Green Machine
05-27-2014, 09:45 PM
I was driving through a parking lot today and approached a car pulling up to a stop sign on the thoroughfare of the parking lot. He had come to a complete stop at the stop line and I came to a stop about three feet behind him. All of a sudden he starts backing up and swinging to the right towards an open spot perpendicular to both our cars. He hadn't signaled or even glanced behind him to see that I was clearly blocking his path to the spot. I immediately honked but it wasn't quick enough to prevent him from hitting my bumper.
We both exited our Vehicles and he apologizes while going off on a tangent about how he is going through a divorce right now and didn't see me. I told him I would have given him room to turn into the spot had he made any indication that was his intention and that I had obviously thought he was going to continue forward through the stop sign and expected him to see me because people normally look behind them or check their mirrors before reversing.
Upon inspecting the damage it becomes apparent that my car has sustained two vertical impressions about 2 inches apart and 3.5 inches high in the plastic bumper panel. His car looks to have a dented bumper as well but it is hard to tell because it seems to have previous damage that couldn't have occurred from our low velocity single point of impact. His rear quarter panel also had damage on it that he indicated that his daughter had done to it earlier and he had yet to get fixed.
I had heard before that Parking lot collisions very frequently get split fifty fifty on liability regardless of what actually occurred. So when he asked if I wanted to exchange insurance information even though he and I both knew that it was completely his fault I did a quick risk / benefit analysis and decided it wasn't worth it. I drive an 06 Magnum with 160k on it that is maybe worth 5k. It already has hail damage and a dented rear bumper from someone rear ending me so the damaged front bumper isn't the only thing downgrading it from pristine condition and it's financial impact upon resale is likely less than five hundred dollars. I didn't think it was worth the risk that my premiums increase over fairly minor damage that doesn't bother me enough that I would pay out of my own pocket to fix. I asked him about insurance liability in parking lots and he seemed to think it was fifty/fifty as well so it seems he had full intention on trying to split the damages between our insurance companies despite the fact that I wasn't moving at the time he backed into me.
Given my uncertainty of how the claim would be handled and the fact that the damage was fairly minor on a somewhat older vehicle, I told him that the damage didn't seem that bad and perhaps we don't bother. He seemed happy with that, thanked me, shook my hand, and we parted ways.
I was curious if anyone knows the specific rules regarding liability in a parking lot collision and how they would apply to this situation. I tried looking it up and seem to get conflicting information. Regardless, I probably won't pursue this specific incident any further as it was me that suggested we not pursue it, but would like to know if my impression of parking lot liability was correct.
We both exited our Vehicles and he apologizes while going off on a tangent about how he is going through a divorce right now and didn't see me. I told him I would have given him room to turn into the spot had he made any indication that was his intention and that I had obviously thought he was going to continue forward through the stop sign and expected him to see me because people normally look behind them or check their mirrors before reversing.
Upon inspecting the damage it becomes apparent that my car has sustained two vertical impressions about 2 inches apart and 3.5 inches high in the plastic bumper panel. His car looks to have a dented bumper as well but it is hard to tell because it seems to have previous damage that couldn't have occurred from our low velocity single point of impact. His rear quarter panel also had damage on it that he indicated that his daughter had done to it earlier and he had yet to get fixed.
I had heard before that Parking lot collisions very frequently get split fifty fifty on liability regardless of what actually occurred. So when he asked if I wanted to exchange insurance information even though he and I both knew that it was completely his fault I did a quick risk / benefit analysis and decided it wasn't worth it. I drive an 06 Magnum with 160k on it that is maybe worth 5k. It already has hail damage and a dented rear bumper from someone rear ending me so the damaged front bumper isn't the only thing downgrading it from pristine condition and it's financial impact upon resale is likely less than five hundred dollars. I didn't think it was worth the risk that my premiums increase over fairly minor damage that doesn't bother me enough that I would pay out of my own pocket to fix. I asked him about insurance liability in parking lots and he seemed to think it was fifty/fifty as well so it seems he had full intention on trying to split the damages between our insurance companies despite the fact that I wasn't moving at the time he backed into me.
Given my uncertainty of how the claim would be handled and the fact that the damage was fairly minor on a somewhat older vehicle, I told him that the damage didn't seem that bad and perhaps we don't bother. He seemed happy with that, thanked me, shook my hand, and we parted ways.
I was curious if anyone knows the specific rules regarding liability in a parking lot collision and how they would apply to this situation. I tried looking it up and seem to get conflicting information. Regardless, I probably won't pursue this specific incident any further as it was me that suggested we not pursue it, but would like to know if my impression of parking lot liability was correct.