Insurance - 50/50 fault?
Discussion
I need a a bit of advice on how to proceed regarding a car park incident that happened this weekend from the assembled PHers. Apologies for the crap schematics, it was the best I could do.
Entered a car park and saw a space on the very end to my right, next to the entrance. "Ideal," I thought, "no car-park dings from idiots opening their doors."
Began reversing into the spare space, being careful to line the car up to the white line on the left side, keeping as far away from the 4x4 parked next to me on my right without going over the white marcation line.
Car lined up very nicely, slowly moving into position, using mirrors at all times. No problem.
Am aware (because I'm looking around - there's lots of young kids in the area) that the 4x4 next to me has started to reverse out.
Suddenly the driver swings his car sharply left as he reverses, the front right-hand corner of this bumper banging heavily into right rear wing in front of the rear wheel, and even putting a big tyre-tread print into my door.
The IQ lurches as though punched, and I can see the driver of the 4x4 looking at us. He motions me to wind down my window. "Was there contact?" he asks. When I nod the pulls forward (with more scraping along the side of my car) and we get out to assess the damage. He admits that he wasn't even looking to his right as he pulled out sharply (what if it was a little kid, I wonder) as he was too busy looking over his left shoulder at the direction he was moving in. We swap details, then he says "I'm not accepting blame for that, 50/50 at best."
Does anyone have any advice how insurance would look at this?
I've asked the local shops to see if it was captured on CCTV, but not sure if there were cameras in that area.
TYIA.
Edited to add...
Highway Code of course says...
Look carefully before you start reversing. You should
use all your mirrors
check the ‘blind spot’ behind you (the part of the road you cannot see easily in the mirrors)
check there are no pedestrians (particularly children), cyclists, other road users or obstructions in the road behind you.
Reverse slowly while
checking all around
looking mainly through the rear window
being aware that the front of your vehicle will swing out as you turn.
Well, he failed at that, then.
Entered a car park and saw a space on the very end to my right, next to the entrance. "Ideal," I thought, "no car-park dings from idiots opening their doors."
Began reversing into the spare space, being careful to line the car up to the white line on the left side, keeping as far away from the 4x4 parked next to me on my right without going over the white marcation line.
Car lined up very nicely, slowly moving into position, using mirrors at all times. No problem.
Am aware (because I'm looking around - there's lots of young kids in the area) that the 4x4 next to me has started to reverse out.
Suddenly the driver swings his car sharply left as he reverses, the front right-hand corner of this bumper banging heavily into right rear wing in front of the rear wheel, and even putting a big tyre-tread print into my door.
The IQ lurches as though punched, and I can see the driver of the 4x4 looking at us. He motions me to wind down my window. "Was there contact?" he asks. When I nod the pulls forward (with more scraping along the side of my car) and we get out to assess the damage. He admits that he wasn't even looking to his right as he pulled out sharply (what if it was a little kid, I wonder) as he was too busy looking over his left shoulder at the direction he was moving in. We swap details, then he says "I'm not accepting blame for that, 50/50 at best."
Does anyone have any advice how insurance would look at this?
I've asked the local shops to see if it was captured on CCTV, but not sure if there were cameras in that area.
TYIA.
Edited to add...
Highway Code of course says...
Look carefully before you start reversing. You should
use all your mirrors
check the ‘blind spot’ behind you (the part of the road you cannot see easily in the mirrors)
check there are no pedestrians (particularly children), cyclists, other road users or obstructions in the road behind you.
Reverse slowly while
checking all around
looking mainly through the rear window
being aware that the front of your vehicle will swing out as you turn.
Well, he failed at that, then.
Edited by MikeT66 on Sunday 8th December 13:02
From very recent experience you'll be lumbered with a 'partial blame' by the insurance companies involved.
Just been through a similar incident whereby a car reversed out of a parking spot and hit my wife's car while she was reversing past to get out of a car park - hit square on the door - insurers refused to budge stating both drivers were equally to blame as they were reversing, although they did admit it would have been the total fault of the third party if my wife had been driving forwards. Unbelievable and annoying to say the least but you can't expect anything else from the parasitic lowlifes imho.
