Car prang - who is at fault

Giggidy

Our neighbour next door had their work van parked across their drive (which they usually park at the end of the road) and I slowly reversed off our drive, after having looked both ways to check that the road was clear and moving slowly back. Because of the van obscuring the view in my right blindside, I didn't see our other neighbour across the road pulling out behind the van. So as I reversed, she drove forward also not having seen me, and even though I emergency braked, our cars still slightly kissed. So she has a tiny scuff on her driver side bumper, and I have a small one on the left side of the lip of my boot. We both decided as its such a small prang to not go through insurance, and I said I will ring around for quotes. Now, my understanding is, it's most likely my fault because I reversed, very slowly mind and my sight of the road was blocked due to the van. But equally she drove off not seeing me because of the van, but not driving slow to check the way was clear behind the van. Do I have to pay for both cars, or is it a situation of both us not seeing each other and therefore have to go halves on it? Just want to check beforehand because I'm getting quotes for £200+ per car, and I don't really have that laying about and need to be sure its definitely my responsibility. Thanks

martinthebandit

You are.

Next question.

loskie

Just agree to sort your own. But best advice is reverse into your parking space not into the road.
Without hearing both sides of the story it's hard to determine blame but I would think you as reversing.

PasturesNew

Your fault as you were the one emerging. Some might say you should reverse into your driveway to prevent it in future.

She was minding her own business already on the highway.

If everybody drove "in case somebody emerges" we'd all be having to drive at 4-5mph and get a cricked neck from flicking our heads left and right double checking.

Car_54

PasturesNew wrote: »

Your fault as you were the one emerging. Some might say you should reverse into your driveway to prevent it in future.

“Some” includes the Highway Code (Rule 201).

Marvel1

You are.

This is why you reverse in and drive out.

Aylesbury_Duck

You're at fault. Try and sort it amicably but she's well within her rights to insist you pay for repairs to her car. If she does and you can't afford it, one option is to leave your car as it is. Are you really bothered about the tiny scuff?

reeac

I can't envisage the exact situation but as you say that she was moving forward and couldn't see you whilst you were reversing and couldn't see her ... in both cases because of the van then I see that as 50/50. There are situations where, because of visibility problems, all that you can do is just move very slowly and hope that the road is clear. Winding down the windows and listening helps ..that's what I always do at a T junction near where I live as the visibility is poor due to hedges and a slight bend in the road.

Giggidy

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

You're at fault. Try and sort it amicably but she's well within her rights to insist you pay for repairs to her car. If she does and you can't afford it, one option is to leave your car as it is. Are you really bothered about the tiny scuff?

I would have to leave mine for a bit and fix hers first, I'm not bothered about the scuff but I do want to sell my car later this year so would probably need to do it or just take it off the price

Aylesbury_Duck

reeac wrote: »

I can't envisage the exact situation but as you say that she was moving forward and couldn't see you whilst you were reversing and couldn't see her ... in both cases because of the van then I see that as 50/50. There are situations where, because of visibility problems, all that you can do is just move very slowly and hope that the road is clear. Winding down the windows and listening helps ..that's what I always do at a T junction near where I live as the visibility is poor due to hedges and a slight bend in the road.

The trouble is, if OP pushes his neighbour to accept partial blame and she disagrees, she might go through insurance and then it'll end up costing both of them over time.

Giggidy

reeac wrote: »

I can't envisage the exact situation but as you say that she was moving forward and couldn't see you whilst you were reversing and couldn't see her ... in both cases because of the van then I see that as 50/50. There are situations where, because of visibility problems, all that you can do is just move very slowly and hope that the road is clear. Winding down the windows and listening helps ..that's what I always do at a T junction near where I live as the visibility is poor due to hedges and a slight bend in the road.

This is exactly why I was unsure if it was 100% my fault, I think even if I drove out instead of reversing, we still wouldn't have seen each other in time, because I would have still have had to inch out to to see past the van. She herself said she didn't see me in time