Hi there ppl,

i was invloved in a car accident recently where i was driving though a car park (with car parking bays to my right and to my left). As i was driving through, i noticed a car about 10-20 metres infront pulling out of a bay, so as anyone would have done I stopped to give the driver way. As i was parked stationary waiting for this vehicle, I was hit by another vehicle which was trying to reverse out of a parking bay to my left.

I was parked directly behind him, so he should have checked all his mirrors but unfortunately he didnt and so went straight into my passanger side.

I am not claiming through  my insurance company and have decided to go through a independant claims (no win no feee) company as it was clearly wasnt my fault and I did not want to make a claim on my insurance.

the way i am looking at this case and this is what someone else told me is like this; imagine me driving down a main road (through the car park) and a car suddenly pulling out of a side road (in this instance car parking bay), so this is clearly the third partys fault?

could anyone please give me some help as to whose fault it will likely to be as I am worried the third party might twist their story of what happened.

thanks

 I look out or the rear window and mirrors while reversing,clearly his fault.

the way i am looking at this case and this is what someone else told me is like this; imagine me driving down a main road (through the car park) and a car suddenly pulling out of a side road (in this instance car parking bay),

You forgot to put reversing without looking,will never be your fault mate

its the other cars fault mate, they should have checked behind before they made the manouvre.

The party undertaking the more complicated manouvre has the higher duty of care. Which in this case is the party reversing. You should not have any issues at all mate.

 Similar to an bump I had years ago. Was sat in a queue of traffic waiting to get out of the multi-storey in Kendal. A bloke walked past the front of my car, got into his own car (in the bay that I was waiting behind) and reversed straight into me! He must have known I was there as he walked past me to get to his car!! Anyway, he paid up so didn't need to go down the legal route, but this will clearly be the other party who is at fault.

 thanks for the replies ppl, much appreciated, makes me feel a lot better.

the only worry i have is that some ppl like to twist their story on what happened and because of this im thinking he might try putting the blame on me.

got any witnesses? including the person you were letting out, their testimony would be the best probably.

ive had someone accept responsibility on the spot so didnt think to get witnesses names etc, then as soon as insurers got on the case, they said it was my fault. a court summons soon got them to change their mind though. learnt from that. had the slightest knock with someone losing control, instantly stopped in the middle of the road and got the people around me to hand over names and numbers.

 You should have got his details there and then and either claimed from his insurance or claimed through yours. If it comes back that he was at fault (sounds like he was) then your insurance company would claim all costs off his insurance company and it wouldn't affect your renewal premium at all.

I had to do this when someone reversed out of a parking bay into my car about 4 years ago.

 There wasnt any witnesses for either of us, so its my word against his really. I got all the details but I have a feeling that as there was no witnesses it might go down as partially my fault and partially his (as this was the case when i had an accident last december when i was hit and it went in my favout 70%/30% due to the fact that it was my word against his.

exactly the same thing happened to me last year in sainsburys. however i didn't drag anything out! I just marched her over to the cash point and made her pull out £150 hard cash for my scuffed bumper. either that, or it's through her insurance. why would you arse around?

You were stationary, he was the moving vehicle and he hit you - totally his fault.

Is there CCTV where the accident happened?  If so, get over there and ask to see the footage.

However, he may claim you tried to squeeze past whilst he was reversing and you've collided with eachother as opposed to him reversing into you.  Did you take pictures of the scene/damage on your phone/camera?

I would have let this one go through the insurance, after all that's what we pay it for anyway - to cover incidents like this.

Good luck and keep us updated.

 from a legal point of view i would say definatley their fault, as you weren't moving how could it possibly your fault?

similar to when you stop at lights and you get rear ended, has to be their fault as they are not paying attention to the ever changing conditions and obstacles.

 'efunc' i asked whether he wanted to go through insurance or just hand over some cash to cover the damage to my car but he was a stubborn old man and demanded we went through insurance, so  i just thought no point arguing as he hit me so whichever it goes it will be in my favour.

thats a very good point u made 'cheeky chappers' because the other driver as soon as he got out of the car said "you were going to fast" so i think he will try to say that i tried to squeeze behind him whilst he was reversing. if this is going to be the case, what do you reckon the outcome willl be because it is this what is worrying me.

yh i was stationary but his side of the story may say the opposite.

thanks

you may well have considered that at the time. why would he insist on going through his insurance if he wasn't going to try and refute your claim? if he accepted blame you should have taken his signed admission and he would also have favoured paying you on the spot to avoid repercussions. It's all a bit more complicated now by letting it hang.

Surely the damage to the cars will prove you were stationary?

If you were squeezing past him whilst he was reversing I'd say the damage on your car should be a long ripply scrape down the side of the car until you stopped moving.

If you were stationary and he reversed into you I'd say the damage on your car should be a promanent dent with a tiny scrape.

This is why I would have gone through insurance as I'm sure you can request that an assessor checks the damage for this sort of thing where no witnesses are involved

As for witnesses I take it both yourself and him had no passengers in either vehicles?

 he had someone in his car but she was a young girl probably about the age of 8, i had no one in my car but thhere were not any independant witnesses.

insurance assesors never came out for our previous accident. we explained the accident via a sketch and they based their decision on that, and it came down too 70% his fault and 30% mine. we were then told to get a cost of repair to our car, and that we would revieve 70% of the total claim. if thats right?

It's the reversing car's fault not yours. If I was you I'd get onto my insurance asap for them to sort it out with the other party. You shouldn't lose any no claims or money on this. Was there any cctv in the car park that you could use?

 as chappers said, the damage will show that you were stationary. get photos of the damage from every angle showing there are no scrape marks and that the impact was pretty much perpendicular to the car. this will instantly show that you were not moving at the time, thus, alieviating you of fault

 unfortunately there is no cctv, but the damage that has occured clearly shows that it has been hit and not scraped, so it shows i was not moving.

 is it normal for the damage on my car to be worse than the damage on his car as there was some damage to his car (mercedes) but it caused some dents in mine as he reversed at some speed. i was told by some1 that the rear of the car is the strongest part of the car and this will cause more damage to mine (is this true?)

 thus throwing his argument of you going too fast straight out the window.

if the insurance companies try to make you accept a 50/50 claim or similar, withdraw it and take him to the small claims court. the 3rd party insurer will most likely pay up straight away. if the other guy also withdraws from insurance and goes to court, as long as its clear you were stationary, then the judge is likely to go to your favour

 bumpers will absorb the damage. thats the point of them, hence being plastic, they will flex and pop back out. metal however will dent and crease and stay put, making the damage to your car worse

same with the above incident i had, the girl that reversed into me, her car was fine as she hit me with her bumper, but my wing was dented and creased and un repairable

 thanks a lot guys, all your advice has ben much apprecitaed. i forgot to mention that I am going through an independant claims company and not my own insurance company for the reason that it wasnt my fault. i am now waiting on the third party, as the claims company have contacted the third part but no response from them yet. so we will wait and see how it goes. i will keep u informed. thanks again