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.

This is why you should always reverse into a space.

Sorry I'm a guy not a women. I suspect he probably wouldn't have called a women those names. I'm tall and very slim so not very threatening to most other men, hence why he probably was asserting his authority as the 'hard man' out of the two of us.

If he reports to his insurance and they think you're at fault, they will come after you. You should let your insurance company know, I'd think. Let them decide who is at fault.

It wound be worth seeing if there is CCTV?
As others have said, it’s generally seen as the fault of the reversing car, however if you both moved away at the same time and could prove that then it might be joint liability

It looks to me that he was at fault but without his details or him contacting you then there's nothing you can do. If he wants to take it further and it goes to court (this happened to me) then its based on probability on who is at fault. If you have damage to the rear near side of your car, it would have been impossible for you to have hit him, he would have had to be moving after you started reversing. A very similar thing happened to me with a council skip lorry and he was shouting at me, calling me names etc. Its the first defense with some men where they know they were at fault but first reaction is to blame the 'woman'. It went to court with my situation and I had legal cover on my insurance and he was found at fault (sweet revenge) what he didn't know was that I was also police officer 😜

If it happened exactly as you’ve said then surely if the front of his van hit the side of your car then he’s in the wrong?
Big man for calling a woman a cunt and threatening to drag you out of the car. I might have been tempted to call the police for his aggressive behaviour alone. Did he have a company name on the side of his van?

I think technically you do not have priority if you are reversing. You should inform your insurers anyway but also just in case the van driver has another shunt and blames that damage on you. I would report the abuse to the police online. They won’t do anything but at least if things escalate you have made a complaint about his threats.

Did you hit a moving or stationary vehicle whilst reversing?

For the future I would advise reversing into a parking space & get a mobile charger cable for your car (yes, I know hindsight is a wonderful thing!).

I would wait a short while before getting anything fixed. If he contacts you then tell your insurance. It might be worth reporting it to the police - they won't be interested but you will get a report number, so that if things do go to your insurance company they will ask why you didn't report it.

Given the damage is on the side of your car and the front of his I'd say it looks like his fault

If the van was parked and didn't see your reversing lights, he was at fault if you were already moving out of the parking bay.

If he was stationary then you were at fault.

TIP - reverse park in future to.

Well he sounds like an absolute delight!!

Whoever's fault it is he has committed more of an "offence," with that kind of threatening language.

Maybe he is driving the van illegally? He sounds like absolute scum to behave like that so it's always a possibility. In that case he won't be in touch....

I've had someone drive in to the back of me and yes I was annoyed too, it is annoying...but at no point would I have resorted to that kind of behaviour.

If he had parked so close to your car, most car sensors would start bleeping the moment you started your engine.

It's actually quite hard to understand how you both started moving at exactly the same time. He was better sighted as he's up high in a van and was facing forwards.

Without a camera it's impossible to know who's to blame.
But if he moved off his own sensors would surely have bleeped as he was very close to your car.

I work for an insurance company liability team. You will very likely have some liability here as the reversing party you have the greater duty of care. You also say above you think he drove forward so you don't actually know. If you say that to your insurers they will hold you at fault. At best is a 50-50 as your both carrying out maneuver at the time but at worst it's your fault (Obviously depending if they can get cctv and what it shows) Report it to your insurer as they will likely only have 28/30 days to request the cctv. You don't have to claim for your repairs via them but it's best to report it now so they can attempt to collect evidence. If they don't pay out for anything they can close the claim.

I don’t think you will hear from him.
If he was legal he would have sorted out swapping details there and then. .
Just wait a few days and if nothing just fix your car . It does sound like you both moved at the same time .

Tell your insurance company. IME these type of incidents are considered 50/50.

it was the front of him that contacted the side of me

Then he drove in to you. His fault. But insurance may not go that way as others have said - even when it’s very clear cut they sometimes push for 50/50. In any case report it even if not claiming. You get your side in first with your insurer and as other also said, you don’t know what else he may try to claim at a later date.
And also, agreed, you sound calm, reasonable, sensible and have excellent diagram skills.

You really must contact your insurers, they will be very unhappy with you if you don't and they find out via the van driver. It will probably affect your renewal premium but it will have a worse effect if your insurers found out you had a collision and didn't advise them.

The wheel arch was damaged, and it's on the side of your car. The front of his van showed damage.
In theory, it looks like he drove into you, but the insurance will probably say 50:50. It occurred on private property. The police won't be interested.
I'd not claim.

You should inform your car insurance company, but I wouldn't.

Remember if your insurance does know and you have nt said it can render your insurance invalid

It sounds like an unfortunate accident. There would have been no indication from the van that it was pulling away, however, there would have been indication you were reversing with your lights. He should have spotted that. He drove into you.

If you’d reversed back enough for him to hit the side of your car/rear wheel arch, then he should have been able to see that his way wasn’t clear before moving off. I suspect his anger and foul language was because he started moving forward without looking. I’d be very surprised if he bothers to contact you or goes through insurance.
If it were me I’d give it a few months to see and then just get it fixed, doesn’t sound there was much damage so not worth it for him to go through insurance either.

It's either 50/50 or his fault tbh. You were reversing - he was driving forwards - ergo he should have had more visibility than you. More than likely he decided he was going to go regardless and presumed you would stop but you didn't actually see he was moving.