A car one (with pic!) WWYD??

[Kubricklayer]

Yesterday afternoon I was at a drive thru. Ordered my food and was told to wait in one of the bays, so I parked in the only available bay right in the corner of the car park.

Received my food and promptly went to leave. I put the car in reverse, looked in my rear view mirror, saw there was nothing there and started reversing.

Almost immediately there was a coming together of me and a van which was in the perpendicular row of spaces (see pic). Not much damage to either vehicle. Light scuff on my rear wheel arch and bit of paint off the front of his works van.

2 questions:

1. Who was at fault?
2. Should I report to my insuance?

For 1) I think it was a genuine 50:50 accident. His van was so big it was over the front of the space and about a foot from the side of my car. So as I'm reversing I'd have no way of telling he was moving forward. Equally given the close proximity he'd probably not easily see my reverse lights were on.

For 2) I know someone who can fix it for £150, so I'd rather do that than say to my insurance. But the guy was really pissed off calling me a stupid f*king cnt and a halfwit etc so I'm concerned I don't say anything, he tries to claim off me and how the insurance company will view that?.

Appreciate any advice.

I agree with your summary. The other driver was an arse in his behaviour so probably an idiot of a driver too though.

Always report to your insurer, and let them deal with it, as you never know what they will claim for later, and especially as he was being agressive with you.

But if you were reversing and he wasnt, you will likely be held liable, if not fully then most likely higher than 50/50.

I'd say you were reversing, you'll be at fault.

Someone backed into me in a shopping centre carpark. It wasn't my fault and the insurance company recovered the cost of replacing my car door from him. Lucky for him, he had insurance so just had to pay both excesses. The ding in my door wasn't even severe but enough that the door didn't line up well enough for safety.

If he'd told me he had someone who could fix it cheap I'd just have said we'll let the insurance companies sort it. I want an assured repair of quality, not someone's mate.

He behaved badly but that doesn't make him the one at fault.

Didn't see the accident you had though, so this is just my experience.

So the van had reversed into the space and was driving out forwards?
Was the van actually moving?

Legally you are supposed to report all accidents to your insurance.

Were you both moving?

Edited for typo.

Which is why you should always reverse into a space so you can drive out forwards and see what is going on.

You should go through insurance.

If you hit any part of the side of him ten you are at fault.

I was coming back from the airport and phone had died. No pen in my car. So I took no photos and can't remember his plate. I gave him my phone number and said either take it through the insurance companies or contact me when you've calmed down and want to talk about it reasonably.

He disappeared off. I then went into the drive thru and got a quick charge on my phone. Took pics of my car. I asked the staff if they could retrieve his number plate for me. They have the number plate but can't give it unless a file a police complaint.

Tbf I was tempted to mention to the police as he called me a c*t no less than a dozen times and threatened to pull me out the car. But I figured he's just had a stressful morning and maybe will get sht off his boss if it's a works van.

I've not had a text or call from him so not sure what that means he's hosing to do?

Police won’t be interested , no need to tell them . In the eyes of insurance the person reversing is always at fault ( I used to work in insurance)

Was he reversing as well? Or coming out forwards?

Always, always go through your insurance company.

I was reversing but directly backwards. At the moment I was reversing I think he chose to move forwards. I would've had to steer my wheel either direction to come into contact. as my car side was still clear of his front van by about a foot. I think it's just a complete unfortunate we both chose to move at the exact time. A fraction of a second either side of that moment and he would've seen my car infront of his van or I'd have seen his van.

Yes. So the van is driving forwards to exit the space, whilst I drove into the space so was reversing to get back out of the space.

The van front was about a foot or so from the side of my car. Actually more like 2 foot as my mirror would've been well clear of it.

But as I say it was the front of him that contacted the side of me. If he had already started driving before I started reversing my back would've hit the side of his van. As it were the front of his van caught the side of my car.

As I say I think it's a genuine oversight on both our parts. A perfect storm. But we were both slowly moving out of our spaces so the damage is very minimal to both. No denting or anything.

If he was driving forwards, he should have seen that you were already moving out of your space. He clearly didn't check and hence drove into the side of you.
The fault is with him.
Not sure if insurance would see it that way though.
He was an arse too, calling a woman a cunt many times and physically threatening you.
Doesn't matter if he has had a tough day.
No excuse.

He would say that, wouldn’t he?

You can't assume damage is minimal. Small appearing damage can hide something serious. I had a tiny ding in my passenger door when someone reversed into me. I thought it would be an easy repair on a dent but the whole door needed replacing. They were reversing, they were at fault, they had to pay our excess and their own.

YANBU , your attitude is calm and measured and your diagram excellent.

Hmm that sounds like he drove into you.

Except presumably if you were reversing first and then he started to drive he in theory ran into you?

why? In this case it sounds like the op must have been moving before the van, he had better visibility and also she’d have been showing brake lights before she moved. It sounds more his fault than hers.
sounds like reasonable woman driver meets arrrogant bully to me.

Yes but they didn't activate until the point of contact. I think he was just out of the range but was close enough that when we both decided to move at that precise moment, they detected and we hit almost simultaneously.

As I said an almost perfect storm.

Again I think we both could have been more savy. I couldn't see the drive from where I was so could've got out to check if he looked like he was going to drive.

Equally he would've seen the drive thru employee bring me my food and walk away, so could have anticipated it was likely I was about to leave.

I'm not so interested in aportioning blame. I was very calm whilst he was enraged from the off, which made me think I was completely at fault. On reflection I think it's an equal fault.

I'm more interested in what action I take next. The guy I know has fixed cars for family members in way worse condition and they looked absolutely brilliant. No way of telling there was any damage before. So I'll likely use him but the cost of his work will be the same price as the excess on my insurance. So I'm only reporting to add more on to my premiums when it renews in June.

I was half wondering do I get it fixed. And IF insurance were contacted by him, claim he drove into side of me but didn't see any damage and so nothing to report?