I was driving (Tacoma) behind a 2005 Jeep Liberty, trying to park at church this morning. It was rather crowded, so I went to a small parking lot right next door. And the other driver? A woman from...Massachusetts, of course..lol

Soo..my poor Tacoma is in need of a new bedside, I think. It's not really bad..but it looks like there was a body brace or something behind it - so there are several creases..it's not just pushed in. *sadface* (past my picturelimit. Gah.)

Here is a very rough depiction of the events that followed:

Car accidents do suck. And the "woman from Massachusetts" looks like she had no clue what's going on.

But couldn't you just park by just turning left?

Maybe I'm misreading this, but though she should've been checking behind her when she backed up, why didn't you give her more time to see what she was going to do?

...because I wanted to park?

Dude, I was hit in my bedside, behind the rear wheel...I was almost entirely past her by the time she hit me...her backup lights didn't come on until I was already turning. I had been behind her for a while..I didn't just appear out of nowhere. Could I have waited? Sure, if I wanted to sit in the road and see what she was going to do...but drivers' ed should teach you to watch where your vehicle is going...



Uhm..I was turning left..?

I'm really sorry to hear about your car accident, but if it helps, your pictures made me laugh.

Haha -- I was hoping somebody would like 'em.

Sorry, I didn't know where you meant by 'bedside' to be honest. It's not a term I've encountered before. It's just that the impression I got from your pictures was that you turned into the parking bay in the middle of her maneuver, and the way I've been taught to drive is to hang back until I know where the other car is going. Particularly since you drew the other car turning into the bay before swinging back out again, which (to me) looks like she was just lining up for a reverse park.

Sorry -- she hit the back of my truck, behind the rear wheel. I drive an extra-cab Tacoma on 33" tires with a lift and a topper...it's not difficult to see..but she obviously wasn't looking.

The pictures aren't exactly clear. If I knew what she was doing, of course I would've hung back...didn't realize until the lights came on. When they did, I hit the horn & gas..tried to get the rest of my truck past her, but I didn't have enough time (or traction..freakin snow).

Can't you both fit in the giant parking spot?

No, because God parked his Hummer there.

Haha..easily..it's not exactly a scale drawing. If I get ahold of a camera, maybe I'll take a picture of it.

Unless I understood your beautiful piece of artwork wrong, you wanted to park but have the front of the car looking toward the road. What I meant was just parking by making one left turn.

I don't think its her fault entirely...

Is the giant area an entire car park, or a single space?

She backed into me...as far as I'm concerned..as far as the other officer is concerned..and as far as the insurance companies are concerned..fault will be hers...it's not like we can split it 10/90 or anything.



You can fit multiple vehicles in there -- it's a small parking lot, not a single space.



I was making one left turn. The front of my truck turns to the left, into the parking lot..

I just realized if you scroll fast enough its like a little animation.

Hrmm, I'm with Vin then. I don't think it's totally her fault.

'tis okay, you may think what you like.

The simple fact, really..she was backing up, and struck my vehicle. That automatically assigns fault. Now if she had already started to back up and I cut in behind her, perhaps it would be different..? For all I know, she could've been pulling off to wait for someone or something.

Should I have waited? In hindsight, obviously. However, there's not much I can do about it now..and because I didn't hit her, I'm not going to jump out and claim fault for the accident.

This is approximately where I was hit. As you can see, a good bit of my truck went by before she actually hit me..

Oh, you're the Tacoma. I keep thinking you were the Liberty for some reason.

Did you atleast signal left?

I don't freakin remember, but I doubt it would matter one way or the other -- I had already completed my turn by the time I was hit...it's not like she was looking...

I am usually very good about using my signal -- however, I can't say it's something I remember.

Brief narrative, if it's any clearer than the pictures:

I still don't understand as to why, as LividDK27 mentioned, you didn't just wait for her to completely finish her parking manuever. It seems much safer to wait it out as people handle reverse parking differently. Yes, it was hindsight as you said. She was the one to hit you, but it was you that put your car in the way. And if you didn't bother to signal before she started her parking procedure, notifying her of your intents, that would add to the problem. And it doesn't seem you didn't know she was not going to reverse park, as her actions (stoping like that) seem to clearly say she was going to do that.

So I say alot of the fault goes directly to you.

Say what you like. I'm not here for sympathy or looking for people to agree with me - I'm just saying what happened. You can play 'what if' all day -- but again, one of us was watching where we were going. Her reverse lights were not lit until I was past the point of no return.

Are you implying that fault is more mine than hers? Why aren't you asking if she signaled to notify anyone behind her of her intentions?

IMO, this is what makes it her fault.

