Ever since Australian National Car Parks has been running its "Pay and Display" parking system, drivers have been asking ANCP to install boom gates. ANCP resisted this call for many years, before finally succumbing in NSW in 2014 (due to new legislation in NSW, ANCP can no longer get driver's names and address from the roads department).
However, the ironic thing is, that after ANCP installed boom gates in their first car park, a lady got hit on the head by the boog gate as she was leaving the car park on foot. The lady, Jacqueline Livsey, then proceeded to sue ANCP in court for damages.
The case was heard on 4th and 5th September 2014 in the NSW District Court. Ms Livsey gave evidence that she parked her car at the Henry Lawson Centre in Penrith. She drove her car in through the boom gates, parked her car, and then to walk back across the car park driveway where she had entered the car park, and across the driveway where cars exited the car park. As she walked across the exit lane, Ms Livsey's head was struck by the boom gate lowering after another car had just left the car park.
The court heard that the boom gate is operated on an automatic mechanism. The presence of a car triggers the ticket mechanism, which is activated to produce a ticket when a button is pressed. When the ticket is collected, the entry boom gate rises to allow entry to the car. On exit, the presence of the car again triggers the operation of the machine. Insertion of the ticket (and if necessary payment of the fee) causes the boom gate to rise to allow exit. Once the car has left the area the boom gate lowers again.
ANCP gave evidence that no other person had ever reported to National Car Parks that they had been struck by this boom gate. Vladimir Kovalenko Area Operations Manager of National Car Parks, said that while working on boom gate mechanisms, his head had many times been struck by a boom gate, "not this one", but he had suffered no injury. A boom gate is designed to "go back up" if it touches something on descent, as it did when it contacted Mr Kovalenko (also know as Vovka Kovalenko).
The court ruled that Ms Livsey did not suffer sufficient injury as to make a claim for compensation. It ruled Ms Livsey, and in favour of ANCP.
See http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/nsw/NSWDC/2014/232.html