Car park accident: because I was reversing am I liable?
I was parked in a station car park last week and tried to leave the car park by the same way that I had come in. However, to my dismay, cars had parked all the way down the line head to head meaning that the only way out was to find a gap where cars in both lines had left together. So I began to reverse back to try and find somewhere to exit and a car on my left hand side that was parallel to me but facing in the other direction suddenly pulled out. There is damage to the side of the rear passenger side wing on my car and the front wing on the passenger side of her car. To my dismay I have been told that as I was reversing that the accident would more than likely mean that I was at fault ! Can you confirm that this is true as I had no way of turning round or getting out of the car park any other way. I didn't admit liability and neither did she. I will be really annoyed if this ends up being my fault and as only the front wing of her car is damaged it clearly shows that I must have reversed most of the way past her car before she pulled out on me. Where do I stand with this type of accident?
For various reasons car park collisions are often settled on a 50-50 basis and your respective insurers may push you both to agree to this. If you are convinced this is inequitable under the particular circumstances you should take a robust line with your insurer that you with them to pursue the line that the other party was liable. You will have more chance of success in this if you provide a sketch map of events and have witnesses to support your version.
