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The story
A dashcam clip posted to 5ch shows a kei car clipping and damaging a concrete block and white pole set up at the entrance to a private residence. Cutting the wheel wide on a narrow residential street, the driver swung into the property line, knocked the barrier flying, and drove off. The thread split between those saying “the driver’s the one at fault for cutting into private property in the first place” and those countering “the homeowner’s placement of the block on a low-visibility street is also a problem.” The debate didn’t stop there — it spread into the legal treatment of hit-and-runs and whether the victim was right to hand the dashcam footage over to the media, with opinions sharply divided.
Who do you guys think’s at fault here?
Source: video.twimg.com / original clip here
What people said
So true.
Car's 100% at fault, case closed
Sounds like you're from Kyoto (Kyoto natives have a reputation for that passive-aggressive brand of politeness)
Can't just plop it down without asking
If it's within their own property line, that's not an issue
Is that really true, though?
The homeowner's spite does feel pretty "Kyoto" though
Just give the plate-number video to the police and be done with it
Kind of a nasty move, no?
If it makes guys like you squirm, that's a win in itself
Was the driver just yanking the wheel around carelessly?
Giving the driver every benefit of the doubt, maybe visibility was bad and they pulled out too far
Though they clearly never even noticed the block itself
Probably cars were already cutting into the property all the time before the block went up, so they installed a camera and the block together
I mean, it's their private property, so they can do whatever they want with it, but…
is it really that annoying having cars clip the edge of it now and then?
My place isn't built like that so it'd never happen to me, and honestly I can't picture how it'd feel
Of course it'd be annoying
Obviously it'd be annoying
Even I, on foot or on my bike, end up drifting into
someone's driveway when there's no room to pass a car
That makes no sense
There's no need to drift onto someone's property
They probably figured an open-style yard would be cheaper and easier for pulling the car in and out at first
Goes to show — if you're building a house, go with a closed, gated layout
Cost of the block wall? Damages for "emotional distress"?
Push for criminal charges over property damage?
Trespass and property destruction charges are a tough sell when it's just negligence
and the video clearly shows it wasn't intentional
If they've got a legal-fee insurance rider, about the best they can do is claim against the other driver's property-damage insurance
If the other driver isn't insured, they're just out of luck and eating the loss
Probably damages for emotional distress
Pretty spiteful move ("ikezu," as they'd say in Kyoto)
They turn around right in my yard and I've never once been bothered by it
Some people say something before pulling in to turn around, some don't — honestly couldn't care less either way
Not everyone out there is as big-hearted as you
If anything, it's probably designed to go flying and hit the car
Otherwise why set it up like that?
It was never going to stop a car from plowing through anyway, so lighter is actually better
What exactly is wrong with that?
Once you've got the plate number, you know who did it
from there, a scolding from the police and any civil back-and-forth should be straightforward
But going out of their way to hand the video to the media too
piling on social punishment with a "look at this idiot driver" story — isn't that overkill?
Whoever drives through a spot like this is definitely a neighbor, probably someone they know by face
Of course it'll become the talk of the neighborhood — at that point it's basically just personal spite
You think they went out of their way to offer it up themselves?
More likely some media outlet sniffed the story out and came asking, "would you mind sharing the footage if that's okay…?" and since handing it over doesn't hurt them as the victim, they just went along with it
So what's actually the problem here?
If you don't want this happening to you, just don't hit-and-run in the first place
but if they don't want to get hit, they should put up a wall that's actually a noticeable height
Why go with such a low wall and a flimsy pole-with-chain setup?
Sure, cost is a factor, but a taller wall also kills visibility
and if it ever falls over, the secondary damage would be even worse
Think it through a little more
There's already a white pole there
Any taller and they'd need rebar reinforcement, plus it'd block sightlines — I think this setup is actually the best compromise
They're a hit-and-run criminal — isn't it only natural to warn the neighborhood to stay on guard?
If the media reported every single case like this, there wouldn't be enough airtime in the news
It'd turn into a YouTube compilation channel
Got drenched first thing in the morning and it totally killed my mood
If they were going fast enough to splash you like that, there's basically no way for them to know afterward whether they actually splashed you or not
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Placing a concrete block or white pole at the entrance to one’s property is a common self-defense measure in residential areas with “open” yards (no gate or wall), where the boundary with the road is ambiguous — and, as in this case, that kind of setup isn’t rarely prone to inviting collisions. A hit-and-run involving only property damage and no injury tends to be treated as a minor offense, like a violation of the duty of safe driving, rather than full-blown property destruction, unless intent can be proven — which makes the thread’s talk of “legal-fee insurance riders” and “property-damage insurance” a fairly realistic read of how this would actually play out. The real point of disagreement was over how to weigh fault: the principle that “any driving that crosses even slightly onto private property is 100% not okay” clashed with the local custom that “on narrow residential streets, people have always quietly tolerated a bit of encroachment.” The other flashpoint was whether the victim was right to hand the dashcam footage to the media — some argued it amounted to a de facto public shaming, while others countered that it’s a legitimate countermeasure as long as the driver never came forward. None of this has a clear legal answer, and it’s worth remembering how much it comes down to regional and personal differences in perspective.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “[Video] Apparently if you’re unlicensed, you think it’s the homeowner’s fault here, not the car’s.”
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