Car reversed into me, what should I do?

[Mrsweet1991]

Hi All,

Im in a terrible position, ive just got myself a Q7 and my insurance excess is 3K. 2 days into my insurance ive had a bump! So ill try to explain how it happened:

I was reversing out of my parking bay, my Q7 is now completely out of my bay (front end of the car is clear of parking bay lines)

I see a white reverse light appear behind me, i quickly change from Reverse to Drive but before even getting into Drive the car behind starts reversing! I panik and manage to sound my horn 5 - 6 times but they continued to reverse until they hit me.

I get out in disbelief, two people get out the car and quite frankly seem oblivious to how it happened. One said to me

"was you going into the parking space or?"
"My rear sensors never went off"

Im looking at my big Q7 which at the time of stopping would have been in complete view of his back window and drivers side wing mirror thinking, how can you be that oblivious? Given that hes talking about his "parking sensors" and not knowing if i was "leaving or entering the parking space" he was even in cuckoo land or very likely staring at the reverse sensor screen as it would be impossible not to see my Q7 with any basic check, oh and not to forget 5-6 sounds of the horn, stopping at any of those would have prevented impact.

So im worried now, i have no doubt i wouldnt be at fault, i even had a woman see my distress in the car park and she said she would be a witness and gave me her details. But my excess is £3000! Would i have to pay that and hopefully get it back in a few months assuming the third party was proven at fault?

The guy told me the garage quoted him £250 replace the little bumper piece (I've seen this same piece second hand for £40) but even if i was to contenplate settling outside to avoid a loss of no claims and higher excess, they have years after to claim for injuries...

Could i have opinions please?

To recap on the insident, my cars position at the time of the other car engaging reverse gear was all the way out of the parking bay, my car was at a complete stop the moment their reverse light came on and then bibbed 5 - 6 times before they finally made contact with my car. They have a dent, i dont even have a blemish to my car, and not one of us actually felt the impact so im curious as to whether it could be a con claim (but that can be debated at a later date)

If you've made it this far i appreciate your time and your opinions on the matter.

Edited by Mrsweet1991 on Wednesday 18th January 00:21

Edited by Mrsweet1991 on Wednesday 18th January 00:47

[rainmakerraw]

Mrsweet1991 said:

Hi All,

Im in a terrible position, ive just got myself a Q7 and my insurance excess is 3K. 2 days into my insurance ive had a bump! So ill try to explain how it happened:

I was reversing out of my parking bay, my Q7 is now almost completely out of my bay.

I see a white reverse light appear behind me, i quickly change from Reverse to Drive but before even getting into Drive the car behind starts reversing! I panik and manage to sound my horn 5 - 6 times but they continued to reverse until they hit me.

I get out in disbelief, two people get out the car and quite frankly seem oblivious to how it happened. One said to me

"was you going into the parking space or?"
"My rear sensors never went off"

Im looking at my big Q7 which at the time of stopping would have been in complete view of his back window and drivers side wing mirror thinking, how can you be that oblivious? Given that hes talking about his "parking sensors" and not knowing if i was "leaving or entering the parking space" he was even in cuckoo land or very likely staring at the reverse sensor screen as it would be impossible not to see my Q7 with any basic check, oh and not to forget 5-6 sounds of the horn, stopping at any of those would have prevented impact.

So im worried now, i have no doubt i wouldnt be at fault, i even had a woman see my distress in the car park and she said she would be a witness and gave me her details. But my excess is £3000! Would i have to pay that and hopefully get it back in a few months assuming the third party was proven at fault?

The guy told me the garage quoted him £250 replace the little bumper piece (I've seen this same piece second hand for £40) but even if i was to contenplate settling outside to avoid a loss of no claims and higher excess, they have years after to claim for injuries...

Could i have opinions please?

