Hi,
I have just had my car hit by another employee in the company car park. We regularly have to double park as there aren't enough spaces. I came back from lunch today and double parked behind a colleague. I was later informed that someone had hit my car, I know who the driver is and have spoken to them. However several people are saying because I was double parked it's not the drivers fault.
Any opinions where I stand with this?
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As far as criminal law is concerned it is not involved as it appears incident took place on private car park.
If the park is marked in bays and your vehicle was outside the area of the bays and in such a position that it would be obvious that your parking would affect the flow into the park or cause obstruction then there may well be argument that you have some liability under civil law.
One for the Insurance Company to sort out?
dvd
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It might help to clarify if I mention the driver was reversing out of a bay next to my colleagues car, during which my car was hit.
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I would have thought that seeing as your car was parked and stationery and that you werre elsewhere that the responsibility is all on him.
I guess he knew that it was a company car that he hit, so why didn't he just come and ask you to move?
Chris
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CAn't be your fault if stationary and you nowhere near it.
However, isn't there usually some sort of exclusion for prangs on private land?
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so you were double parked and impeding the lane normally used for finding car spaces,a car had to reverse out of an assigned space and unfortunately hit your wrongly parked car because you couldnt be bothered finding a proper parking spot
yes?
no more to say then apart from tough
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idbarnett, the 3rd party, as the pranged should write to the 1st party, the pranger, holding them responsible for the incident, and claim damages. it is then for the pranger to contact the 2nd party, their insurance company, if they so wish to settle or dipute the claim. the pranged and prangee can then come to some negotiated settlement via the 2nd party if necessary. the outcome may be ther is no one to blame or some one to blame fully or partly to blame, and settled accordingly.
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If they do not pay (which I think their insurer should) I think I would drive into their car using your damaged panel before fixing. If they do not have to pay neither would they ;-) Or at least suggest you might.
Seriously, how about talking with the 3rd party? You work in the same location so no point in making this worse than it is. Failing that talk to property management of the site for some advice.
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I don't know what bell boys problem is... it's common that in many company car parks people double park because there's not enough space for all drivers. This is explained in the OP's question & why bell boy has to respond so negatively god only knows.
Anyway, if someone needs to get out then normally you can find the blocker easily enough. I would have thought that given that you were nowhere near you vehicle that it is the prangers fault. Did he admit hitting you or were there any witnesses? I would ignore the fact that it was on private land and proceed on that basis.
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anyone sensible faced with a parking problem in the co, car park, where it's common practice to double park would:
1,reverse into their space, so they can be more manouverable coming out
2, be used to having to ask colleagues to move
3, arrange a system whereby the front desk or similar keeps all the car keys...or
4, ensure everyone leaves their phone number on the dashboard so you can ring the blocking
driver up easily
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However several people are saying because I was double parked it's not the drivers fault.
seems a clear case of negligence on the driver's part to me. Negligence is:
"the failure to use reasonable care. The doing of something which a reasonably prudent person would not do, or the failure to do something which a reasonably prudent person would do under like circumstances. A departure from what an ordinary reasonable member of the community would do."
A reasonably prudent driver would have taken care to look behind before reversing, even more so if double parking was common in the car park. He (and therfore his insurers) are 100% liable
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I don't know if rules are different on private land, but I'm pretty sure you can't just go around hitting cars just because they're parked illegally.
Chris.
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you can't just go around hitting cars just because they're parked illegally.
Andrew Oldham, the first manager of the Rolling Stones, had his Rolls-Royce driven by a fearsome thug whose name I forget, but who would smash up your car with a baseball bat or crowbar if you annoyed his boss in any way. Or so I was told by some gleeful villain at the time.
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As far as I am aware, if another vehicle drive into your car and causes damage then the driver of that vehicle is clearly responsible regardless of it being on private property or on the highway. Especially being as you weren't even in/near your car at the time then how can it be your fault?
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Chris White my thoughts too. Our local supermarket has double yellows (probably unenforceable) outside the front door to stop people parking there as the road is quite narrow. Despite this cars do stop to pick people up, so drivers can go to the cashpoint etc etc. If I take it on myself to drive into one of these illegally parked cars to teach them a lesson (!) I'm sure I can't simply drive off and tell them tough as they were parked in a position which hindered other motorists!
As for it being private land if the car park is a 'route of good intention' (which this appears to be), normal rules of the road apply and any accidents should be reported and dealt with in the usual way.
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A friend who shall remain nameless ripped the side off a car that was illegally parked when manouvering his wagon round a sharp corner. He heard a bang and assumed he'd tapped the wing mirror. Seems that when the police turned up to question him at 2am he'd taken two doors and several panels off a pristine new BMW while only scratching the paint slightly on the wagon.
As far as I know when he breath tested negative and explained the car was parked illegally, nothing more ever came of it. I assume the driver parked claimed on his own insurance. This was several years ago and he has heard nothing about it from his insurance company.
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This happens all the time in our work car park (in fact, it sounds like you work there too!) and they've always gone through insurance, no problem.
We all do the number on dashboard/keys at reception thing, and are all happy to come out and play car chess, but there are some people who just don't seem to be able to drive, and your heart sinks when you look out the window and realise they've parked near you.
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