Can you trust the City of Calgary to be honest...

[Maxt]

Interesting incident today involving the city, actually a bunch of its workers(about 10 guys, hey its a city crew)..
I was on a new construction site, that was having the sewer and water mains connected by the city.. The site owner and I were standing in the parking lot, watching a city of Calgary 5 ton picker truck back into their other yard...The truck got stuck on the ramp into the other yard, the driver made a poor decision to even think about backing in to where he did.. So he goes forward, stops, then goes forward again, and hits a car parked on the street across from the yard..
We saw the truck hit it, the driver looked around, the crew working 30 ft away saw him hit it as well.. The truck made another couple of multi point turns, and took off..
We decided to hang back to see if they went to look at the car , and put a note on it, we knew who's car it was , so we went to tell the owner..They didn't do anything, they knew their guy hit the car, they watched us when we walked back across the street to see if we looked at....
We finally went and looked at it, the front tire is pushed in about 2 inches, and the fender dented... The crew watched us examine the car....The funny thing is, after looking at the car, and walking back into the building, we then saw one of the guys run over and put a note under the windshield about hitting the car(a full hour after), without even looking at the damage, so they knew damn well their driver hit it...
They weren't going to do anything, unless somebody saw them, well somebody saw them, then they decided to own up to the damage...assholes.....Maxt

[hjr]

thats fucking gay!!!!!! they have insurance for a reason! fuck sakes its not like they are gonna pay for it anyways, i am, and all the other tax payers!

[djfob]

:werd: i hate people that don't own up to what they did. I was at work when my car got hit and the guy had the nerve to just take off. Luckily someone saw the whole thing and was nice enough to leave me a note with info on the other car. Now i'm gonna own him.

[bart]

stupid city owes me $2000 too. there was a big ass rock on glenmore, and i hit it going 80. this thing was like 30 pounds, in a construction zone. i have witnesses too. till this day, no money yet. i will get it, one way or another. and no, i couldnt avoid it, if i could, i would have.

[sxtasy]

good ol' government. If you owe them money your fucked. If they owe you, it will take a loooong time before you see anything.

[bksze]

Actually like all cases, the dude was probably an isolated case. Back when I owned my prelude, I had my driver side rear view mirror clipped by a car when I had it parked on the side of Center St. At first I was pissed off because I had thought it was a hit and run.

A few weeks later, someone rear ended me in a parking lot so I had to take my car into the shop anyways. While it was in there, I had the mirror repainted as well. This happened in March.

Come the middle of May, I get a letter saying that my car had been involved in an accident with a city bus. I called the number on the letter and spoke with someone from the claims department. He gave me the name of a bodyshop to have my car sent to and fixed. I told him what had happened and he told me to fax in the bill. As my receipt wasn't itemized, I could not do that for him. I did however fax in my estimate. He told me he couldn't do anything with an estimate as the number may or may not be completely accurate. Either way, after that I didn't hear from him ever again. So I thought I got screwed by the City, but thought nothing of it as I didn't really have a case.

August rolls along and one day while I'm checking my mail, I get a check signed by Dave Bronconnier for an amount just under $500. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed as I thought they had totally forgotten about me.

[hjr]

well the govt will eventually pay out, but it takes a LONG time to get through the buerocracy, this on the other hand was probably a contracted work crew.

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by bart
there was a big ass rock on glenmore, and i hit it going 80. this thing was like 30 pounds, in a construction zone..

Isn't the speed limit in a construction zone 50... :confused: ;)

[itsnotaDUB]

fucking city workers, lol

[CalgaryB5]

I give full sympathy to the people that currently having issues with the government. Whether you provided evidence or witnesses for your case, they can still able to find ways to protect themselves. When it comes down to money for compensation, it might not happen as you wish or much less than you expected or slow until you don¡¦t bother.

