It's a driving one - diagram included

[barrelohflaughs]

Car A pulls in to a cul-de-sac while Car B is reversing off a drive for a house to the right. Car A slows to a stop, Car B also stops. Car A then follows the road to the left and pulls up at the far end of the road.

After about 5 minutes the mum of Car B walks over to the passenger of Car A stood outside of the car and says "She has just caused my daughter to have an accident by screeching down the road". She explains that her daughter had to swerve out of the way of Car A and as a result has hit Car C.

Passengers and driver of Car A approach Car B and the driver confirms she had to swerve out of the way. When the driver of Car A explains that she had come to a stop Car B tells her to go away. Car C says she didn't see/know what had happened; she was in the car when it happened.

Who is at fault?

RedDogsBeg Car C was stationary but the driver was sat inside the car. I’m assuming she was waiting for someone. I think she was just happy that no one was commenting on how she had parked and that her involvement was being shifted elsewhere.

LindaLa This is the part I find most annoying. Why try to blame someone else, and someone who was also STILL THERE?! At least wait until I had gone so I couldn’t refute what she had said. I pointed it out to her that I had right of way so even if I had been involved, she was still to blame for erratic driving. I think she’s hit the car and panicked when she has had to tell her mum (I’m also assuming it was mum’s car she was driving) so has tried to shift the blame on to me. I don’t think she expected her mum to confront me. I don’t even think mum was in the car!

SD1978 It’s my sister’s street, I was dropping her off home. I too think she’s misjudged it and made a mistake.

MereDintofPandiculation I also think she was going to hit the car regardless of anything else. Car C was parked slightly over the drive and I don’t think Car A saw her there. But I can confirm I was not travelling at speed, I only had to touch my breaks to stop as I was going that slowly down the road.

Doesn’t make sense. Everyone reverses really slowly surely. Totally her fault.

Assuming the diagram is at least roughly to scale, I can't work out how you'd get to "screeching" speed in that space when you have to make a sharp left turn at the end🤔 It's nonsense.

Even if someone was doing 100mph in her direction then you wouldn’t swerve out you’d pull back in!!

Ok. Your presence distracted her. She didnt look properly and accidentally hit car c.

Could happen to anyone. The made up stuff is a huge mistake. Take photos if there's anything still left to see.

Ok. Your presence distracted her. She didnt look properly and accidentally hit car c.

Could happen to anyone. The made up stuff is a huge mistake. Take photos if there's anything still left to see.

If B hit a stationary car then it's their fault.
I do wonder if C was stationary or not because it sounds as though B was distracted, C is pretending they don't know what happened and A didn't see the bump at all.

Why was C sitting like that? Sort of perpendicular to the pavement? Either way it seems like it has to be B's fault.

Car B is at fault.

Not only did they not have right of way but they were reversing onto a road which they shouldn't have been doing at all. She's also reversed into a parked car which was already on the road, again, Car C had right of way over B because they were already on the road and not the one performing a maneuver.

This will be an open and shut case for any insurance company. "I was reversing off my drive, onto a road" will have no other consequence for them. They have no way of explaining this to make them not at fault.

Like PP have said, take lots of photos.

Road from both directions, cars and people driving them.

Also do a courtesy call to your insurance company - some people are that entitled..

I suspect that B thought you were letting her out, no matter how illogical that was, then panicked and put her foot down when she realised you weren't. Still very much her fault, because the sensible response would be to brake or pull forward into her driveway.

Even if she thought you were "screeching" down the road, it makes no sense whatsoever to continue reversing out. If I were in that situation I would definitely just pull back into my driveway till the speeding driver had gone past.

Think of the extreme scenario - you're cautiously coming out of your driveway an a quiet suburban road and suddenly car appears doing 50 and ploughs into you - still your fault?

Yes, the car on the main road has right of way, car entering the road from driveway does not, which is why you should reverse onto the driveway so you can enter the road forwards. Cars don't appear suddenly, if they are driving fast down a straight road you'd see them coming and you should be able to judge distance, clearance and speed.

a car reversing on to a road is the one at fault

100% car B.

Car B is at fault, but looks like they are trying to get out of taking the blame.

But maybe you are at fault if you came speeding up menacingly enough to scare the driver of car B into inaction, manoeuvring in front of them (where I assume the house would be to prevent you getting there anyway) and pushing them backwards into car C, without causing damage to your car.

Imo Looks like car B driver wasn't paying enough attention or reacted incorrectly to you driving towards them, either way they caused the accident.

DeathyMcDeathStarFace Sorry if I'm being dense but I don't understand the second part of your post. I followed the road round to the left so drove behind the car, she was stationary at this point. I 100% didn't go down the road at speed, it just isn't possible as it's too narrow and isn't long enough to pick up much speed, plus my car isn't known for it's acceleration lol

I even made eye contact with her when we both stopped, she didn't look panicked or angry or anything.

I just think she has made a mistake, I think Car C pulled up behind her, perhaps as she she was getting in to her car or getting ready to move and A has reversed in to her not knowing she was there. I think Car C also knew she was partly to blame (due to her parking) because she wasn't kicking up a fuss about the damage.

Car B was at fault 100%. It really irritates me when people just drive into their driveways instead of taking a few extra minutes to reverse in. If they reversed in they wouldn't have to stick the back end of their car right out into the road before they could actually see what was coming.

Amen @stylishduck

B is reversing, her fault 100%

The car reversing is almost always at fault.
The car leaving a drive to join the highway is almost always at fault.

so - B - on 2 counts.

Even if C were totally blocking the drive AND you were doing 500 miles an hour, it would still be B's fault.

When involved in this kind of accident, take photos, get insurance details, put it through insurance. Don't engage with the crazy.

B Fault 100%.

C - looks like they tried to manoeuvre out of the way.

I would say B thought the road was clear so reversed off the drive too fast. B needs learn to correctly on the drive so your reverse on and drive off so you can clearly see the road conditions.

No damage to your car so you are not involved at all as far as I'm aware. It all between the other two cars. And yes it's the reversing cars fault as she was negligent. End of really. She has no defence. She was moving. No one else was.

Car B and It's between b and c, not a.