Who’s Fault?

[alscar]

If my son I would be saying to him “ sounds a bit 50/50 in the real world “ and as such each driver should pay for any damage to their own vehicle only as wouldn’t think putting an insurance claim in ( and certainly not for your son ) sounds prudent.

[yellowjack]

NGee said:

Oh the irony of it!

I am not trying to pick any fights and I was trying to keep the thread on topic by pointing out that your idea of how to drive down a narrow road is just plain wrong, as explained by nearly every other post in the thread.

I am sorry that you cannot understand that.

Leave 'em to froth. Sounds like the sort of person that could have an argument inside a diving helmet.

Like others have said on this thread, I reckon that the OP's teenager has done nothing wrong. If folk are going to keep private property on public roads then other people will be forced to deal with situations like this. In my opinion it's best to ignore which side the parked cars are on. Or imagine that they are on both sides. Now who has "right of way" (priority )? Answer, to me is simple. Priority lies with whichever driver entered the narrowed section of the road first. And it is the responsibility of the other driver to either assess/negotiate/communicate with the ESTABLISHED driver, and proceed WITH CAUTION, or to wait until the narrow section of road is clear. Being willing to cause a collision (no matter how minor) just because "it.s my right of way, innit, Bruv" is the preserve of the terminally stupid. I really wish that the government would bring back to Public Information Films of days gone by. Surely some effort should be made to maintain an ongoing education process for all road users. There is, outside of some natural disaster or WW3, no chance of our roads getting less busy so it's more important than ever to communicate and negotiate with other road users so that everyone gets home safely and we all keep our cars out of bodyshops.

[Chrisgr31]

heebeegeetee said:

OP, was the situation similar to this?
https://youtu.be/9Y_E4dbGD24

How stupid are some people! I think it was similar although there was in theory from for each to pass each other.

Anyway the other driver has managed to find a witness who was in the car behind them. This is a bit odd as after the incident my child continued a few car lengths and stopped in the previously mentioned gap. In the meantime the guy going the other way carried on turned round and parked behind them. No one else stopped so how he got the witness details is a mystery!

The other driver wants to report the incident to police and insurance company. Presumably has forgotten it will have an impact on his own premium as well!

No prizes for guessing my thoughts

[mattyprice4004]

They're within their right to report to their ins co, but I think they'll get a horrible surprise when at best it goes 50/50, at worst it's found to be entirely their fault.
What a plum - if they could see he was established with nowhere to go (and admitted that...) why are they wanting to take it to the police?

[catman]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Many of us have had this scenario. Usually favourite is to mark it down as one of those things, and each sort out their own repair.

I’ve done the same as Pica

This would be my solution too. There's no way that I would be offering the other driver any money. They will get the idea from this that you are accepting a level of responsibility for the accident and who knows where that could lead.

I doubt that they would report this to their Insurance company, so let them pay for their own mistake.

[Cyberprog]

I think the main issue here was that while the new driver was established - they didn't take a commanding presence of the gap. As we gain experience, we learn when a gap is too narrow and tend to straddle the whole gap preventing an oncoming car from doing this.

If a oncoming car does approach, you stay straddled as long as possible so they slow also, then move over and you can both squeak by - though this is usually only aholes who try this! Most other drivers will wait (rightly) at the end.

A learning experience no doubt for the new driver!

[ScoobyChris]

DanL said:

In future they could take a position even further over the line to discourage drivers from trying to come through, if there really isn’t room for two cars to pass safely…

This! Make the road appear too narrow (without being aggressive) and people will generally give way.

Chris

[spikeyhead]

Allegro_Snapon said:

Sounds painful. I had similar (albeit in the 1970s when parlance was appropriate) going to work at 6 am a Milkman appeared from the ginnel that ran behind our house. "Mate is that your car in the alley?". "No, mine is here on the road but my wifes Austin is in parked in the Ginnel outside our gate". "Ooops sorry, I've just run up your wifes behind and splashed a load of milk, you won't tell the boss will you....".

Free milk for two weeks with a few cheeky bottles of fresh orange pop.

I think I've seen something similar on a video

[BrokenSkunk]

It's 50/50. Both drivers should have stopped to avoid a collision, neither did.
In future if there isn't space for two cars, encourage the teenager to move further out and make it bloody clear that they're using all the available space with no room to squeeze past.

[Chrisgr31]

I'll be able to tell you what the insurance company think. He has submitted a claim. Interesting approach for £130.

[Driver101]

Chrisgr31 said:

I'll be able to tell you what the insurance company think. He has submitted a claim. Interesting approach for £130.

It's not worth it for that cost. A no fault claim can still have an affect of the premium.

If it goes against the teenager, or 50:50, it could have a significant impact.

[Chrisgr31]

Driver101 said:

It's not worth it for that cost. A no fault claim can still have an affect of the premium.

If it goes against the teenager, or 50:50, it could have a significant impact.

Teenagers insurance company said it was unlikely to have a significant impact on the insurance premium even if it went wholly against them because the sum of money involved is so small.

The car has a black box so they can rely on driving style more. Teenager has received no adverse reports from the back box so far, and it did not pick up the incident.

I do wonder though how hard the insurance company will contest the claim when they are talking about such a small sum of money which they aren't paying anyway. However I console myself with the thought that the other driver may end up with a 50/50 claim on their insurance record which will probably cost them more than the £70 saved by rejecting my 50/50 offer.

[NGee]

A lot of insurance policies have a compulsory excess of £200 or more. Obviously we don't know if, or how much, excess is on the drivers insurance but I do wonder if he has thought about that angle.

I suspect a claim for less than your excess could be interesting at renewal!