I thought this story looked familiar...don't post the same thing in officer.com and massassi.net
I thought I was going crazy

But seriously...Indiana law would put her at fault IF she didn't signal, if YOU did not signal than you both are at fault.

*chuckle*

What's your O.com username?

Not really. Atleast 50-50.

If she was in the position like in like frames 2-3, surely a driving "risk assessment" light must have blinked in your head. "Why is she driving like that? Why is she slowing and stopping down like that? Is she going to park? Is she going to reverse park?" She may have been a crappy driver, but you were behind her and had time to see and assess what she was going to do. That's why I didn't ask if she was using signals. She should be using signals, but if she didn't, it doesn't change the fact that you are responsible to watch what she was doing before making your move in a spot in the general area she driving around in. You were out of harm's way by being behind her, and, by judging by the pics, you must have known she was attempting something.


Then again, I wasn't there to watch. I'm just arguing this because I'm bored.

on O.com its just Duo
You should really post the pictures in that forum, I'll bet people would get a laugh out of them.

So, let me get this straight. Because I did not predict what she may or may not do, and I placed my vehicle in a position which it could be struck if she decided to back up without looking...it's halfway my fault? Hopefully my insurance company will see things differently. NH law does.

Perhaps when I get back, then -- about to take off. Maybe we'll run into something more interesting today...had five hours of nothing yesterday, so we packed up early..

I wasn't talking about fault in terms of the legal system. You could easily argue your way out of charges. I was saying fault in terms of what lead up to that situation.

Crude example: you are driving down a small, low-speed one-way street down a quiet neighborhood road. You see a person coming down the wrong way by mistake. If you saw the person incoming and you just kept going straight with your usual speed, you probably get away with no charges if you hit the person going the wrong way, even if he slowed down and knew his mistake. But I would lay alot of the fault with you because you made the outcome completely undesirable and unfortunate, even though the other person started this whole mess by going the wrong way. There are idiots on the roads out there, everyone knows that, but, even if you aren't a bad driver yourself, you need a keen sense of risk assessment for the potentially bad situations with bad drivers.

When you saw her starting to emerge you should have slowed down, because by that point all her actions pointed to either turning in the road or doing a reverse park. The third option was that she was just driving away, but that would be a bit unlikely, people don't often half drive into car parks just so they can drive away again.

So given the unlikeliness of the her just driving away, the only reasonable course of action on your part would have been to slow down and see what she was doing.

Yes, the crash was legally her fault and for the most part her fault in reality too. But you made a bad call, you messed up on one of the most basic kinds of hazard awareness.

I don't think it is entirely her fault either. If this was taken to civil court, that would probably be the result. It is your duty as a driver to be attentive to your surroundings, and they would see that. Not saying that it would be ALL your fault, but most likely they would put partial responsibility on you as well.

My econ teacher was at a gas station and he had his door open, and someone just totally ran into and took it off completely. His insurance had to cover his ownc ar, AS WELL AS HIS! They said it was his fault, not the person who took it off. That's how screwy the system is sometimes.

Who cares? The police say it's her fault, therefore, it's her fault. Forget about it and let her insurance company deal with it.

There's a law here that says, if you are speeding, and involved in an accident, it's your fault. No matter one. Someone could run a red light and t-bone you, but if you're speeding and they aren't, it's your fault.

It's totally her fault. Weather or not it would have prudent of him to wait or not is irrevilent in the final result. I mean, it's prudent to slow down when the other car has the stop sign, but if you don't and he hits you makes no difference.

Besides you ALWAYS look behind you when you back up. Backing up blind = loose.

this case is actually easier than I first thought...all you have to do is break it down into the key components

Woman backed up in her car and hit the mans truck causing a collision because she didn't look where she was going.

Woman backed up and hit a mans truck.

Woman hit a man

Woman

Once you break it down into its purest form (Woman) you know who was at fault. + Infinity if she was over 45.

Oh that's nice...

This happened to me in the school parking lot once, kind of. I was in front of a guy driving downa row and i saw a spot on the right. It was a tight spot and i drove an explorer at the time, so I swung a bit to the left wide to get a better angle into the spot. The guy behind me thought I was trying to park in a spot on the left since I turned left momentarily, and he tried to pass me on the right. I continued my turn and plowed into the driver's side of his car.

It should also teach you to never trust that someone else on the road is going to do what they should do, so you better watch your ***.

And a Massachusetts driver, no less...not sure if they have a reputation elsewhere in the country, but they definitely do here. No offense to any Taxa-err, Massachusetts people on here..

We call 'em Mass holes here in Maine, not sure if anyone else does.