Neighbour reversed into my car, as I was reversing

[Jess92xo]

Thoughts please.

I got into my car on my drive earlier and saw another car coming down the road (slowly as if they were going to park up on that side of the road).

They go past the house opposite and stop, break lights on for what felt like about 20 seconds or so. I then reverse off of my drive until I reach the other side of the road and as I am about to put my car into "drive" and turn my wheel to move forwards, the stationary car starts to reverse with the back of my car right behind him. I beep my horn continuously and he doesn't even look round to my direction. He then hits my car, and even then still doesn't look round! He eventually looks round and looks totally confused.

Turns out he is my neighbour who lives opposite (I haven't met him properly yet) picking up a new car for his daughter.

He doesn't say much but gets out to look at the back of his car. He seemed quite reserved and doesn't admit any fault, neither do I. I told him that he looked parked up as he wasn't moving (I thought he was waiting to pick someone up) so I then thought it was safe to go into that side of the road when reversing.

I am not angry as these things happen but he should have checked all of his mirrors before reversing back, our road is pretty quiet and no one was there 30 seconds or so before he decided to move again. I just can't believe he didn't hear the horn to stop

He seemed quite timid and did said that all is ok and he doesn't want to go via insurance etc (neither damage was bad - just little scratches) so I'm not sure why he said this. But I'm just feeling so stressed out that this happened with a neighbour! Even though it's not my fault, I hate anything like this that makes things feel a bit awkward

I just want to see what others thought who is at fault? I'm very self critical and am now replaying it over and over as to whether I shouldn't of reversed out, but he genuinely looked parked up for what felt like long enough to believe he wasn't about to reverse.

I am the biggest worrier and stress head and came home and burst into tears! My partner couldn't work out why I was so upset and neither can I

Whether they have a driving license or not, they are correct. The Highway Code says not to reverse from a side road onto a main road, but there is no law against reversing out of your driveway onto a main road. The Highway Code recommends the following when doing so:

It’s not illegal to reverse out of your driveway, but it's not always advisable: You should only reverse out of your driveway if it's safe to do so. You should give way to any other traffic, pedestrians, and cyclists.

You should only reverse as far as is necessary. The distance you need to reverse will vary depending on the road, and remember that reversing gives you larger blind spots, which can put cyclists in more danger.

Reversing out onto a street takes more than twice as long as pulling out forwards. In busy traffic, there might not be enough space to reverse out safely in such cases in the UK, the driver reversing is usually at fault in a car accident.

It isn’t illegal to reverse out of your driveway. At all. And its not 50/50 if the OP wasn’t moving when she was hit.

He sounds a little dangerous to be honest. Reversing without looking & not hearing a horn. I suspect he has some health issues that he either hasn't informed DVLA/his insurance of, or addressed with himself at all.
It's difficult to say who is primarily at fault, so I would say 50/50.

If it really is small scratches on both sides I woukdnt report it to insurance. Will cost you loads in the long run when your premiums go up every year because you have to say you made a claim.

Is this thread a reverse?

It's not against the law to reverse off a driveway. It's advised not to where possible. That's literally it.

I understand he may have moved into you. Would you have been there if your DROVE off your drive like you are legally required to do?

No damage? move on.

I’d be interested to see the law that requires me to drive forwards off my drive? 🤣

@Jess92xo Try to not stress about what happened, I would just put it down to one of those things for both parties. If it is just scratches, the simplest thing will be for you both to get your own cars fixed and not give another thought about it. Maybe then introduce yourself to the neighbour in better circumstances!

I think it's just one of those things but sounds more his fault than yours.

Someone reversed off their drive and almost ran over my toddler and then had the cheek to tell me that I should be teaching my 2 year old to check for cars reversing across the pavement... Obviously it's the responsibility of a 2 year old on the pavement,rather than an adult reversing a tonne of metal. For goodness sake reverse onto your drive. There's no reason not to and it's so much safer..

Not your fault at all, 100% his. You were stopped, beeping your horn ffs. Completely irrelevant that you were reversing off your drive. People just like sticking the knife in here.

Im so sorry for what happened with your boy but it's simply not true that there's no reason not to drive on and reverse off. On my road, about 90% of the time it's quiet and I can stop and reverse on, but sods law someone will come up behind me, or the bus stops opposite just as I approach in which case i have to pull on forward to get out of the way. Despite some posters' vociferous protests, it's not illegal.

The amount of people these days who don't seem to realise their car has a hand brake is ridiculous. Most people seem to just sit with their fit in the brake these days so I don't blame the OP for thinking they were just waiting for someone.

However I can't picture what happened and need a diagram.

If his break lights were on for 20 seconds and still on when you started moving , he wasn't done parking. HIs engine was still running. Yes, maybe he was waiting for someone but you never assume when you drive.
No big consequences, nobody was hurt, no real damage. You will always be more conscious of this in the future , so move on.

We got reversed into in june. Seemed like just plastic damage to the bumper, and guy at fault really didn't want to go through insurance. August it became apparent he'd damaged our radiator, to the point our car has been written off by our insurance, after his insurance took our car for 2 months, denied the claim, then returned the car minus half the front end. Also threatened to take us to cours for making a "false claim" despite it being their client who gave them our details and started the claim, and their engineers who assessed the damage, we never even spoke to them, but they decided their client telling them he didn't think he caused that much damage, to be the truth, when it wasn't.

Always, always report every incident through your insurance.

50:50 and go via insurance

Complete and utter rubbish

Odd anecdote, as iPhone photos can be recovered up to 30 days after deletion (and it's an odd anecdote anyway.)

Sounds like both at fault. You shouldn’t reverse into a road. You should reverse into your drive! He should have checked it was clear to reverse/

OP would have been hit by him no matter which way her car was facing. She was stationary. He's going to end up killing someone. Report to Dvla.

They could be driving automatics where it’s recommended to leave the car in drive and use the footbrake to stop it creeping.

I drive an automatic - never done that. The advice is the same - into neutral and handbrake on.

This was addressed way upthread. There is nothing wrong with reversing out of your driveway into the road, as long as you make sure it’s safe to do so. Doesn’t matter if she reversed into the road or not - if she was stationary when he hit her and can prove it, then he’s at fault.

This is what the OP said "
Yes i was moving i was in the middle of the road, he looked parked up on the other side of the road and then started to go backwards without checking"

Yes I was MOVING!

Simple. There isn’t one. Just lots of people talking bollocks !!