Why are some people always having bumps and scrapes but others not have a scratch all their motoring lives?

[dave50]

Is it bad luck or is it lack of awareness of what is going on around them, lack of anticipation, no road sense or a combination of all these? It cant be all bad luck.

[Old_Geezer]

A bit of everything. Whether folk like to admit it or not, much of what we do is left to the subconscious to take care of. Either we have one that does a good attentive job or we have one that scrapes by, maybe literally. Of course if one doesn't bring the consious attention to bear when needed then the number and severity of these scrapes increase.

[TWR]

The way I would answer this Dave, being complacent, It only takes a min for someone to check if there is an obstacle around before parking etc. it's the same as some bus drivers / HGV Drivers that hit bridges ( I've been there) check before you HIT, simple.

[d9f1c7]

spatial awareness is a lot of it, my Mrs seems to forget that there is 6 foot of car behind her so invariably goes up the kerb when turning left. So when turning into somethig that has posts, bang scrape down the side!

[Plumley78]

My mother used to say she was a very good driver as she had no accidents in 30 years of motoring.
She only drove 3000 miles a year.
My father drove about 30,000 miles a year for 40 years plus mileage in hire cars. He has 2 minor accidents in that time and none after retirement.
I have just retired and drove a similar mileage per year for 40 years and had 2 minor accidents.
I consider myself very lucky to match my fathers record as road conditions are now worse.

Plumley

[237SJ]

Sometimes it`s just pure bad luck. Years ago I had a Ford Escort. Two weeks after I bought it a man came out of a side road without looking and went straight into me. Six months later a man went into the back of me in stop-start traffic on an M25 contraflow. A year later a left hand army truck decided to overtake something on the A303 when I was right beside him. He said he didn`t see me. Each accident did about £1000 worth of damage and none of it was my fault. I think that car was unlucky.