To recap on the insident, my cars position at the time of the other car engaging reverse gear was all the way out of the parking bay, my car was at a complete stop the moment their reverse light came on and then bibbed 5 - 6 times before they finally made contact with my car. They have a dent, i dont even have a blemish to my car, and not one of us actually felt the impact so im curious as to whether it could be a con claim (but that can be debated at a later date)

If you've made it this far i appreciate your time and your opinions on the matter.

Edited by Mrsweet1991 on Wednesday 18th January 00:21

Quoted for posterity.

You start your post saying you were almost out of your bay, and end it saying you were fully out. Which is it? I'm not a legal bod, nor do I have intimate knowledge of the insurance industry, but a couple of questions spring to mind. Why on earth buy a policy with a £3k excess that you can't afford? If your car is undamaged you wouldn't be making a claim from your insurance for your own car either way, and a claim for your own vehicle is when an excess would be due afaik. What did the witness actually see? You being 'distressed' isn't any kind of help, nor evidence. Did she see the other party reverse at you, whilst you were stationary, and hit you? Witnesses can have a habit of disappearing once they have to start filling in forms etc, so don't bank on them. This could well end up 50/50 I reckon.

[Mandat]

In simple terms this is a collision between 2 cars who are both reversing out of parking spaces.

The insurers will most likely treat this as 50/50 unless the witness is credible enough to sway the liability onto the other driver.

[carreauchompeur]

Your insurance excess relates to damage to your car, not the third party.

[Mrsweet1991]

rainmakerraw said:

Quoted for posterity.

You start your post saying you were almost out of your bay, and end it saying you were fully out. Which is it? I'm not a legal bod, nor do I have intimate knowledge of the insurance industry, but a couple of questions spring to mind. Why on earth buy a policy with a £3k excess that you can't afford? If your car is undamaged you wouldn't be making a claim from your insurance for your own car either way, and a claim for your own vehicle is when an excess would be due afaik. What did the witness actually see? You being 'distressed' isn't any kind of help, nor evidence. Did she see the other party reverse at you, whilst you were stationary, and hit you? Witnesses can have a habit of disappearing once they have to start filling in forms etc, so don't bank on them. This could well end up 50/50 I reckon.

I apologize as they are contradictive. My car was fully out, the front end of the car was clear of the bay lines. And unfortunstely she didn't say much, she walked over to the car and said "would you like a witness", my partner said "yes please, did you see it happen" and she said "yes" it still leaves a grey area because we dont know what she seen. As for the excess i have no problem paying it and the only time my excess went down from 3k is when the premium went to 26k so i had no lee way on the excess because of my past.

[KungFuPanda]

This never happened.

[Mrsweet1991]

Mandat said:

In simple terms this is a collision between 2 cars who are both reversing out of parking spaces.

The insurers will most likely treat this as 50/50 unless the witness is credible enough to sway the liability onto the other driver.

Hi Mandat,

Could i confirm please that this is classed as two cars reversing. My car was completly out of the bay, when the third party selected reverse gear my car was completely stopped, out of reverse and i then bibbed the third party in attempt for them to stop. So from the moment they selected reverse my car remained stationary which is why i didnt think this would be a 2 cars reversing scenario?

Many thanks

[rainmakerraw]

Mrsweet1991 said:

Hi Mandat,

Could i confirm please that this is classed as two cars reversing. My car was completly out of the bay, when the third party selected reverse gear my car was completely stopped, out of reverse and i then bibbed the third party in attempt for them to stop. So from the moment they selected reverse my car remained stationary which is why i didnt think this would be a 2 cars reversing scenario?

Many thanks

So you were stopped and out of reverse, but in your OP you said:

"I see a white reverse light appear behind me, i quickly change from Reverse to Drive but before even getting into Drive the car behind starts reversing! I panik and manage to sound my horn 5 - 6 times but they continued to reverse until they hit me."

Your story has more holes than Swiss cheese mate. If this really happened I'd suggest you get it straight before you write a statement for your insurance company. If you can easily pay the £3k excess, why are you in a 'terrible position' and 'very worried' for £250 worth of damage to the TP's bumper? If you were already out of your bay as you now assert, why not just drive out of the way instead of watching the car reverse at you?

