Mall Parking Lot: It’s Like Bumper Cars With Buicks

Freeways and neighborhood streets aren’t the only places you’ll find road warriors speeding or driving recklessly.

Check out the way many people drive in shopping mall parking lots or parking structures. Even your neighborhood grocery store attracts its share of wild-eyed drivers racing recklessly for the nearest available space.

The result? Vehicle mishaps in parking lots and structures may account for one of every five automobile-crash insurance claims filed, according to a 1998 report from the Independent Insurance Agents of America.

“We’re a much more harried society than we’ve ever been. Shopping malls, especially in metropolitan areas, have become more congested,” said Madelyn Flannagan, assistant vice president for research and development at the IIAA.

“We’re always in a hurry. We want to make sure we get into that parking space. We have other things on our mind and we’re not paying attention,” she said.

Of the 6.3 million accident insurance claims filed in 1997, Flannagan reported, about 30% involved collisions at speeds lower than 20 mph, an indication that a sizable proportion probably occurred in parking lots or structures. More than half of such accidents go unreported to police, the study determined.

About 7% of the accidents at less than 20 mph resulted in injuries that required hospitalization and 0.1% of them involved fatalities. The financial toll is also considerable, with the IIAA estimating that parking lot mishaps cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

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Since law enforcement has no jurisdiction to enforce vehicle code violations on private property--including malls and parking structures--it seems we are at the mercy of private security patrols to keep lots safe from aggressive drivers.

And that isn’t all that comforting, considering these security personnel do not have the authority to enforce traffic laws or issue citations.

Private security officers can remove a driver from the property, but “that’s about all they can do,” Flannagan said.

Even running a stop sign at the mall is not an enforceable offense, because the signs posted by the mall management are unofficial, says Det. Steve Strichart, a traffic investigator for the Long Beach Police Department.

Police officers can enforce speeding or stop-sign laws on roads in shopping centers that are legally designated as roads. But within parking lots or structures, all bets are off.

So even though the speed limit in a parking lot may be posted at 15 mph, you may see drivers traveling at 30 to 40 mph--without risk of getting a ticket.

In Long Beach, Strichart said, officers will respond to a private-property incident if it involves hit-and-run, serious injury or death, or if there is a request for help.

If there is evidence of vehicular manslaughter in a fatal accident, a driver could face prosecution, because manslaughter is a penal code violation.

Fortunately, Strichart said, parking lot collisions are usually low-speed and low-impact, and people rarely get hurt unless a pedestrian is struck.

Nevertheless, said Holly Staszel, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Network in Los Angeles, “we tell people a parking garage or parking lot is like a battlefield. You must be aware of what is going around you at all times.”

A vehicle or pedestrian can “come from any direction at any time, so you’ve got to pay very close attention,” she said. “Lots of times there are blind spots, and you just can’t see around a parked car.”

“Those who speed think they can drive like they were on the street or freeway,” Staszel said. “It’s scary.”