Ask an expert


mantist

My wife was involved in an accident. She was reversing from a carpark. We have third party insurance.

She was parked on the right hand side and wanted to reverse straight out.
There is blind corner on her right hand side which she could not see around of (entry from a public road).
We feel, the only practical way, was to reverse slowly by creeping out, continually checking for oncoming cars.

Unfortunately, an oncoming car from the said blind corner came around, at speed and a collision occurred. Our rear right bumper is heavily damaged. The other driver's front right panels and front right wheel is also damaged. We feel that the damage on both cars are surprisingly heavy due to the incoming car's speed being a big factor.

Other factors of note:
The entry of the other car was not keeping far enough left - we believe the accident could have been avoided altogether if he kept on his side of the carpark OR my wife could have at least had a buffer to react to.
The driver was wearing headphones (possible distraction).
Other driver is a learner license driver (without any passengers / supervision) and the car itself was not displaying any L plates.
Other driver does not have any insurance.

I understand in most situations, reversing cars are usually, almost at fault. However, I feel in this scenario, there is just no possible way my wife could have performed any further duty of care and reacted in-time for an oncoming car coming at such speed at a carpark.

Despite this, our insurance case has suggested we are in the wrong despite all these factors.

We even tried seeking Police advice and they have said as it was carpark, they cannot help (I am even more perplexed they don't seem to care about the other driver breaking their license conditions).

Are we totally in the wrong here - should our insurance be trying harder to argue the case?

Anon

Hi there,
It really can be hard to decide in some cases in car parking incidents.
However, despite the other road rules broken, the car travelling in the direction of the normal traffic flow has the right of way and the car reversing has all the responsibility to ensure the way is clear (even in this tricky situation). As I understand- 3rd party insurance might have no obligation to work on your behalf as the policy you have chosen is there to cover your liability to another vehicle. The only way to try and claim anything back is to go to a disputes tribunal and state your case to an adjudicator.