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Car accident compensation liability problems? Not with this message
"Warning! Warning! This vehicle is reversing!" Anyone living in a built-up residential area should now be familiar with computerised voices delivering this message at all hours of the day. Although this is obviously meant to protect companies and councils from injuring people and being sued for personal injury compensation, I have heard some pretty nefarious hijacking of this otherwise benevolent message.
The first time was a couple of years ago when I awoke just before 7 am to hear the following announcement, "Warning! Warning! HungryShopper [supermarket name changed] home delivery service vehicle reversing!" Lets just say that at the moment, having previously been a regular shopper at the supermarket in question, I resolved never to shop there again. I think their attempt at squeezing in a bit of unpaid-for advertising backfired, don't you?
Eventually this warning/advertising refrain became a feature of many a morning for me, and I could never, for the life of me, work out just why the "brains" behind the idea had thought it a good promotion. Sure it increased brand awareness, but hardly in an unequivocally positive sense.
I was reminded of this recently when the BBC carried a news story about a woman who is trying to claim car accident compensation from a well-known supermarket after one of their delivery vehicles allegedly reversed into her car, causing around £1,000 worth of damage.
She is having trouble proving liability, with the supermarket claiming that all evidence is "purely circumstantial". I now almost wish that the scheme, now abandoned, of using a simple home shopping service to deliver not only goods but also a clarion advertising call, had been adopted wholesale by every supermarket in Britain.
At least then, if they are indeed responsible, there would be overwhelming "circumstantial" evidence to prove liability, as the whole street would have been treated to the farce of hearing the warning message and the supermarket's name, followed by a resoundingly incriminating crash. They would have trouble denying liability then.
Maybe as a compromise, supermarkets should be encouraged to advertise their services in this way, though with one proviso. How about an inbuilt system that, on sensing impact when reversing into another vehicle, delivers the message, "We [the relevant supermarket] have just reversed into a vehicle and accept full liability and responsibility for any resulting car accident compensation claims. Sorry!"
