I drank drove (sort of) but I didn't know what else to do. There's a (not v good) diagram.

[Uriahsnose]

I drove to my local pub like I do a couple of times a week. If I am having alcohol, I leave the car there and collect it the following day.

The other night, my neighbour/friend came in, was sober and offered to drive me home in my car-he only lives around the corner. As this is safer for me than walking home I agreed.

Some houses on my street have front gardens, some have drives. I have a front garden as does one of my next door neighbours. Terraced, narrow, village one way street-parking can be a bit awkward but the houses that don't have a drive all have a designated parking space.

So my friend goes to park my car and it transpires that he doesn't know how to reverse park. He tried to drive into my parking space but the NDN with a drive's car was sticking out of their drive, and the other neighbour (in front of where my car would go) is parked outside her house. So it ended up with my car sticking out at an angle, blocking the road. I told my friend 'you'll need to reverse park, you can't leave it blocking the road'. He tried but couldn't do it-kept saying 'I can't because I can't see!' And 'will that do' (no, it wouldn't!) so in the end I told him to get out and I parked it myself.

I was so nervous-even though I wasn't drunk (I'd had three of those mini bottles of wine) and I knew I couldn't hurt anybody, but It's still illegal isn't it?

AIBU to think that if you can't reverse park, you shouldn't be driving a tonne of metal?

(Just realised I haven't accurately depicted the gardens in my diagram but the basic set up/situation is the same)!

"But why did you let someone whose driving ability you are unsure of drive your car? "

Well we take lifts from people without checking their driving ability beyond knowing they have a driving licence and they have obviously driver their car to the place, so why would any further checks (what would they be anyway?) be done if the person is driving your own car?

Well for starters you could have made a mistake while attempting to park after drinking and killed your friend who was presumably either passenger or standing near by.

The drink driving laws are there and inflexible for a reason. There would be thousands of deaths if the drink driving law was just a recommendation for people to make their own judgements regarding whether they were fit to drive, whether they were likely to kill someone, or whether it was just driving a little bit and only 'sort-of' drink driving.

I just find it hard to believe that someone who is so reckless they're happy to drink drive and spontaneously let someone drive them and their car despite having never seen them drive before and having no idea of their driving abilities spent half an hour (or more) beforehand reading through this guy's supposed insurance documents to check he was insured to drive their car....

Presumably he wasn't insured to drive your car so that was stupid on your part. Sorry if he was.

People that can't reverse park should not be driving.

Anxious people that won't drive through roundabouts or on motorways or make right hand turns should not be driving.

I mean as in the sense that it is a private road.

This is not a biggie. It was not as a previous poster said ‘incredibly dangerous’.

He was insured third party.
I have never known of someone who can't reverse park before! I do have a friend who is nervous on motorways though.

What sort of mistake could I have made, that would've killed my friend (who was standing in my front yard) while doing a maneuver at about 2 mph?

I know he is insured because I did it for him (I wanted the topcashback).

You just mean it's a dead end don't you? Not, that it's privately owned.

And I am sorry but I'd be very surprised if most people on this thread hadn't at some point accepted a lift from a friend for the first time.

I'm going to assume OP knows her road better than you, lol.

Private roads aren't uncommon, we used to live on one.

Is it private or unadopted? A lot of people incorrectly think unadopted = private. They are not the same in the eyes of the law.

It's not a dead end, It's a private road. Everyone who has a parking space owns the space as well as their house.

It's private as stated on the deeds.

Quite. 😁And why assume It's a dead end?

But that's not what people's issue is. You're completely missing the point.

People agree with you he's a bad driver (based on your description).

They are saying that it was reckless:

a) to park your car after that much to drink
b) to let someone you'd never seen drive, drive your car

There's a difference between agreeing to be a passenger in a friend's car when they are driving and letting them drive your car with you in.

Okay I understand. Not much different safety-wise however.

"There's a difference between agreeing to be a passenger in a friend's car when they are driving and letting them drive your car with you in."

Is there? If they're dangerous, you don't want to be hurt as a passenger just like you don't want your car crashed.

Because you said it's 'not a through route to anywhere' in your earlier post!

The hysteria on this thread is amazing..

Could have killed who??

I had to be able to translate Latin prose many years ago to pass my Latin GCSE. By your reasoning, is it essential to keep my Latin skills up to date?

In another post she wrote "Not on private land apparently!"

So I presumed she meant her road was not private land.

I never said private roads were uncommon.

Yikes. Not quite a full bottle I don’t think are the mini bottles not 187 ml each but still too much to be behind the wheel of a car in any circumstances

No, she said that in response to another poster who said it was always illegal to be drunk in charge of a motor vehicle....

Are you being serious?

Do you really think as a driver you will never have to reverse backwards while moving your steering wheel at any time so there is no point knowing how to do it? Everyone driver should be able to reverse park, even if it's just to get out of the way if you need to or to reverse and maneuver at the same time.

No wonder there's so many incompetent drivers on the roads, OPs friend is obviously one of them.

You are not covered to drive other people's cars if you have comprehensive - those policies used to often include that but don't usually any more. This is the much worse offence in this story imo.