Hi,

An office colleague has just had an accident at lunchtime when leaving the office car park. Everyone was unhurt thankfully but there is extensive damage to two vehicles with another damaged slightly.

I have attached a photo from google maps of the scene. My colleague was exiting the car park (from bottom right of photo) turning right into the main road. There were cars parked on both sides of the main road right up to the junction making visibility very poor and making the main road effectively into a single track road. A taxi was approaching from the top right of the picture as my colleague was edging out of the car park and they hit corner to corner. The taxi had tried to swerve to the right at the last moment and the tail of the taxi slid into the car parked immediately on the right of the exit to the car park causing minor damage.

The police have attended and they believe the fault lies with my colleague. I can see their point in some ways but is there not a legal requirement to stay a certain distance from a junction when parking? (15 yards springs to mind).

Also, the owner of our office buildings has set up a one-way system so that you are forced to exit into this dangerously narrowed road rather than exit in the other, safer direction.

I have exited this junction myself a few times (although I usually just go against the one-way arrows and exit the other way as it is much safer) and I can say that it is (was) an accident waiting to happen.

Who is to blame?

Thanks,
Craig.
Rescued attachment scene.JPG

Although its clearly a tricky manouver coming out of the junction, the blame for the accident rests firmly on your colleagues shoulders.

He was the one joining the main road.

Hi Craig... it's your colleagues fault - case closed I'm afraid!

Unfortunately I think your colleague is to blame as they were pulling out on to a road. However the cars should not be parked that close to a junction but if the police were not keen to do anything about them then your hands are tied.

Steve

Hi scott

i'd kind of say its your mates fault, but from what you say, he couldn't really have done things differently if he couldn't see what was coming. unfortunate really

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Originally posted by cd.thomson
Hi scott

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I think it is in the highway code, 2 car lengths away from junction, but don`t think it is law.
Darren

Sorry to say it's your colleagues fault. You're quite right though, the highway code does cover parking too close to junctions however, the argument from the third party would be that the cars were there to see and the accident could have been avoided by asking the owners of the vehicles to move or getting someone to assist with exiting the carpark. Obviously both options would be unreasonable but it's fair to say either would have assiated in avoidinbg an accident. I don't neccesarily agree with it btu I know how claims negotiations go.

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Originally posted by turbodisplay
I think it is in the highway code, 2 car lengths away from junction, but don`t think it is law.
Darren

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I was in such an accident last December. The fault rests firmly with the person pulling out into traffic, I.E your colleague.

However, I'd say there is a pretty good case in taking the employer to court, as they had known their staff were at risk for a good deal of time, and made no effort to ensure persons could enter and exit the property safely.

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Originally posted by deezee
However, I'd say there is a pretty good case in taking the employer to court, as they had known their staff were at risk for a good deal of time, and made no effort to ensure persons could enter and exit the property safely.

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Originally posted by cd.thomson
Hi scott

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Highway code answer is in the title its a code of conduct, the way things should be done

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Originally posted by blakep82
i'd kind of say its your mates fault, but from what you say, he couldn't really have done things differently if he couldn't see what was coming. unfortunate really

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I was in a similar accident 12 months ago.

I was overtaking a bus (road makings stated i could). A woman came from a side road and hit me, she did not look left out of the junction.

It was on the verg of going to court, other insurance company backed down and it went in my favour.

-- Ash

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Originally posted by Steve G

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Originally posted by blakep82
i'd kind of say its your mates fault, but from what you say, he couldn't really have done things differently if he couldn't see what was coming. unfortunate really

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Dont agree i'm afraid - if he couldnt see then what he could have done differently is not to have pulled out.

Does sound like a good reason for the employer to look at changing the layout to try and make things safer.

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^ what i mean is, he did what any of us would, edge out til he can see.

we've all been in that kind of situation at some point, but i bet not a single one of us has got out the car to find who owns the parked cars and asked them to move, or stopped a random passer by to ask them to direct you.

i definitely don't agree that any one of us would have just got out the car and got a bus home instead lol

I had exactly the same situation. I was pulling out of my old office underground car park.

