/02/2019 - 00:02
        +4

        That's like one of them wheelie bins. It would have floating down with the water too.

        • Kangal on 11/02/2019 - 12:40

          "Well this problem just sorted itself out"

  • whooah1979 on 09/02/2019 - 16:52
    +3

    Surely the design team is to blame.

  • bloom on 09/02/2019 - 16:53
    +2

    What if their street number wasn't on the bin?

    • Name on 10/02/2019 - 22:33

      Maybe it's just where I live. But I don't have a street number on any of my bins. Either do my neighbours.

    • abb on 11/02/2019 - 14:20

      Check the serial number?

  • [Deactivated] on 09/02/2019 - 17:01
    +3

    A regular problem is people who don't secure their trampolines during storms. I think at the end the householder is responsible, but recovering it can be messy.

    • [Deactivated] on 09/02/2019 - 17:39
      +4

      An acquaintance found a shed in one of their paddocks. We live in a cyclonic area. Small hay barn (still a very big shed in suburbia) had its bolts (wasn't galvanised. Derp) corrode and snap when we had 140kmph sustained.

      The barn was from 2km away. 😂

      I have a view and I get to watch beach parasols take off when the wind suddenly picks up. We're talking some serious vertical here.

  • Snail on 09/02/2019 - 17:13
    +7

    The crucial question to this case is what colour is the BMW?

    • xoom on 09/02/2019 - 22:11
      +8

      And does it have a toggle to turn on the indicator lights?

      • josho9 on 11/02/2019 - 00:58
        +1

        Also, did it include all the options promised by the dealer?

    • Nickels n Dimes on 10/02/2019 - 21:56
      +1

      Aren't BMWs almost always colourless (i.e. black, which is the best way to disguise an unnatractive form) ?

  • roh008 on 09/02/2019 - 17:27
    +14

    it's a 'no fault' accident so the BMW owner would be fitting the bill. Strange question really.

  • bobbified on 09/02/2019 - 17:31
    +18

    The key to "fault" is whether the incidents are reasonably foreseeable and/or whether there was any negligence.

    In this case, I don't think a reasonable person would put out their bin expecting it to float down the road and hit a car.

  • CodeXD on 09/02/2019 - 17:41
    +12

    Take the wheelie bin to court

    • [Deactivated] on 09/02/2019 - 17:48
      +35

      That's rubbish.

      • Slinky0111 on 10/02/2019 - 07:02
        +11

        These puns are wheelie lame

        • Bargain80 on 11/02/2019 - 10:29
          +4

          now you're talking trash

          • abb on 11/02/2019 - 14:22

            @Bargain80: I refuse to engage in this inanity.

    • mbck on 09/02/2019 - 18:16
      +21

      It'll probably be thrown out

      • [Deactivated] on 09/02/2019 - 18:20
        +17

        On a peel.

        • trex on 09/02/2019 - 18:39
          +17

          that's never bin done before.

          • bloom on 09/02/2019 - 21:54
            +9

            @trex: Stop trash talking!

            • foolsgold on 10/02/2019 - 21:53
              +6

              @bloom: I feel these puns are being recycled.

              • xoom on 10/02/2019 - 21:55
                +4

                @foolsgold: With puns like this. It should go straight to the tip.

                • Flanders on 11/02/2019 - 01:16
                  +1

                  @xoom: I've bin told the tip doesn't wheelie count

    • drfuzzy on 11/02/2019 - 15:52

      Is the bin a terrorist? Osama bin Laden?

  • ausdday on 09/02/2019 - 18:12
    +7

    Moving hitting a stationary? Easy. The wheelie. It failed to steer to avoid an accident. Thw wheelie should have its license revoked.

  • Wystri Warrick on 09/02/2019 - 18:14
    +9

    God!

    • Windows98 on 10/02/2019 - 21:28
      -1

      Sue the b*astard

      • Kangal on 11/02/2019 - 12:44
        +3

        I watched a documentary where a Man Sued God.
        Ofcourse, the defendant God fought the law, and the law won. And that's when Global Warming was invented.

  • altomic on 09/02/2019 - 18:14
    +8

    At least the wheelie bin would have been using its indicator

  • resubaehtgnolhcs on 09/02/2019 - 18:50
    +5

    It's an act of god - storm damage, pay your excess and move on

    • Blue Cat on 09/02/2019 - 19:52
      +3

      What if the BMW's owner is an atheist?

      • resubaehtgnolhcs on 09/02/2019 - 23:00
        +3

        then they just apply the storm damage component. it may get murky if the BMW owner is a climate change skeptic …

  • ego22 on 09/02/2019 - 18:53

    ehhh its god! and his sneaky sneaky side kick jesus terrorising the neigbour hood again. and they wont even a slap on the wrist, court system is broken

  • serpserpserp on 09/02/2019 - 19:35

    Pretty sure no one is liable.

  • Sickman on 09/02/2019 - 20:33

    How about if your water tank gets blown down the road
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75YA1bM6xvc

  • [Deactivated] on 10/02/2019 - 00:06

    it's not really a reasonably foreseeable event, so I don't see how the household of the wheelie could really be at fault.

    It doesn't really matter the insurance on the car would have covered it anyway.

    • ihbh on 10/02/2019 - 08:01

      It doesn't really matter the insurance on the car would have covered it anyway.

      But then they are up for the excess.

