Driver training in a busy parking lot at Home Depot!

Driving out of control in a busy parking lot at a Home Depot, I recently while shopping at a Home Depot coming out to find your car was hit and wedged between a 2006 Toyota Avalon and a small tree. Apparently the owner of the Toyota decided to train a new student driver in the busy parking lot a a Home Depot the driver really gunned it and lost control of the car hitting my car and wedging his car between a tree and my car.

Car accidents happen; suggest to just let the insurance companies figure it out. You could argue I suppose that driver training shouldn’t occur in a busy HD parking lot. If so, take that argument to the HD management, ask that their security staff patrol the parking lots.

I doubt this will do any good though. Before my Corolla was forced from the road I would shop at HD generally once a week. I also had some problems in the parking lot, not caused by driver training, but by a bevy of folks setting up parking lot business offices & offering handy-man services. The parking lot security staff seemed to mostly ignore that and focus on keeping the shopping carts safe … lol … .

Folks engaging in amateur driver-training activities in this area tend to do it in the mostly-empty community college parking lots. The community colleges here are little-used; the students continue to prefer to learn from home, presumably to better avoid catching Covid.

1 Like

accidents happen. That’s why they are called “accidents,” and not “On purposes.”

this is what insurance is for. Still sucks though.

5 Likes

My father trained me in a small no traffic lane, my kids were trained on low traffic Country roads.

1 Like

My father’s technique was for us to go out very early on a Sunday morning, when there was very little traffic in our town. After we finished with my behind-the-wheel lesson, we picked up the Sunday NYT, plus the now-defunct Newark Sunday News, and a dozen bagels, so it was a day with a lot of positives.

1 Like

Good memories!

Devil’s advocate here:
One could say it is better the accident happened to a parked car in a parking lot than out on the road with other drivers involved, and possible injuries to more than just the inexperienced driver.
If nothing else, both parties involved get to have an interesting story to tell their friends

1 Like

I agree with you.

I took my kids to an office park on a Sunday morning the first times. They got the sense of driving pretty quickly so after that it was mostly building confidence and experience, which was doable in the suburban streets near where we were living.

Very cool!

Some years ago, a friend had a teenage daughter who was about to start learning to drive. The mom had bought a used Miata, so I offered to start teaching the girl (wanted to try out the Miata!).

I drove a mile or so to a small, empty, out-of-the-way parking lot in a rural area. We switched seats and FIRST, with the engine off and parking brake applied, I had her practice finding the brake pedal.

When she was confident doing that reflexively, I allowed her to start the engine.

Then had her slowly lift the clutch pedal just enough for the car to roll, (while her right foot was far away from the gas) then stop. Then we repeated that many times.

Only then did we we venture out on the road for practice with clutch, shifting, and BRAKING.

I think my instructional approach would have avoided the unfortunate problem reported by the OP. So sorry to hear what happened!

Aside: I later taught mom how to operate a motorcycle. The daughter was a better learner.

Thanks for the tip!

I taught my daughter at these 2 places… We started this as much as possible over a year before she got her permit, on here 15th B-Day I pulled her out of school and took her to get her permit and she drove home on a very busy highways and roads, and she drove everywhere we went regardless of the weather, then on her 16th b-day, took her again for her driving test and I was complemented very highly by her instructor…

The church was a great place to teach handling and braking under different circumstances…
When no one was around you can fly around that place safely… If you look at the left mid/upper lot you can see a perfect place to do slalom driving, she almost :nauseated_face: making her do that… lol

The Neighborhood as you can see has lot of curves, but what you can’t see are the very steep hills in the neighborhood… She also learned how to drive in the snow with all the hills and curves, lets just say the e-brake got used a lot with out warning her 1st, she was swatting flies at 1st …

Plus I sent her to a Ford Driving Skills for Life hands-on training clinic…

2 Likes

Looks like fun!

1 Like

My father started my driving instruction at a Lithuanian Cemetery in Oak Lawn IL.

Very cool!

Your comment reminds me of a chuckle-causing incident that occurred a couple of years ago. Truck’s engine was misbehaving while running an errand & I had to remove & clean, then re-install the ignition points in a hardware store parking lot. On way back I noticed a higher than normal current draw on the amp-meter, then truck stalled. I was able to coast into a church parking lot, expecting the problem was my points-re-install job. But couldn’t coast all the way to a parking spot, so truck was blocking the entryway. I asked a church goer to help me push my truck about 5 feet forward to a parking spot. I’d have done it myself but it was slightly uphill. This church-going fellow, youthful & robust looking, simply wasn’t in a helpful mood. No, not at all. I got to thinking at least he’s in the right place, more church attendance is probably just what he needs … lol …

1 Like

Sounds like fun!