Onto a blind bend, no visability, overgrown hedges and parked cars!

Car coming along the road, too fast for conditions, but not speeding. Hit the front of my car and took off my number plate - no damage otherwise.

Left a huge scratch all the way down the side of her car - £1,200 worth of damage.

I was to blame as I was pulling out - thank heavens for NCD.

It was a dangerous junction and you always took your life in your hands when pulling out. You just hoped if something was coming it was moving slowly!

We tried to get the local authority to put a mirror up so we had a better view but they refused quoting health and safety claiming the glare of the sun in the mirror could blind a driver.

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Originally posted by blakep82
^ what i mean is, he did what any of us would, edge out til he can see.

we've all been in that kind of situation at some point, but i bet not a single one of us has got out the car to find who owns the parked cars and asked them to move, or stopped a random passer by to ask them to direct you.

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Originally posted by Worzey
I had exactly the same situation. I was pulling out of my old office underground car park.

Onto a blind bend, no visability, overgrown hedges and parked cars!

Car coming along the road, too fast for conditions, but not speeding. Hit the front of my car and took off my number plate - no damage otherwise.

Left a huge scratch all the way down the side of her car - £1,200 worth of damage.

I was to blame as I was pulling out - thank heavens for NCD.

It was a dangerous junction and you always took your life in your hands when pulling out. You just hoped if something was coming it was moving slowly!

We tried to get the local authority to put a mirror up so we had a better view but they refused quoting health and safety claiming the glare of the sun in the mirror could blind a driver.

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Hi guys,

Sorry I've not been able to reply to you until now - just sat down this minute...

Firstly, I agree with the general consensus that it was her fault (note: female colleague - interesting that most of you assumed a male colleague... )

Here is the view the taxi driver would have had courtesy of google street view. Note though that there were cars parked solidly on both sides of the street literally right up level with either side of the junction. This only leaves a strip down the middle of the street for one car to pass comfortably or two cars to pass very slowly.

I don't believe the taxi was going at excessive speed but since the taxi office is only 200 yds away from the scene he should perhaps have been more aware of the danger. To his credit he was very calm and pleasant after the accident which is more than can be said for the lady who's car was parked right next to the junction and who undoubtedly contributed to the accident even if would be difficult to attach any blame to her directly. She took the attitude of, "how on earth did this happen?" although she did seem very keen to move her car "out of the way".

The car park is shared with another company who leases the office block next door and we have a common landlord who maintains the grounds. It is this landlord who not too long ago decided to set up the one way system. I have suggested by email to our office manager that we have a duty to inform the landlord of the danger that this system has created and that we want the traffic flow reversed. If he decides to do nothing then I expect he may leave himself open to negligence charges if another accident occurred.

Hopefully common sense will prevail as this is the second incident I am aware of with the first being a minor scrape.

Gladly nobody was hurt on this occasion although the car looks to me to be a total loss. It is an 07 plate Ford Focus and the front offside corner is a real mess with severe suspension damage and both front airbags deployed. I would guess at 3k+ to repair which I expect will be more than half the book value of the car. The taxi (Octavia or Superb) took the impact front dead centre but also deployed both airbags. It looks to be repairable but is also probably 2.5k to repair.

Thanks again for all your replies, I had hoped their might be some chance of diverting some of the blame but I guess not.

Cheers,
Craig.

I was certain that there was a legal distance you have to be from a junction to park, but from you pictures I can't really work out if it would apply as an entrance and a junction aren't truly the same thing.

I've seen a fair few accidents caused by stupid parking and its got to be high on the list. There's a guy round the corner from me who parks opposite my road (Theres sort of T junction between our roads except in the other direction is a dead end after 2 houses.) and other people park on the road the same side as the junction so there is a whole that you have to go through diagonally which is difficult in a big car. Worse still its a huge van and the guy has a driveway big enough for about 5 cars yet he parks all three of his cars on the road.

People do it everywhere you go and theres little escaping it unfortunatly, its just one of those things people do on the road like getting in the wrong lane on round abouts and not accelerating on slip roads.