An auto box takes under a second to flick to D and start moving forward, and you say you flicked it from R to D as the TP's reverse lights came on (even though you were already out of reverse in another part of the story). On any auto I've ever driven R and D are next to each other and take a microsecond to switch between. You don't even need to press the button! How on earth did the TP manage to engage reverse, start driving at you and eventually hit you before you could even switch from R to D? Short of actually driving out of the way (if you were actually out of the bay, and were out of R), why not tell the daft sod that they reversed into you and admitted not looking but relying on sensors, so you suggest they might want to fix their bumper rather than lose their NCD? It might not have worked but it'd have given them something to think about before jumping to a claim.

None of this makes a jot of sense so good luck getting the insurer to believe you. If your policies require £3k excesses due to your 'past' and your premiums approach £26k (wtf?) without, it might be time to ditch the wannabe dealer's car and get a K1 Micra. Sorry to sound fatuous but your posts just make no sense and the more you type the worse it gets. If it is a genuine post then I wouldn't worry too much as your car is undamaged, and as I said earlier you'd only pay the excess in relation to a claim for your own vehicle.

Edited by rainmakerraw on Wednesday 18th January 01:05

[Mandat]

Mrsweet1991 said:

Mandat said:

In simple terms this is a collision between 2 cars who are both reversing out of parking spaces.

The insurers will most likely treat this as 50/50 unless the witness is credible enough to sway the liability onto the other driver.

Hi Mandat,

Could i confirm please that this is classed as two cars reversing. My car was completly out of the bay, when the third party selected reverse gear my car was completely stopped, out of reverse and i then bibbed the third party in attempt for them to stop. So from the moment they selected reverse my car remained stationary which is why i didnt think this would be a 2 cars reversing scenario?

Many thanks

If the insurers ask what the 2 vehicles were doing prior to the collision, the honest answer would be that they were both reversing out of their respective parking spaces.

The fact that you might have finished reversing first won't necessarily change the the facts in the insurer's eyes.

[Mrsweet1991]

Hi,

Thanks again for the reply. I suppose jotting it down bit by bit it does make it sound like an easier scenario to do things like just drive away and i've not explained it as well as i could but here goes,

when i said about moving from R to D the third party within that short space of time had already started to reverse their car and the distance between my rear and their rear is like 1m or so.. so we're talking 1 - 2 seconds before impact which is why i frantikly sounded my horn. Furthermore im fairly sure i had started to steer to the left as i stopped the car so if i would have floored it theres a possibility i may have hit the car in front. If you can imagine, when i stopped my car theres probably 1m distance behind me and my bonnet was 2 metres or so from the car in front of me (to the left bay) so there wasnt a huge amount of distance. I would like to post the pics but im sure your not suposed to release them prior to insurance claims?

[405dogvan]

My first-hand experience of car park knocks is that insurers generally rule them as 'no fault' - your insurance will repair you car, his will repair his.

The reason for this is partly that the rules-of-the-road don't technically apply in car parks which makes legal challenges difficult but mostly because they are almost always "he says she says" situations which aren't worth getting involved with.

If this really happened and I was you, I would seek CCTV evidence if available (tho I might have fitted dashcams because of my silly excess so I'd have that already and I'd be GOLDEN)

I guess I'd have to inform my insurer, I'd make it clear I didn't consider myself responsible for the incident and that I didn't intend to pursue a claim for my own damages and that in the event they weren't interested in pursuing the other party as being at fault, I'd be taking them to small claims court (with my CCTV or dashcam evidence, this would be a lot easier of course)

Just saying...

[anonymous-user]

Why put your excess at 3k if you can't afford it? You're clearly driving something beyond your means. Get a cheap car, pay £250 excess, end of.

Treat this as an expensive lesson.

