Cyclists, e-scooters and pedestrians in Croatia

In a coastal town in August the road, the promenade and the parking spaces are the same few metres of asphalt. <b>Contact with someone on a bicycle, on a hired scooter or on foot leaves almost nothing on the car</b> — and that is exactly why the record has to be made before the vehicle is moved.

Why this is a subject of its own

The other party has no structure. There is no crumple zone, no bumper and no paint to transfer, so the vehicle often carries only a scuff on the bumper corner, a folded mirror or a mark low on a door. The size of the mark says nothing about the size of the event.

The height of the contact is the strongest single fact. A handlebar, a scooter deck, a knee and a shoulder all sit at different heights, and the mark on the car sits where the contact happened. Measured from the road, that one number supports or contradicts most accounts.

We stay with the vehicle. Injuries and their consequences are not part of a technical finding, and we say so in the report. What we describe is the mark, its height, its direction and what object fits it.

What Croatia adds to the picture

Rented bikes and scooters belong to the season. Along the coast they are handed out at the accommodation, ridden by people who do not know the street, and returned the same evening. The machine that was involved is often back in a rack within the hour, which is why a photograph of it is worth more here than anywhere else.

The promenade and the road are one surface. In old resort centres pedestrians step off a kerb that is barely a step high, and delivery vehicles stand where the marked lane would be. Contact happens at walking pace, and both parties usually think nothing has been damaged.

Witnesses are visitors. The people around are on holiday and gone in a week, sometimes in a day. Names, telephone numbers and the name of the accommodation are collected at the scene or not at all.

What is recorded and where the inspection takes place

Photograph the car in the position where it stopped, the other machine where it lies, and the two together in one frame. Then the mark itself with something for scale, and the height of the mark above the road.

Record the time and the exact spot, because in a resort street the same fifty metres look different at nine in the morning and at seven in the evening. A photograph along the street in both directions carries this better than any description.

The inspection takes place where the vehicle is, and it includes the underside of the bumper and the wheel arch even when nothing is visible from above. Contact at low speed leaves marks that only appear at that angle.

Frequently asked questions

There is barely a mark on the car. Does it still need recording?

Yes, and precisely because there is barely a mark. A scuff at knee height, a folded mirror or a scratch on the bumper corner is the whole physical record of the event, and it is gone after the first wash. Photograph it before the car is moved, with the height above the road.

The rider left on the bike straight afterwards.

Then the record rests on the car alone, and it is worth all the more. Note the time, the exact place, the direction of travel and anything the machine left behind — rubber, plastic, paint from a frame. A photograph of the street in both directions completes it.

Can you tell a person from a kerb or a post?

Usually yes. A kerb and a post leave a hard, level line at a fixed height with material transfer; contact with a person or a light machine leaves a soft, broad mark, often with fabric or rubber traces and no deformation of the panel. The two pictures are different.

Who decides what is accepted here?

The insurer decides, and a disputed claim is carried by a recommended lawyer. Our part stays technical: the mark, its height, its direction and which object fits it. Questions of fault, of priority on the road and of anything concerning people are outside a technical finding.