Parking lot bump accident - fault? *PIC*

[Weeman83]

At lunch hour i got into a parking lot minor accident with a co-worker. Please see picture below. Essentially, he set up to reverse into his parking spot across a major corridor / intersection in our parking lot. I was travelling on the main corridor, and was struck even after some swerving to avoid.

I looked into the MVA (section 193) and it states that all persons who reverses a car should only do so in safety. In this case, he was reversing across a major parking lot corridor, at the entrance to the parking lot, not to mention that parking like this is just...unusual!

Has anybody experienced similar cases? Is there an ICBC adjustor on the board? How might fault be assigned? He seemed relucctant to admit any responsiblity because he was already set up to back up.

PS:
His: MKIV Golf TDI, rear bumper corner scuffed.
Mine: E30 318is, quarter panel above rear wheel well slightly dented, minor scuffing.

What would you do?

Regards.

[fastbmw]

It's his fault, he reversed into you. At most you would get 25% blame. I wouldn't worry you won't have to pay the deductible since he is at fault.

[E30M20B25]

Yeah buddy, he reversed into you;

The damage pretty much speaks for itself.

His bumper into your quarterpanel.

He needs to reverse into the clear.

You are driving straight to a exit. He was in reverse.

Let us know how it goes.

[Mark D.]

Unless you had a stop sign it is his fault. Stick to your guns. Explain to the adjuster with your drawing what happened. Get an accident report NOW!!

Good Luck Lincoln thats bullshit. He was backing up and hes supposed to make sure its safe.

[Weeman83]

Does anybody know what is the ballpark cost of this repair? It needs slight metal massage to a dent about 12" x 4" above the wheel arch. The dent is about 1/2" deep at the deepest point. Metal damage has no creasing or paint crack, just looks like someone body checked her hard.

The old girl took it well i thought. if it were a honda the panel would ahve folded up like newspaper.

[murphymurf]

just make sure he doesn't get to ICBC first and claim you hit him from behind. That happened to my buddy when we went for lunch. At an intersection the dumb ass ahead of us did one of those cruise through the yellow only to determine they wouldn't make it, then stop, put it into reverse them back up through the intersection again and reverse right into the front of our car that was stopped at the light. He said he didn't want to use ICBC but while my friend was getting the quote this guy went to ICBC and opened a claim against him! Claimed he was hit from behind by us and thats why he ended up going into the interestion, can you believe that? And ICBC believed him even though there were 3 of us in the car that wrote statements about what happened, but they don't accept friends as witnesses.

Accidents that happen in parking lots are tricky because they have a different classification than public roads...... make your case before he does. Good luck.

[bcbimmer]

Maybe a bit late.. but i usally would look for a witness,get a phone number from them.. atleast have a back up plan if they try and do something sneaky.
sorry to hear best of luck.

Aaron.

[Weeman83]

I have a car full of witnesses...we all work at the same place...so from an ICBC point of view, they would be costituted as unbiased?

[MGuy]

Originally Posted by Weeman83 I have a car full of witnesses...we all work at the same place...so from an ICBC point of view, they would be costituted as unbiased?

Nope. Cops or insurance usually won't take passengers as witnessess.

[Walker]

Sorry to hear Lincoln, your car looked real nice when i saw it at Blenz!
Best of luck to you!

[direction88]

From what I can see it would be his fault. ICBC loves to spread out the responsibility so the above mentioned 25% could become an issue. If you haven't already MAKE A CLAIM/STATEMENT NOW! ******* VW drivers eh?! Hope yer ride is going to be OK Links!

[CraigBurton]

Form what I understand (I'm a driving instructor) the car that is stopped has the responsibility to ensure it is safe before continuing. If you were both stopped then there might be an issue but he was 100% at fault as far as I can tell. Bring both those sections of the BC MVA in to ICBC and to your co-worker so they know your not picking on them.

There is also the reversing rule mentioned above that you cannot reverse if you are going to interfere with traffic that includes making them wait for you to parallel park (but the rule is sort of ignored for that)

Also, don't be lazy, reverse stall park whenever possible. When you do it when you arrive and you pull past the space you can see that it is clear to reverse into, when you back out (between to SUV's, foggy rear windo, etc.) your backing out blind.

End drivers instructor rant.

Craig,

[Weeman83]

Update:

We've preliminarily resolved this in good spirit. My repair cost is about $500, whilst his is $50. In the interest of preserving a good workplace relationship (and keep my career in the green), i've decided against pursuing 100% liability against him, and we decided to roll up the cost of both repairs and split 50/50. That still beats ICBC's type of '50/50', where both parties get raped by deductible and subsequent premium hikes, not to mention resale value and driver record blemishes.

Thanks for all advices thus far! you guys roock.

[redhatpat]

Sounds like a good resolution! Once you involve ICBC, costs escalate quickly.