Car accident - any advice would be welcome!

epaul1993

Hi all, I’ve been involved in a (minor) accident and would appreciate any views on fault/next steps.

I was in a supermarket car park and saw a space free up about 15 metres back from my car. I started to reverse, however a driver that was parked in a bay pulled out onto the road (they had reversed in originally so the driver was facing the road and should have had good visibility). I didn’t have time to react and there was an extremely low impact collision.

There was a slight dent/scratch on their front left panel by the wheel, and no damage on my car.

We swapped details, and they are now saying they recently had an operation and they are now feeing sore as a result of the bump.

Any thoughts on next steps and liability/fault would be greatly appreciated. From my point of view there is no damage so no need for an insurance claim, but concerned given the other driver is seemingly trying to chance an injury claim.

[Deleted User]

Hopefully you reported it to your insurance company at the time but if not, get on to that pronto.

AdrianC

epaul1993 said:

I was in a supermarket car park and saw a space free up about 15 metres back from my car. I started to reverse, however a driver that was parked in a bay pulled out onto the road (they had reversed in originally so the driver was facing the road and should have had good visibility).

Was this marked as a one-way route through the car park? If so, then they were looking in the direction they had a reasonable expectation that traffic would have been coming from.

I didn’t have time to react

Taking your estimate of distance, 15m is about three to four car lengths, the width of six parking spaces. Be honest - how fast were you reversing, in order to get to that space before somebody else beat you to it...?

and there was an extremely low impact collision.

At "extremely low" speed, virtually zero time would have been needed to react. You quite simply didn't look for a perfectly foreseeable hazard - somebody pulling out of a space - while you were performing a manoeuvre that the other driver would not have expected, especially if it was a marked one-way roadway.

There was a slight dent/scratch on their front left panel by the wheel

So not just their bumper, which - assuming you'd allowed a reasonable space between the side of your car and the parked cars - means they were a reasonable way out of the bay at the time of impact...

If they pulled out forward, and you reversed into their nearside, then they were coming out from your nearside. Let me guess, you were only watching your interior mirror, not the door mirrors...?

If you're lucky, this will go split liability, but there's a fair case to say that you were simply not paying sufficient attention and are solely liable.

We swapped details, and they are now saying they recently had an operation and they are now feeing sore as a result of the bump.

Any thoughts on next steps and liability/fault would be greatly appreciated. From my point of view there is no damage...

Well, except for the damage caused to the front wing of their car.

...so no need for an insurance claim, but concerned given the other driver is seemingly trying to chance an injury claim.

Whether they're "chancing it" or not is not your business.

Just inform your insurer, and let them sort it. They have your insurance details, so you should assume that your insurer is already aware anyway.

Ganga

Most insurance companies will go 50/50 ,as a lot of chancers will try and claim whiplash etc you had better let your insurance company sort this out, I presume you have told your own insurance company.