Knocked over and car hit. 3rd party now denying liability.

paddedjohn

Depends on the layout of the road, I've driven 100,000s of miles around this country and some laybys are not in the best positions and in bad visibility the only marker for an oncoming driver to head for may be the lights of the parked vehicle.

paddedjohn

auroan wrote: »

This is a lay by




This is not a layby

I've seen laybys as small as the white lined area in your first pic.

Dukesy

paddedjohn wrote: »

I've seen laybys as small as the white lined area in your first pic.

Fair point, some are small. But it was, as I wrote in my OP, a relatively large one. I just think she wasn't looking where she was going, personally.

spacey2012

A layby is part of the carriageway, unless it is separated by a dashed or solid white line.
You are only permitted to park against traffic flow on a road with a speed limit above 40mph in a designated parking place.
It can be seen how the driver in poor visibility situation may make the mistake on seeing white lights facing that the road had bent.
It would certainly be an area that the insurance company will look at.
The OP would be far better preparing for the eventuality that the Elephant in the room might come in to play.
These are the traffic regulations and they are in place for this exact reason, that if you park on the wrong side of the road with your lights on, someone may misjudge the situation.

auroan

Lets be precise shall we. Either way the OP is not at fault. The highway codes does not state anything about the direction of parking. Only the following with regards to a layby

223. All vehicles MUST display parking lights when parked on a road or a lay-by on a road with a speed limit greater than 30 mph.

224. Cars, goods vehicles not exceeding 1525kg unladen, invalid carriages and motorcycles may be parked without lights on a road (or lay-by) with a speed limit of 30 mph or less if they are

• at least 10 metres (32 feet) away from any junction, close to the kerb and facing in the direction of the traffic flow
• in a recognised parking place or lay-by. Other vehicles and trailers, and all vehicles with projecting loads, MUST NOT be left
• on a road at night without lights.

A lay by is classed as a recognized parking space. There for the following does not count;

222. You MUST NOT park on a road at night facing against the direction of the traffic flow unless in a recognised parking space.

Splott

Hackman wrote: »

The lights have nothing to do with it. The actual offence would be parking on the offside during the hours of darkness.

Please show me where that exists for a layby in the Road Traffic Act

fivetide

OP - glad your little one was ok. Must have been a hellish experience.

I had a lorry bump my legally parked car once. They also denied liability. I responded to my insurer that I hadn't had time to teach my car the green cross code but it was a sensible wee thing and I felt it unlikely that it would have stepped out in front of the other vehicle. As such the other party was 100% liable.

A few weeks later, all sorted so yes, they do try it on for some reason. Let the uinsurance battle it out but it might not be that quick especially as your car has already been scrapped (if it was in storage they'd be moving faster because the bills would be mounting up)

Strider590

I'd be surprised if she's denying anything, the insurance company is probably just trying it on. Any accident where its not a rear end collision, they'll fight it.

Oh and you shouldn't park facing oncoming traffic, but that's a minor in this case.

Robin-i'-the-Hood

Dukesy...ignore all the garbage from a few of the people on this thread. Why some contributors start with the assumption that you are either lying or haven't got your facts straight is beyond me...(if they think that any reply to your post is utterly pointless) You have lost your car but escaped with your life and your child still has a parent. How people here can witter on about sidelights/facing the wrong way/car the wrong colour (ok, I made the last one up) so making it potentially partially your fault amazes me. Why not go the whole way and say it's your fault for being parked in a layby at all? (although not sure what else a layby is for except to be used...)
Anyway...although you may not consider yourself lucky I'd be grateful if you could PM me your lottery numbers. Thanks.

vikingaero

It's fairly "normal" for the person responsible for a crash to deny liability. It comes down to soul searching and responsibility. "It can't have been me at fault because I've driven for 25 years without an accident." "What can I have done wrong? Maybe it was the other person."

Some people have less responsibility and morals than others which they use as an excuse to exonerate themselves. Hopefully the OP has legal cover.