Dude, Santa hit your car!
That’s what Cordova Bay resident Rick Cochrane was told after the Island Farms Santa’s Light Parade in Victoria on Saturday, when he returned to find his car, parked in a parking lot, pushed onto the sidewalk.
Cochrane tried to brush the man off, assuming he was on drugs.
“Ya, cool man,” Cochrane replied politely.
“No man, Santa and his reindeer hit your car,” the stranger insisted.
Cochrane might have brushed him off again, but the man said: “I have video.”
It turns out, with spotters on duty, the Island Farms Santa float was backing out of its holding position in the parking lot beside the B.C. legislature at Superior and Menzies streets when it rolled into a white 2009 VW Rabbit car, pushing it into the sidewalk.
The float carried about six children and six adults — all wearing seatbelts.
Video shows the rolling hit and the sound of crunching metal can be heard.
The crash happened at about 5:30 p.m. as Santa was about to enter the parade line.
(This year, the Greater Victoria Festival Society moved up the start time of the parade to 5 p.m. and cut some float entries to ensure it wrapped up in about an hour.)
Parade organizers checked to see if anyone on the float or around it was hurt, surveyed the damage to the car, which was dinged but driveable, and left a note with an apology and contact number. ICBC was called the next morning.
“Everything was done correctly and all the kids were wearing seatbelts at the time,” spokeswoman Kelly Kurta of the Greater Victoria Festival Society, which organized the parade, said in an email. “A claim was filed immediately and insurance was notified.”
On parade night, Cochrane and his family walked back to their car before the parade finished, hoping to beat the traffic.
As luck would have it, they passed the Santa float as it left to join the parade.
Santa gave a few waves and chortled out a ho-ho-ho to Cochrane’s son, 10-month-old Bennett. This thrilled the Cochranes and to that point, it was going to be their biggest parade memory.
When Cochrane approached the parking lot and saw his car on the sidewalk, he was thrown. “I knew it was dark and raining but I don’t remember parking on the sidewalk,” said Cochrane.
Though confused, he was focused on helping wife Jenn, son Bennett and mother-in-law Bonnie Michaelis into the car, when the stranger approached with video proof of the crash.
“That’s when it started to click in: ‘He means the Santa and reindeer float hit my car … it’s actually happened,’ ” said Cochrane.
“They were in between a rock and a hard place,” said Cochrane, of the float organizers. “They left a note. They did their due diligence. “They are the last float of the parade, the quintessential float, they had to go.”
Cochrane said the damage to his car “is more cosmetic than anything else.” He said he asked an Island Farms employee who was at the scene not to lose sleep over it.
Cochrane said he chooses to see the humour in it — “it’s kind of hilarious. It was a comedy of errors. The good thing is no one was hurt.”
Cochrane joked he wouldn’t, however, turn down a lifetime supply of Island Farms’ tasty milk.
“It was a great Santa Claus parade,” said Cochrane. “It was a blast. Now it’s a parade we’ll never forget for the rest of our lives. We have all the photos and videos and a good story for Bennett when he’s older.”
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