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Original poster

Car accident - who was wrong?

188 replies

WhooooAmI24601 · 03/10/2017 11:53

I was parked up in a supermarket carpark today. Reversed slowly out of my space, checked over my left shoulder, nothing there. Reversed and as I turned my head back over my left shoulder a gentleman in a silver car shot around the corner and straight into the left hand rear of my car.

We're both fine, no real harm aside from dents in both cars, but mine is less damaged than his. Swap details, I take photos of the damage (which he objects to) and leave it there agreeing to speak once we've priced up repairs. He admitted no liability, nor did I. He's just phoned to say his car will be £300 to repair but if he goes through his insurance they'll write it off (his car has dings and dents all around the other sides). I pointed out that if I'm paying for his car to be repaired he'd better be willing to repair mine, he says at his age he can't afford £300 so I'm going to have to pay. I refused and said he was going much too fast around the corner.

The chap got quite worked up and shouted that as a pensioner he has no income and that either I pay him £300 or he'll take it to the police and insurance companies and I'll end up paying more.

What do I do?

OP posts:
5foot5 · 03/10/2017 13:37

You should reverse park to avoid situations like this. and others.

Except that when parking at a supermarket it is usually much more convenient to park forwards and reverse out because you want to unload your trolley in to the boot of your car.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 03/10/2017 13:37

You were obliged to contact the police after an accident. Do it now.

I nearly fell foul of this myself. On my way to meeting, council vehicle crossed to my side of the road, saw me too late and ploughed into a car on the left. I left them to it as it was nothing to do with me - and rang the council only to be told that they'd reported it to the police.

I contacted the police myself and they told me I should have reported it even though I said that I hadn't had an accident.

TinyBarista · 03/10/2017 13:39

I see dash cam has been mentioned a few times, yet how would this work if OP if reversing?

endofthelinefinally · 03/10/2017 13:39

In my local supermarket you have to drive into the spaces if you want to be able to load your shopping into your boot. The rows are all separated by raised beds full of prickly shrubs. You cant get a trolley between the spaces or access your car from the shrubbery.

Wellyboots86 · 03/10/2017 13:39

Best case for you is it'll be ruled 50/50. Despite the fact that he was speeding, he was the one already on the road as it were. It works that way if you reverse out of your driveway and get hit too, my neighbour had her car written off by someone doing 50 in a 30 but as he was on the road she was joining she was told by police and her insurance company that it was her fault.

DiegoMadonna · 03/10/2017 13:40

I think everyone should get a dash cam.

Yeah, they're great. Wouldn't help in this instance though!

endofthelinefinally · 03/10/2017 13:40

My dash cam has a front and rear camera plus audio.

Wtfdoipick · 03/10/2017 13:40

Surely the fact that he has hit the side of your car shows he was going too fast

No. I was in an accident several years ago where I went into the side of a car, I was on a motorbike. It was a clear cut their fault accident because they pulled out in front of me. Hitting the side rather than the front does not denote fault.

greendale17 · 03/10/2017 13:41

Am going to go against the grain here but for the sake of £300 I would have paid it.

Now you could potentially be found 100% liable and will have to declare the accident for future quotes

DiegoMadonna · 03/10/2017 13:43

Supermarkets are the one place I DON'T reverse park.

StuntNun · 03/10/2017 13:44

Wow marble11 find that astonishing. You could be moving at 5mph with every care and some idiot charges round straight into you and it would be a struggle to prove fault with other party. You live and learn. To be fair, I always try to reverse into a space but even so, in OP's shoes, even if I was driving out forwards very slowly, the bloke might still plough into me.

This happened to me and my insurance company ended up paying for two damaged cars and two written off cars. It was automatically my fault because I was moving out from a parking space. The policeman said that even if the other guy was going at 100 miles an hour it would still be regarded as my fault.

I suppose as far as the insurance companies are concerned it all evens out in the end and saves them costly court cases.

Cheby · 03/10/2017 13:48

Go through insurance. It'll be 50/50.

LurkingHusband · 03/10/2017 13:48

And this is why i always reverse into a space so i can come out forwards.

Annoyingly, although this would be my preferred option (I always revers onto our drive) and what I do when alone, if I am with MrsLH, I need ot have access to the boot to get the wheelchair.

I imagine there's a similar issue with pushchairs and buggies ?

That said, because it's not ideal, I am extra extra cautious.

greendale17 · 03/10/2017 13:49

"You were obliged to contact the police after an accident. Do it now".

