car accident who is liable?

smegy9

here is what happened.

Car A was parked horizontolly on to a road.

Car B was coming vertically down this road.




Car B is doing 20 miles per hr down the road in question when car A decides to reverse out of the parking space quickly.

Car B tries to stop driving down the road, but does not have enough time as car A pulled out to quickly.

Car B then swerves to avoid Car A yet still clips the corner of the back of CarA when skiding in brakelock.


Who is liable for the damage caused in this scenario ?

Car A or B

mattymoo

horizontal and vertical - not sure of your terminology here.

I'm guessing you mean car A is parked in a bay at side of road, at right angles to direction of traffic.

Car B is pootling along as normal, then car A reverses out of parking space into path of car B.

If that is correct, then car A is at fault. You have a very high duty of care when reversing out of a drive / parking area.

Who were you, A or B ?

Labman_2

Was it in a Car Park?

scheming_gypsy

were there any witnesses?

if car b clips the back corner or car a the driver of car a could say car b tried to overtake and hit them. Although car a was reversing if there are no witnesses its one word against the other and as car b hit car a from behind with no witnesses it might be difficult to argue what actually happened.

The horizontal and vertical bit doesn't help much. Were you in a car park, were they reversing out of a drive or are the parking spaces where you face the kerb / road. The position of the damage in relation to the angle of the car can help insurance assessors determine who was to blame.
(i've just confused myself)

pault123

I'd say car B was at fault for not paying attention to the side of the road. Driving defensively car B should have been expecting a car to reverse out and therefor been ready to brake if need be.

System

pault123 wrote: »

car B should have been expecting a car to reverse out and therefor been ready to brake if need be.

There is a world of difference between being ready to brake and having sufficient time/distance to do it to avoid an accident! The fact that car B managed to swerve and only clip car A indicates that car B may well have been expecting something but still did not have enough time to achieve full avoidance

mattymoo

pault123 wrote: »

I'd say car B was at fault for not paying attention to the side of the road. Driving defensively car B should have been expecting a car to reverse out and therefor been ready to brake if need be.

Defensive driving is a positive thing but immaterial in this case. Car B is already established on the road, car A is joining it from a parking space. B has right of way so A is liable.

Of course, the above depends on some assumptions that Smegy9 has not yet confirmed are correct.

cmrule

Car A pulled out into on coming traffic so, in my opinion, car A is to blame

Idiophreak

!!!!!! wrote: »

There is a world of difference between being ready to brake and having sufficient time/distance to do it to avoid an accident! The fact that car B managed to swerve and only clip car A indicates that car B may well have been expecting something but still did not have enough time to achieve full avoidance

I was always taught that you should always be able to stop comfortably in the distance you can see between yourself and the nearest potential hazard.
(not saying I do this, just saying what I was taught )

If you fail to stop in time when a hazard occurs, you've only really got yourself to blame.

Car B was either going too fast or driving too close to the parked cars, one or the other.

System

On a normal road there is a potential hazard about every 3 feet. Do you drive at less than 5MPH?

Idiophreak

!!!!!! wrote: »

On a normal road there is a potential hazard about every 3 feet. Do you drive at less than 5MPH?

Only every 3 feet? Whenever you're driving there's risk of a hazard...whether it be a rhino running across the road, a plane crashing into the road, your car may burst into flames etc etc - it's always there...it's just there's a very low probability of these things happening.

In terms of high-probability hazards, they're much less frequent, so most people judge it safe to drive above 5mph most of the time.