Car Accident Blame?

[CraigMcK]

Hi

Just looking for some thoughts

 

My wife was parked in a local shopping centre carpark, they use a one way system.

She was coming out of a space as a car drove past, she shopped to let him go by until he was about 4 or 5 spaces along. She then continued to reverse out of the space looking in the direction of the normal traffic flow.

Unfortunately the car that passed decided to reverse back down the one way system (approx 20M or so) and ran into her. As they were moving fairly slowly there was no huge damage, but enough to warrant an insurance claim.

 

My question is who would be to blame for this? My wife as she was going into the road, or the other party for reversing down a one way street?

 

Thanks

[kerrywba]

Common sense would dictate it was the fault of the moron who decided to drive the wrong way in a one way system! I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen people drive against the arrows in car parks, they're asking for trouble!

[dw190]

Hi

Just looking for some thoughts

 

My wife was parked in a local shopping centre carpark, they use a one way system.

She was coming out of a space as a car drove past, she shopped to let him go by until he was about 4 or 5 spaces along. She then continued to reverse out of the space looking in the direction of the normal traffic flow.

Unfortunately the car that passed decided to reverse back down the one way system (approx 20M or so) and ran into her. As they were moving fairly slowly there was no huge damage, but enough to warrant an insurance claim.

 

My question is who would be to blame for this? My wife as she was going into the road, or the other party for reversing down a one way street?

 

Thanks

 

Make sure you send plenty of photos of the one way system and a good sketch of the positions of the vehicles.

[crem]

As we often debate on this forum about the "legality" of yellow lines and other such markings on private land (like in a car park), then I am afraid the same could be said of the arrows etc which would fall into the "other such markings" category. while I'm sure we all agree that the arrows are there to help us all and we shold follow their guidance, no offence has been committed by the other driver that will aid your case.

 

Car park bumps are notorious for the insurance companies reaching straight for the the 50/50 rule book. You will both end up paying your excess, loosing your NCB and paying through the nose for the next couple of years. Whenever financially viable, I think the drivers are better trying to resolve it themselves.

[tiredTraveller]

it's not just carparks - I used to live in a house with a clear view of a one-way road and it seems that every 3rd driver thought that one-way only applied to the direction the car was pointed in. So long as the front of the car was pointing the right way it didn't matter, so throw it into reverse and drive down it as far as you like.

[Ganymede]

As we often debate on this forum about the "legality" of yellow lines and other such markings on private land (like in a car park), then I am afraid the same could be said of the arrows etc which would fall into the "other such markings" category. while I'm sure we all agree that the arrows are there to help us all and we shold follow their guidance, no offence has been committed by the other driver that will aid your case.

 

Car park bumps are notorious for the insurance companies reaching straight for the the 50/50 rule book. You will both end up paying your excess, loosing your NCB and paying through the nose for the next couple of years. Whenever financially viable, I think the drivers are better trying to resolve it themselves.

 

 

I would agree, sounds like a 50/50 to me.