[Mrsweet1991]

Taz1383 said:

Why put your excess at 3k if you can't afford it? You're clearly driving something beyond your means. Get a cheap car, pay £250 excess, end of.

Treat this as an expensive lesson.

Hi Taz,

I never chose 3k excess, it was all that was available given my history. The only time the 3k excess dropped to £250 is when the premiums went to 26k or so as opposed to the 1.7k premium i have now. In addition, i never did say i couldnt pay the 3k, i had money in my bank prior to taking the insurance But.. its potentially a 3k loss so of course its still a big deal regardless.

[Mrsweet1991]

405dogvan said:

My first-hand experience of car park knocks is that insurers generally rule them as 'no fault' - your insurance will repair you car, his will repair his.

The reason for this is partly that the rules-of-the-road don't technically apply in car parks which makes legal challenges difficult but mostly because they are almost always "he says she says" situations which aren't worth getting involved with.

If this really happened and I was you, I would seek CCTV evidence if available (tho I might have fitted dashcams because of my silly excess so I'd have that already and I'd be GOLDEN)

I guess I'd have to inform my insurer, I'd make it clear I didn't consider myself responsible for the incident and that I didn't intend to pursue a claim for my own damages and that in the event they weren't interested in pursuing the other party as being at fault, I'd be taking them to small claims court (with my CCTV or dashcam evidence, this would be a lot easier of course)

Just saying...

Hi,

Well so far i have a witness and there is a possibility of CCTV footage as for a dash cam yes it would have been great but despite my description of the event its still been said that its 2 cars reversing scenario and it would be 50/50 so the excess may play part regardless of the dashcam or not :/

[eltawater]

rainmakerraw said:

On any auto I've ever driven R and D are next to each other and take a microsecond to switch between. You don't even need to press the button!

This is the left hand drive Q7 but you get the idea.

[Boydie88]

Mrsweet1991 said:

Taz1383 said:

Why put your excess at 3k if you can't afford it? You're clearly driving something beyond your means. Get a cheap car, pay £250 excess, end of.

Treat this as an expensive lesson.

Hi Taz,

I never chose 3k excess, it was all that was available given my history. The only time the 3k excess dropped to £250 is when the premiums went to 26k or so as opposed to the 1.7k premium i have now. In addition, i never did say i couldnt pay the 3k, i had money in my bank prior to taking the insurance But.. its potentially a 3k loss so of course its still a big deal regardless.

So you bought the car without checking it was realistically insurable?

Is there even 3k of damage to your car?

[bungz]

3k excess, wow!

[Borroxs]

Mrsweet1991 said:

I never chose 3k excess, it was all that was available given my history. .

[Alex_225]

With the excess being £3k, how much damage must there need to be in a car park knock to bother with using your insurance.

I suspect the other driver will blame you, you're saying it was the other driver so most likely knock for knock unless you have an independent witness. Thing is even if you do claim off your insurance, unless he reversed into you at fairly high speed, a pump or scrape will cost no where near £3k to repair so you'll be footing the bill anyway.

[saaby93]

Mrsweet1991 said:

To recap on the insident, my cars position at the time of the other car engaging reverse gear was all the way out of the parking bay, my car was at a complete stop the moment their reverse light came on and then bibbed 5 - 6 times before they finally made contact with my car. They have a dent, i dont even have a blemish to my car, and not one of us actually felt the impact so im curious as to whether it could be a con claim (but that can be debated at a later date)

If you've made it this far i appreciate your time and your opinions on the matter.

Typical car park accident where someone reverses into a space that was empty when they got in the car but now has another car in it.
Why dont bumpers work as bumpers these days?
If the other driver is going to make a claim you have to tell your insurer what happened but make it clear you were stationary and are accepting no claim against you.
However they may see it as a 50:50 gravy train especially as it'll make your premiums go up ... resist.

As it stands you have no damage to your car, you were stationary, you should be able to not worry about it
The other driver needs to get their car fixed - whether they feel that cost effective putting it through their insurer is for them