A TikToker is getting roasted for attempting to blame her car accident on a stationary yellow pole placed in a bank parking lot—and now she’s being quoted $30,000 in car repairs as a result.
Tash (@nat.vacca) questioned the existence of these fixtures in a viral clip, but it seemed like she wasn’t getting any sympathy from viewers. In fact, many people said the bollards in place were performing their purpose: Protecting the bank’s transaction machines from drivers such as her.
“What is the purpose for those yellow poles when you pull out of a bank? Bank owners look what your yellow pole did to my car and I don’t think it was my fault,” she says while looking away from the camera.
The video then transitions to the damage on the car, presumably from the yellow security poles at the bank dragging across it.
“My handlebar came off and I’m gonna need to get an all-new wrap,” she says.
“Oh my God, I can see inside the car from here,” she continues, panning her camera lens across the damage, groaning as she takes in how much her vehicle has been damaged. It also appears that some of the paint scraped off and changed the color of her rear driver’s side rim.
“They’re like two feet tall, who can even see those things? And then you hear a crunch and you freeze and then you keep going and then the next thing you know you’re at an auto body shop and you’ve got nearly $30,000 worth of damage,” she says. “For something that I don’t even know the purpose of?”
The TikToker still questions throughout the clip what the yellow poles are used for: “Just wanna know what the purpose is of those yellow poles. And I can’t be the only one that doesn’t see them.”
@nat.vacca I cant be the only victim to yellow bank polls. #escalade #cadillac #autobody #crunch #matteblack #banks #cement #damage ♬ Whats the purpose – Tash
Hitting poles while driving does seem to be a major issue for some drivers: A 2018 Federal Highway Administration reported on the role these solid fixtures play in accidents across the country writing, “Utility poles caused 2,562 out of 57,475 highway deaths between 2016 and 2018.” A personal injury forum question posed by a driver who accidentally hit one of these poles while leaving a parking lot also posed a similar question, stating that they rammed into one unknowingly.
The Department of Transportation echoed the FHWA’s report statistics concerning utility pole crashes as well, adding even further context that shows how devastating crashes into these poles can be to drivers: “Utility poles were the most harmful event in 2,562 of these fatalities. Hitting a utility pole1 is the most harmful event in over 2 percent of all U.S. traffic …”
In Tash’s case, and other drivers who are presumably riding through parking lots outfitted with these poles, they aren’t doing so at very fast speeds, so any damage that is sustained while scraping up against these poles will primarily be absorbed by vehicles and not those inside the cars.
Combing through the comments section of Tash’s video, it’s difficult to find anyone who sympathizes with her pole-hitting plight—many thought it was strange someone was attempting to blame a stationary object they hit for their accident.
“How can someone hit a stationary object and then try to blame the stationary object?” one user questioned.
Another person joked, “I hear ya. I got rear ended by a tree once.”
Numerous folks were more than happy to answer Tash’s question about the existence of these poles by explaining their function: “Same reason some gas stations have poles/bollards by the gas pumps. So bad drivers hit those instead of the pumps. Cheaper to replace pole than ATM/gas pump.”
This was a reply someone else echoed who penned, “They are called Ballards and they are there to protect the bank from you.”
Traffic Guard also wrote about the function of bollards around banks and ATMs, and the purpose that they serve in the drive-thru areas of many banking institutions.
According to the outlet it serves multiple purposes: One is to function as a lane separator between various drivers who are attempting to process transactions at different kiosks.
The other, as several TikTokers stated, is to stop any accidental damage that may occur as a result of drivers hitting their vehicle into an ATM.
The Daily Dot has reached out to the TikToker via TikTok comment.
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