[Mckenzie]

Originally posted by Maxt
Interesting incident today involving the city, actually a bunch of its workers(about 10 guys, hey its a city crew)..
I was on a new construction site, that was having the sewer and water mains connected by the city.. The site owner and I were standing in the parking lot, watching a city of Calgary 5 ton picker truck back into their other yard...The truck got stuck on the ramp into the other yard, the driver made a poor decision to even think about backing in to where he did.. So he goes forward, stops, then goes forward again, and hits a car parked on the street across from the yard..
We saw the truck hit it, the driver looked around, the crew working 30 ft away saw him hit it as well.. The truck made another couple of multi point turns, and took off..
We decided to hang back to see if they went to look at the car , and put a note on it, we knew who's car it was , so we went to tell the owner..They didn't do anything, they knew their guy hit the car, they watched us when we walked back across the street to see if we looked at....
We finally went and looked at it, the front tire is pushed in about 2 inches, and the fender dented... The crew watched us examine the car....The funny thing is, after looking at the car, and walking back into the building, we then saw one of the guys run over and put a note under the windshield about hitting the car(a full hour after), without even looking at the damage, so they knew damn well their driver hit it...
They weren't going to do anything, unless somebody saw them, well somebody saw them, then they decided to own up to the damage...assholes.....Maxt

I wouldnt jump to a hasty conclusion about this situation. The City of Calgary has protocol for when personal property is damaged when they cannot sit around and wait for the situation to be clarified. They are call "Sorry" cards. The employee will place it on the property indicating what happened and they CANNOT be held personally liable for the damages.

The driver probably didnt see it. I have hit things with the City trucks before and never noticed anything was worng. They are big trucks and you could imagine what backing into a dinky little car would feel like in a huge truck with all the noise inside the truck and other stuff going on.

I personally know about 75% of the people that work for the Waterworks and Wastewater Construction Division, as I have worked there for the last 4 years, and I can tell you that they all play by the book.

I know the drivers of the stinger trucks as well, and they
are good gus that would not profit from doing a hit and run. The City wont give you shit as long as you report it.

[DSM Power]

Originally posted by Mckenzie

The driver probably didnt see it.

Maxt


So he goes forward, stops, then goes forward again, and hits a car parked on the street across from the yard..

Sure sounds like he saw it to me. :guns:

[Maxt]

I guess you had to be there Mckenzie, it was pretty obvious they held back to see if anyone noticed..
And about 8 years ago, my Mothers car was hit by a city grader, that one went to court, the city denied hitting the car, even with more than a dozen eyewitnesses...max

[Mckenzie]

Originally posted by Maxt
I guess you had to be there Mckenzie, it was pretty obvious they held back to see if anyone noticed..
And about 8 years ago, my Mothers car was hit by a city grader, that one went to court, the city denied hitting the car, even with more than a dozen eyewitnesses...max

I guess you're probably right......but he wont be able to say that it never happened. Because one of the crew members did put a note on the car, they would have had to report the incident to the head of the fleet services divisioin, and then he will investigate it and have to write up a report. (Beaurocratic Bullshit). The driver will then have to say what happened and will most likely have points taken off of his city license.

As for lawsuits, they are very reluctant to just fork out money because people try and sue the city all the time. It seems everyone wants a peice of the city's wallet.

Although most cases are legit, the city will stop at all costs to prevent paying out to people, and this really sucks for the people who have real claims like your mom. Did she ever get paid?

[Maxt]

The City eventually paid the tab..It went to court twice and then they tried to attach conditions to the repair of the car, like my own encounter I had with the city bureaucracy over a windshield, it seems they just try to make life hard for you so that you give up and go away..
When they pull something like that, its pretty obvious its employees just trying to save their own skin instead of the city working for its citizens..
Like you say , it probably gets the operator in a little trouble, he gets a couple of points on his internal record, which will affect him when he is up for promotion/raise...Then it will add a collision statistic to the tally, which in turn will cast some shadow on some inane safety program some pencil neck put together for some insane amount of money last year etc etc...

Its not over yet, the owner of the car is going to charge the driver with hit an run.... leaving the scene is a criminal charge is it not?
..Maxt

[Davan]

Last winter I had an issue with the city... I was going along in the right hand lane, southbound elbow drive. A plow blew by me in the LEFT hand lane, with the plow to the ground, shoving snow right into my path! The snow sent my car out of control and into the curb. Scratched up one of my wheels. I contacted the city, they said they were sending the issue to their complaint department.... hadn't heard back. Have since got rid of that car so it's not really an issue to me anymore, but still...

[Mckenzie]

Originally posted by Maxt

Its not over yet, the owner of the car is going to charge the driver with hit an run.... leaving the scene is a criminal charge is it not?
..Maxt

:werd:

As for the City Driver, they actually make it so that it wont negatively effect the driver too much. If that was the case, people would have damage to their vehicles go unreported all the time and noone would know when it happened.

But as for the hit n run, it all depends if he can proove that the driver did know that he hit the car. I hope it gets settled quickly because dealing with any government agency is a bitch.