      However, there are similarities to the situation where the BMW is hit by hailstones.

      • [Deactivated] on 10/02/2019 - 09:40
        +3

        But then they are up for the excess.

        That's life. Perhaps the BMW owner should have taken more care and not parked their car on the street.

        • conza on 10/02/2019 - 09:57
          -5

          Or, the house's owner's car insurance covers it. It's insurance designed to pay for damages to other cars (then their own if its comprehensive) so why not use what you pay for when it's your fault for putting the bin there?

          It all depends if the BMW parked in a normal spot, not like, immediately on the edge of a driveway or something stupid, and if the bin was placed in a normal logical spot as well.

          • [Deactivated] on 10/02/2019 - 11:57
            +2

            @conza: No the houseowners car insurance will not cover it.

            Sometimes accidents happen and no ones fault and you have to pay some money

            • conza on 10/02/2019 - 19:42
              -2

              @[Deactivated]: What is your basis for that assessment? Are you in insurance?

              • [Deactivated] on 10/02/2019 - 20:21
                +1

                @conza: No I am not in insurance but car insurance does not cover this sort of thing it's basic common sense. If the homeowners car got moved by the floods and hit the BMW then the car insurance might cover it.

  • the Unforgiven on 10/02/2019 - 16:49
    +2

    What harm can a plastic rubbish bin do to a metal car?

  • Windows98 on 10/02/2019 - 21:30

    Did you park there after the bin was put out?

  • No ONE on 10/02/2019 - 22:17

    Who Would Have Been at Fault?

    The WIND! the wind was the driver. I guess it is one of those hit and run driver scenario we often see in thread.

    Cops would be too busy hiding behind the bush to catch the speeding drivers, so they won't bother to find the run away drivers. I guess BMW owner have to suck it up.

  • Briefcase Mong on 10/02/2019 - 22:26

    Go ahead and take the bin owner to court make sure you tell us the outcome

  • Miss B on 10/02/2019 - 23:24

    Did they put the bin on the road? We always put ours on the front lawn, but at my sister's place they put them on the road. Had the bin been emptied, or was it a reasonable time for the bin to be out before being emptied? Did they collect the garbage that day? Have any other neighbours had any issues with the alleged bin caretakers or the alleged BMW owners before? Has there been similar high flowing water incidents in the past? What were they each doing at the time of the near alleged incident? Why are you withholding important information? What do you have to hide?

  • Wallyt99 on 11/02/2019 - 00:01
    +1

    As a qualified lawyer I am going to state with absolute certainty that it was…. Um.

  • vengeance88 on 11/02/2019 - 00:08
    +6

    Surely this is the right time to open MS PAINT

  • Flanders on 11/02/2019 - 01:24

    To make it more a bit more challenging: What if the bin owner's neighbour had thought that they had forgotten to pull out their bins and pulled it out for them

    Then to make it more challenging…this is where it gets wheelie interesting;
    The bin owners neighbor was the owner of the BMW, and … also partial contents of said bin belonged to the bin owners neighbor (when he was over for afternoon tea, and bought some packaged treats).

    We shall have to get the ozbargain experts onto this post haste!

  • utopia on 11/02/2019 - 10:22
    +1

    Cheep Charlie freebie parker BMW owner might need to scrap more coins to get a proper parking lot instead on the street. That's why it's a question on Comprehensive insurance, claim from that.

  • pegaxs on 11/02/2019 - 11:46

    Hahaha… oh dear. Is this what this forum is getting down to? Thanks for the laughs. Some of the comments are absolute gold. :D

  • Cleaner on 11/02/2019 - 11:55
    +2

    I'd sue bmw. If a bmw bumper can't take light impact as described then what kinda junk is bmw?

  • itsdougie on 11/02/2019 - 12:00

    The BMW owner signed up for it
    Bring More Worries

  • sgtdanny69148 on 11/02/2019 - 12:19

    Act of God, no one is liable except the church.

  • Lexan on 11/02/2019 - 12:33

    Are you talking about hitting bmw at 30km/h?

  • Morphio25 on 11/02/2019 - 13:55
    +1

    BMW driver would've have been at fault but would've had to deal with the fallout of any damage to his vehicle. He's the one who parked on the street when he could've put his car in his own garage. Bins obviously belong on the street one night per week to get emptied, not the bin owners fault it got washed down the street.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2019 - 14:16

    After digesting the above discussion and debilitating deliberation, I have come to the determination from demonstration of deluge diversion not draining away from the driver's direction was the cause of the degradation.

  • John Kimble on 11/02/2019 - 21:07

    So something similar almost just now happened to me. It's garbage night. I parked on the street
    in front of the next door unit block as there is no off street parking in my unit block.

    Someone in the neighbouring unit block moved in ovef the weekend and bought a bed frame. They leant the empty 2m tall cardboard box it came in, vertically up against their front fence besides their recycling bins (technically you're meant to cut it up into smaller pieces and place into the recycling bins). As I was taking stuff out of my passenger seat, a gust of wind blew the cardboard over and if I didn't happen to be there at that exact moment, it would have hit my car. I doubt it would have caused any damage…at most perhaps paint scratching if a corner scraped at the most unluckiest angle…but still…

    • ihbh on 12/02/2019 - 09:48

      Imagine if the original neighbour had laid the cardboard flat but another neighbour moved it upright to make more space, and then the chain of events occurred.

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