Good luck.
ETA you may be slightly better off if you've took some photos showing how far your vehicle was into the space at point of contact.
Just been through a similar incident whereby a car reversed out of a parking spot and hit my wife's car while she was reversing past to get out of a car park - hit square on the door - insurers refused to budge stating both drivers were equally to blame as they were reversing, although they did admit it would have been the total fault of the third party if my wife had been driving forwards. Unbelievable and annoying to say the least but you can't expect anything else from the parasitic lowlifes imho.
Good luck.
ETA you may be slightly better off if you've took some photos showing how far your vehicle was into the space at point of contact.
Edited by Lonely on Sunday 8th December 14:01
Eurgh, that's going to be hard to say who is fully 100% at fault.
Few years back my wide had pulled into a parking space forward on, looked in mirror and as there wasn't anyone appearing to approach she opened the door, in the second or so from glancing into mirror and opening the door a car came belting into the space next to her, luckily the door was only open around a foot but the impact annihilated the car that hit our door, looked like it had been opened with a can opener. Our car only had a slight amount of damage considering the contact force. At the scene the agreed other drivers fault due to speed, but when claims went in they said our fault for opening the door.
It went on for over 8 months, I had advice that I had a 60/40 chance of winning in court as the damage to their car showed that they were going too fast but there was a chance it could go other way (Tesco refused to send the CCTV footage) so ended up offering that we repair ours, they repair theirs. The outcome after another 3 months being 50/50 blame, which then stung me for the next 5 years on renewals.
Hope you get it sorted, car park prangs are a headache.
Few years back my wide had pulled into a parking space forward on, looked in mirror and as there wasn't anyone appearing to approach she opened the door, in the second or so from glancing into mirror and opening the door a car came belting into the space next to her, luckily the door was only open around a foot but the impact annihilated the car that hit our door, looked like it had been opened with a can opener. Our car only had a slight amount of damage considering the contact force. At the scene the agreed other drivers fault due to speed, but when claims went in they said our fault for opening the door.
It went on for over 8 months, I had advice that I had a 60/40 chance of winning in court as the damage to their car showed that they were going too fast but there was a chance it could go other way (Tesco refused to send the CCTV footage) so ended up offering that we repair ours, they repair theirs. The outcome after another 3 months being 50/50 blame, which then stung me for the next 5 years on renewals.
Hope you get it sorted, car park prangs are a headache.
The corner of the other driver's car crossed the dividing line between your parking space and his. The contact was on the side of your car, not on the corner. Unless you reversed in at some incredibly high speed, I don't see how logically any blame can be placed on you. Of course, logic in apportioning blame may well play less of a part for the insurance companies than minimising their own costs and effort.
CousinDupree said:
I'm slightly confused as your last three illustrations have your car in the same position.
Had you stopped and finished parking before being hit? Or stopped because of the children, when you were hit?
The car park is at the rear of a small shopping precinct - lots of families around. I was just conscious of potential danger, so watching all mirrors and behind when reversing. The 4x4 driver must have already been in the car as I never saw him get in it. The IQ is a pretty short car - I had applied the brake to stop the car in position when I was hit. Had you stopped and finished parking before being hit? Or stopped because of the children, when you were hit?
I can well imagine any insureance company making it 50/50 as it stops them spending time defending the client - but it's bloody frustrating to be held partly responsible when I clearly can't' 'drive' the car sideways into the front of the 4x4. He must have been well over the parking space line as I was lining up as far away from him as possible without infringing on the pedestrian-marked section of the car park.
The parking spaces in question were here, directly behind the red door of the building...
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.503341,-2.417011...
meatballs said:
Don't understand people's logic not willing to take the blame, I doubt insurance premiums are much different between a 50-50 and a 100 claim.
The logic is that some people are t
ts.Sorry to hear this OP - a similar thing happened to my daughter. There's not a lot you can do without independent witnesses.
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff