Car Accident

jenni2607

I had a car accident this morning. I was reversing out of my parking space at home when I was hit by a car coming straight down to the corner where I was parked. Instantly a delivery driver approached me saying he would be a witness that she was speeding.

I know that ordinarily if Im reversing and she was already on the road its my fault, but if she hadnt have been speeding I may have seen her, or had time to stop and avoid this accident. Does her speeding affect blame or is it still my fault?

gilbert_and_sullivan

Delivery driver happened to have a calibrated laser speed gun aimed up the road as the speeding car passed, that'll be the attitude of anyone acting for the other driver?

Much as he's trying to be helpful i doubt he'll be a lot of use, however it can't hurt to offer him up as witness for your insurance company.

You are usually on dodgy ground if anything goes wrong reversing out onto a road.

jenni2607

Surely if you are driving down a road and see a vehicle reversing you stop, or at least slow down? I dont understand how she didnt see me to be honest.

scheming_gypsy

she probably didn't expect you to reverse onto the road while she was driving.

I had a similar incident 3 years ago where I was in her position. I was minding my own business driving down the road when i saw a car beginning to reverse down a road; i carried on driving as it's not up to me to just stop incase they decide they're not going to have any road awareness. As i got closer i realised it wasn't going to stop so i started to slow down and then to try and swerve around it - but it still hit me.
Granted, there was nobody in the car so the driver couldn't stop but it isn't up to the person on the road to give way to somebody who doesn't have right of way. So she probably saw you but didn't think you were going to carry on as though she wasn't there.

gilbert_and_sullivan

jenni2607 wrote: »

Surely if you are driving down a road and see a vehicle reversing you stop, or at least slow down? I dont understand how she didnt see me to be honest.

When trucks are reversing into premises quite correctly from a busy road, many people (misnamed drivers) will mount kerbs and dodge into the fast diminishing space as the truck straightens in order not to wait 5 seconds, they'll be early for their own funerals so no delays at the crem thanks to them.

If you assume every single other driver is a numbskull who can see no further than the end of their bonnet you won't go far wrong, ask any traffic policeman.

Ever wondered why many people buy hefty 4x4's? Landcruisers and the like, one of the reasons is self protection from other drivers with the inability to link sight and reaction.

Strider590

I'm 100% with with you, I feel that drivers speeding in locations where caution needs to be applied, they're the one's who cause the speed related accidents and give the rest of us "spirited drivers" a bad name!

Unfortunately you shouldn't be reversing out onto a main road at all.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_070340

One of my pet hates is people who instead of reversing onto their drive when the roads are quieter in the evening, they reverse out onto the main road during peak rush hour traffic.
It's also far easier to manoeuvre a car around in a small space, when your reversing.
It's not rocket science really, pushing 2 tonnes of metal blindly onto the road, it's asking for trouble.

I found this on another forum, says it all really:

i was reversing out of a driveway onto a main road and had a prang with another car. i was slowly edging out as I could not see what was coming down the road as a van was blocking my line of sight.

Even with a witness, the insurance is unlikely to take your side.
If it were me and I was 100% honestly sure the other driver was driving way too fast, then I'd say I was stationary.

fivetide

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

I had a similar incident 3 years ago where I was in her position. I was minding my own business driving down the road when i saw a car beginning to reverse down a road; i carried on driving as it's not up to me to just stop incase they decide they're not going to have any road awareness.

IMHO it is up to you to anticipate that the other driver might not be able to see you for some reason and slow down.

Fair enough you want to stay on your way and save yourself the 10 seconds or so that you could have used help out another human being and all but to not alter your speed at all is not the best policy.

Road awareness works both ways.

5t.

mikey72

jenni2607 wrote: »

Surely if you are driving down a road and see a vehicle reversing you stop, or at least slow down? I dont understand how she didnt see me to be honest.

She probably thought the same.
"I'm driving down a main road, why is she still trying to reverse out in front of me"

The other thing to remember, if you can't see them, there's a very good chance they can't see you.

And if you did see them, you also have to remember not everyone else has to stop for you I'm afraid.

Hammyman

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

When trucks are reversing into premises quite correctly from a busy road, many people (misnamed drivers) will mount kerbs and dodge into the fast diminishing space as the truck straightens in order not to wait 5 seconds, they'll be early for their own funerals so no delays at the crem thanks to them.

As a lorry driver I experienced this often. By far the worst was a rat run in Huddersfield where they would actually drive into the factory entrance to get past me.

In Harrogate I was once reversing out of a factory onto a road. There was a banksman in full high viz gear stood in the middle of the road behind me stopping traffic. One woman in a BMW X5 decided she didn't want to wait the 20 seconds she would have to so drove round him, up the pavement and around me. If I had been looking in the other mirror when she decided to do this I'd not have seen her and pinned her to the house wall.

scheming_gypsy

fivetide wrote: »

IMHO it is up to you to anticipate that the other driver might not be able to see you for some reason and slow down.

Fair enough you want to stay on your way and save yourself the 10 seconds or so that you could have used help out another human being and all but to not alter your speed at all is not the best policy.

Road awareness works both ways.

5t.

There was no reason a driver couldn't have seen me which was why there was no need for me to slow down until it was getting obvious they weren't going to stop.... which is quite common in driverless cars.

InsideInsurance

Speeding in itself is not considered an act of negligence. The only argument is not that they were speeding (ie breaking the law) but that they were driving too fast for the road layout/ conditions (which could be below or above the legal limit).

Even in these circumstances you would only get a contributory percentage against them as the party reversing and the part joining a carriageway is always going to have the greater duty of care. From memory the best I ever achieved for speeding was 30% of the blame but to be honest in most cases, and probably this one, I wouldn't have tried to argue it. The fact you have a witness means it could be worth a punt but your insurers will be wanting to balance the probability of getting circa 10-20% of their outlay back against the loss of being able to control the TP's claim by accepting liability and dealing directly.