So, I just moved to a gated country club. And by gated, I mean cast iron gated. Im on my way out at 8 AM this morning, as I always am, about 3 cars behind an SUV doing 35 towards the 5th of 5 exit gates (1 per section, I live in the 5th section). Now, these gates are REQUIRED to stay open (IN and OUT) from 4 am until 6 pm so the construciton workers (As they are not done here) need a way to get in and out without having the key cards to the gates.

That being said, the suv goes through the gate, and my eyes are focused on the left side of the gate (each gate has a left and right that swing towards the middle to close). So, I notice the right gate shimmeying back and forth like the wind was hitting it, no big deal. Well, it wasnt the wind, the gate somehow decided on its own (electrical malfunction possibly) to close only the RIGHT gate. Now keep in mind, these gates DO NOT close between 4 and 6. Well, with the speed it closed at (MUCH faster than it normally should have) I had about 10 feet of space to work with before it hit my car. I dove at the left side of the gate, hoping I could clear it, but I just didnt have enough room or time. I blasted the gate at approx 15-20 mph. Bumper is 100% ruined, as is the passenger side fender. I have no idea how the headlight survived, but it had NO damage done to it (thank god).

I immediatly brought my car to the body shop to be looked at, picked up a polaroid camera and snapped some pics waiting for my g/f to get there to pick me up. Right now, those are the only pics I have, but if someone can tell me how to put pics up, I'll show you guys the damage. After that, I went over to the Safeguard hut and filed an incident report, and just my luck, thats the only one of the 10 gates (5 sections, 1 in 1 out per) that has NO camera on it. So now, I gotta hope that the association will pay for my car as the gate itself was at fault here for swinging shut on my car.

Oh well, free day off work as I now have to deal with this ****.... looks like Ill be an SUV man for the next few days.

 

Sorry to hear about the freaking gate incident. Yea just bad luck...I also know whatcha mean about the no camera thing. Back when I was working at a hospital, some other employee hit my car when he/she tried parking next to me in stalls and decided to jam. Security said that was the only aisle w/o cameras. gee great! haha

Two ways to post...scan it and attach it or find a online host so you can cut and paste the http:// link. Check out my attached pics to show you where they are.

 

Go to edit post, than all the way at the bottom, manage files, click and upload away. 100K max per pic.

 

no offense...but why didn't you just stop and wait to see what the gate was going to do?

Good luck with the repairs. Our gate has foam pads on the sides and they pop back open if something is in the way. But we also have a gaurd too.

Hooman

Hooman

 

Hooman, the gate closed AS I passed through it. The gate is supposed to operate at 1-3 MPH max. It looked like the locking mechanism gave out and it was moving atleast double to triple the speed it should. Even locking my brembos and cutting left wasnt enough to avoid it. The wind always jitters the gates around so it wasn't surprising to see.... it kinda looked like the equivilent of a guiliotene being released at my car.

We have guards too, but only at the primary 2 gates, the other 3 just have big cast iron gates and tire shredders. $1600 in damages, getting paid for by the Association... so I'm pretty much paying dues to have someone pay to fix my car. Oh well, hopefully this will be resolved within the next few days. I'm going out to lunch now, I'll snap some pics when I get back. Also, the gate is now bungee corded open, so obviously there was more of a problem then I thought. The woman at the desk told me it was the third time in two days that this has happened, so obviously there is an issue. LJN and Gee thanks for the info.

 

Good to hear they will be paying for it.