Car on pavement..

uptomyeyeballs

I live in a narrow residential street. Sometimes cars park on the pavement in front of my house. In some cases, if i'd been in a wheelchair, I wouldn't have been able to get out of my own front door, let alone onto the path.

I've had a long wheelbase white van parked out the front of my house before, with wheels on the path and about 2ft of clearance space to get out of my front door. Not nice. As well as pavement parking there is also a problem with commercial/business vehicles being parked in front of domestic property. Ugly vans, trucks and wagons of huge size.

Jay_Tee

jacobsdaduk wrote: »

The law is quite specific about this.

The pram owner is responsible for the damage. They should have exercised due care when passing and didn't, causing damage. The car driver could bring civil action against the owner of the pram and I suspect they would have reasonable prospects.

While I understand where you are coming from this I'm not so sure that the prospects of a full recovery for the damage is that good.

In court the Judge is likely to look at all the circumstances and apportion responsibility accordingly, can you really say that a driver who breaks the law by obstructing or partially obstruction a footway is completely blameless if their vehicle is damaged? I wouldn't and I suggest it would be apportioned 50/50.

I would also think it's pretty unlikely that a driver would know who caused the damage, when my car has been damaged I've never been able to find out who did it.

shellsuit

Where does it say the pram owner did the damage on purpose?

What if it was done accidentally?

I've just moved house, and we live in a square with a pavement all the way around and a green in the middle.

I've witnessed the people who live in the corner, parking not only up their drive, but right across the pavement leading up to their drive too, which meant I had to come off the pavement with the pram, go on the road, then back up the pavement.

Not a huge problem, but one I shouldn't have had to encounter, and what if someone is in a wheelchair? It's not so easy to bump one of those up and down pavements!

Some people think they own not only the road, but the surrounding land too ~ selfish pigs.

JQ.

shellsuit wrote: »

Where does it say the pram owner did the damage on purpose?

What if it was done accidentally?

It makes no difference whether the damage was accidental or not. If I crash my car into the back of yours, it being an accident would not provide me with a defence against me paying for the damage I cause.

I don't think think anyone doubts who has the moral high ground in this situation, but that's not the question that was being asked.

shellsuit

JQ. wrote: »

It makes no difference whether the damage was accidental or not. If I crash my car into the back of yours, it being an accident would not provide me with a defence against me paying for the damage I cause.

I don't think think anyone doubts who has the moral high ground in this situation, but that's not the question that was being asked.

But we would both be on the road because that is where we are meant to be.

MrsE_2

I'm a car driver, I HATE drivers who park on the pavement.

Pavements are for people, roads are for cars, simple.

jacobsdaduk

shellsuit wrote: »

But we would both be on the road because that is where we are meant to be.

That's not the point - it could happen in a field when you're at a car boot sale, on a petrol station forcourt or in a carpark.

jacobsdaduk

Jay_Tee wrote: »

In court the Judge is likely to look at all the circumstances and apportion responsibility accordingly, can you really say that a driver who breaks the law by obstructing or partially obstruction a footway is completely blameless if their vehicle is damaged? I wouldn't and I suggest it would be apportioned 50/50.

Not at all. The judge would need to take in to consideration the cause of the damage. In this case, it was the person pushing the pram in to the car. Granted the car shouldn't have been on the pavement, but the judge would consider that the vehicle was there to be seen and it's not unreasonable for the person pushing the pram to cross the road to avoid the car. Therefore, I would suggest that liability rests more with the person pushing the pram than the owner of the parked and unattended vehicle.

Of course it depends on the judge on the day and there is always a chance he would consider it unreasonable for the vehicle to be parked on the pavement. However, if the claimant could prove that it was not unusual and that this happened frequently due to parking requirements/built up area/lack of off street parking things could be much different.

It is also worth noting that you are not allowed to instruct a solicitor to defend or represent you in a Small Claims hearing and those people considering taking action should be confident of their case before litigating.

MrsE_2

jacobsdaduk wrote: »

That's not the point - it could happen in a field when you're at a car boot sale, on a petrol station forcourt or in a carpark.

All places where cars are allowed.

They are only permitted to park on pavements in the few places its signposted as allowed.

confused1234_2

I'm a car driver and a pram pusher (lol).

Outside my house I do park half on the pavement. I take care to ensure there is enough space for a double buggy, mobility scooter/wheelchair user etc to get by, luckily the pavement is fairly wide anyway. I park half-and-half because we live very near to a busy corner from a main road and the speed people come round the corner is scary, and I am terrified someone hurtling round will go straight into our car if fully parked on the road.

When pushing the pushchair I have encountered too many vehicles parked on the pavement needlessly taking up pavement space that they don't need to, even when you can see they have done it to allow access to larger vehicles. Another culprit I so often come across are transit van drivers working at people's houses who for some inexplicable reason park parallel to the kerb completely blocking the pavement. I refuse to walk out into the road so I go and politely knock on whoever's house they're working at and tell them I need them to move their van, in a nice way of course:D So far every person I've asked has been very apologetic and been quite helpful!