That is wrong. You only have to report an accident to the police if you don't exchange details at the scene or if someone is injured.

430West · 03/10/2017 13:51

Supermarkets are the one place I DON'T reverse park.

Yes, a lot of people don't, for the reasons given. This is why there are so many accidents of this type in supermarket carparks.

It is a lot safer to reverse in and then carry your shopping to the boot (except somebody has usually parked too close for you to open your tailgate)

I have a panoramic reversing camera on my car - I think it will be a standard feature in years to come...

SandyDenny · 03/10/2017 14:05

I agree that in most cases reverse parking in the supermarket just doesn't work as unless you park miles from the door in my local supermarkets it's very unlikely that there won't be someone parked behind me. There's no way to get anything other than a small bag of shopping into my car.

How wide a field of view does a reverse dash cam have? Would it cover someone coming from the side of you?

Fluffycloudland77 · 03/10/2017 14:09

Does he actually have insurance?. He sounds very keen not to claim.

He sounds a right bully, shouting at a witness.

PeppaPigTastesLikeBacon · 03/10/2017 14:11

Not read the entire thread but I think it'll be deemed as your fault.
I had a similar sort of accident (although I was pulling into a road not reversing into a car park) and although the damage to the cars showed that I didn't cause the accident it was deemed as my fault as I was going minor to major road. It was a right piss take.

My advise is to go through your insurance but don't admit liability to them

blackteasplease · 03/10/2017 14:13

Yes, go through the insurers

manglethedangle · 03/10/2017 14:14

He may be worried about having his licence revoked if you go through insurance. Not your problem though.

bunningsbunny · 03/10/2017 14:15

When you said swap details - did he actually give you details of his insurers or suggest you avoid insurers and just give you his name, address and number?

Do you know if he actually has insurance? Do you think the reason he doesn't want to go through insurers is because he doesn't have insurance and thus doesn't want to get caught out, has had several of these incidents which will all compound to show he is a bad driver and raise his premiums, he did it deliberately to scam you and has usually found it works or something else?!?

Also regarding the cctv - might be worth asking to see what they have even if they don't show the accident - might show him zooming around the car park (or deliberately pulling out and speeding up to hit you so you wouldn't have had a chance to stop) or something else that will help.

Also means that you/your insurance chance say that you have cctv footage to examine... Which might be enough to scare him (note you haven't said you have footage of the accident so you are not lying - if he infers that then it is his problem, perfectly legitimate to see how he was driving beforehand) or at least stop him harassing you. Or if he crows about how you can't have footage because there's no cctv coverage of the accident spot then it is pretty odd for normal driver to know that - most people will assume the car park is covered or not, and if it is they won't know if there are any blind spots. And it's really difficult to work out yourself just looking at cameras. So it's suspicious in itself if he does know there's a blind spot, particularly if he wasn't driving carefully.

Fernanie · 03/10/2017 14:26

Definitely go through insurance and use your witness. I had an accident years ago as I was turning right on a green filter arrow. The intersection was right outside my house and I know that the oncoming traffic will have had a red light if I had a green filter, but they chanced it, ran the red light, and we collided as I turned right across their lane. There were no witnesses, but the other driver called a friend who turned up 10 minutes later while we were still arguing exchanging details, claimed to be an "impartial witness", and submitted a statement that he'd "seen" me go through the red light. As they had a "witness" and I didn't, it went in their favour.
As a PP said, the testimony of a witness does hold a lot of weight. (And yours was even there at the time of the accident...!)

Original poster
WhooooAmI24601 · 03/10/2017 17:20

When you said swap details - did he actually give you details of his insurers or suggest you avoid insurers and just give you his name, address and number?

Nope he refused to give me his insurers details, saying we'd sort it out amicably.

The irony is a bloody dash cam arrived today that I ordered at the weekend after reading about a spate of crash-for-cash incidents happening locally.

I'm on the phone to the local police now, as I'd not considered that earlier. Do I need to give the other guy a heads up about contacting them?

OP posts:
Fluffycloudland77 · 03/10/2017 17:48

No, he sounds dodgy as.

GhostCurry · 03/10/2017 19:55

I always look for spaces with an empty space in front of them as well. Then I just pull in to the empty space, then roll on through to the space straight ahead.

That way when I've done my shopping, I can drive out forwards - no reversing needed at any point. I dislike reversing in car parks, too many opportunities to hit something (or someone to hit me!)

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