car accident whos to blame?

Question

My partner was reversing his car out of our drive on sunday thre was a car parked half on the pavement opposite our drive and my partner reversed and hit it .There wasnt alot of damage apart from a broken wing mirror some scraped paint and a small dent .We said we would deal with it privatly as the owner worked for a garage he came back with a quote for £840 which i think is taking the piss as the car is 11 years old and is worth £640 if we go though insurance who is at fault is it my partner for hitting him or the other car for being parked illegally

he had no reason to be opn the pavement it was my neighbours boyfriend she has a drive which has space for 2 cars why .Fair enough my partner should of been more cautious

What is it with people who think its illegal to reverse in a road if thats the case why are we taught reversing round a corner into a road you lot need to read the higway code .section 15 highway code

Answer 1

Your boyfriend is to blame, He hit a stationary vehicle irrespectively of whether that vehicle was illegally parked or not.

Answer 2

Two separate issues are at hand:

1. An illegal parking situation exists, but the remedy for such is a violation issued by the government.

2. An illegal collesion occured, and regardless of where other cars are parked, there was one person operating a vehicle and should have paid attention to "all other cars on the road, whether moving, parking, speeding, or all other."

The fault of the owener of the parked vehicle has one morally-right consequence: a violation, not for his/her car to be hit!

The fault of the person who drives into vehicles on the side of the road has a consequence: repair the damages of those hit vehicles!

sorry, the answer might not bring about an advantage, but i think this is what it comes down to.

Answer 3

The car was stationary. Your partner was moving. Your partner has eyes in his head. Had he looked behind him, by turning his head, not just using the mirror, he would easily have seen the car. Your partner is to blame.

Half on the pavement can be acceptable. After all, you have to drive OVER the pavement to reach your drive, don't you? With an ever increasing number of cars there can often be no option but to use the pavement. A car exists and needs to occupy space, and in a town/city there isn't a lot of space!

I think you are right though, the bill sounds a bit inflated. Good thing there was no one in the car, or they would suddenly have stiff necks!

Answer 4

your partner hit the other car so he would be at fault, im assuming there were no yellow lines so the car was not parked illegally, if ur referring to it being parked on the pavement the person was trying to stay out of the way as much as possible, imagine if it had been parked on the road then there would have been more chance ur partner would have hit it

to be honest i wouldn't be surprised if it did cost that i think garages charge a lot for a paint job

Answer 5

What a lot of tripe on here. Whether or not the other car was parked legally is nothing to do with the collision. Your partner reversed into it, full stop. You know whose fault that was.

I agree, I think he is taking the p iss, give him your insurers' details and tell them of the incident, then leave it up to them.

PS You're quite right, it is NOT illegal to reverse out of a driveway. Unwise, maybe, but not illegal. As you're on a UK site, it's not unreasonable to assume you're talking about UK law.

Answer 6

i dont know if it is illegal to reverse out of a drive but the highway code advises against it. your partner was driving and hit a stationary vehicle so he was at fault even although other car was parked illegally

Answer 7

Read Rules 176-178 of the Highway Code.

Answer 8

Legally your partner is at fault - failing to perform the manoevre correctly.

First of all - you must report it to the insurance company - even if you don't intend to claim - to comply with policy conditions.

If you feel that the vehicle is worth £640.00 then offer the other person that amount to buy the vehicle from them - problem solved - the other person must not profit from your partner's actions and that would be the most equitable way to do it.

BUT

Once you do that you are in breach of policy conditions for handling the claim so your insurance company will not indemnify you should you later decide to go through the insurance company.

Answer 9

You hit the hammer on the head. Your partner is at fault for hitting a parked car and the owner of the parked car is at fault for parking illegally. Both should take more caution in the future.

Answer 10

two issues at point.first is it is unlawfull to back out onto a road or highway,putting your bf at fault. second,being behind the wheel puts him in care and control of the vehicle,maybe the xtra 2 seconds it would have takin him to look may have made all the differance. yes your car is the reason the other car was damaged. however,his price for repairs is way high. seek another quote,however this is up to the other guys permission.failing that,then you go to insurance.by law,this issue has nothing to do with where the other guy was parked,the whole issue could have been avoided if your bf was paying attension.

Answer 11

i would have said your boyfriend as the other car was parked! i don't know if there is a law about parking half on the pavement,but try reversing into your drive i find it makes life easier. i am always having trouble with people parking half over my drive.i agree with lulu i thought it was illegal to reverse out onto the road.