Accidents in Car Parks - how do people deal with these?

So two weeks ago some lady hit me while I was sitting waiting for her to pull into the car park - basically she was going to fast and was careless and hit my rear passenger door.

She immediately said she was sorry and also gave me her insurance information. While I dont know the lady it was at our daycare carpark and we both have kids in the same class.

Anyway i talked to (touchstone) and filed a claim - got an estimate which was $1500 and now i'm just waiting. I contacted my insurance again today and asked what was happening she said that the other parties insurance company hadn't heard from her so they are still waiting for her to give her statement/claim liability.

Meanwhile my insurance company said wait a week more then go to the police to hopefully give her a nudge to talk to her insurance.

if she doesnt admit fault to her insurance then be prepared for a fight. it would help if you had proof she hit you. otherwise your insurance will consider it 50/50 regardless of what you say. i had a woman back up into me and did not admit fault despite two witnesses. i had to escalate to another insurance adjuster, then to the manager, then to the customer complaints dept to have it considered no fault for me. this whole time they had both witness statements, and this was all dealing with my (intact) insurance company.

A city of Calgary camera caught the incident so I've requested the footage from it. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. My insurance company has changed too it happened at the same time so I don't think there's any record of this happening and I'm not going ahead with any repairs with my old company until I get her to admit fault.

The lady is either super busy or super lazy. I saw her last Tuesday and she said she hadn't been to her insurance company yet to give them a statement.

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Originally posted by 01RedDX
Parking lot accidents are always deemed 50/50 unless it's proven that your vehicle was completely stationary when hit. If she changes her story you're SOL, unless you have a witness or camera footage.

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untrue

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Originally posted by 01RedDX


How so? This is exactly what an Intact claims rep told me once.

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that's what lazy insurance companies will tell you, there are rules, there is fault, but most of the time the insurance company or the reps are too lazy to put in the footwork because its difficult to prove.

some guy in a pickup was backing down and aisle and my wife was driving straight across the end of the aisles and he backed in to her and dented the fender, insurance tried to tell us it was 50/50, but i bitched enough they realized that it is pretty damn obvious what happened and it ended up him being at fault.

if insurance says its 50/50, find a new insurance company because they're lazy fuckers.

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Originally posted by 01RedDX
Parking lot accidents are always deemed 50/50 unless it's proven that your vehicle was completely stationary when hit. If she changes her story you're SOL, unless you have a witness or camera footage.

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Bill (maskedbandit) has debunked this urban myth MANY MANY times.

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Originally posted by 01RedDX


Isn't this exactly what I'm saying, they deem it 50/50 and put the onus on you to prove otherwise. :dunno:

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don't you need proof of fault for every accident?

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Originally posted by spikerS


Bill (maskedbandit) has debunked this urban myth MANY MANY times.

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Yea this is a myth. All rules of the road apply in parking lots and fault is assigned accordingly.

I was hit by an old man cutting across parking stalls. Smashed into me while I was stopped. He never admitted guilt but was found 100% at fault.

Parking lot fault and the myth of 50/50...

The main point is that just because it's in a parking lot that does not automatically mean fault is 50/50.

I think this misunderstanding is sourced from the reality that a lot of parking lot events actually ARE 50/50. The rules state that the person leaving the parked position must yield to all other traffic. What commonly happens is that two people are backing out from different spots and bump into each other. In that situation, 50/50 is the right call.

The other challenge is that often there will be a dispute (or outright lies) as to what happened and without witnesses, the adjusters have no choice but to settle 50/50.

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Originally posted by nzwasp
A city of Calgary camera caught the incident so I've requested the footage from it. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. My insurance company has changed too it happened at the same time so I don't think there's any record of this happening and I'm not going ahead with any repairs with my old company until I get her to admit fault.

The lady is either super busy or super lazy. I saw her last Tuesday and she said she hadn't been to her insurance company yet to give them a statement.

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Better get the camera footage.

My dad was parked in a co-op lot and a lady reversed right into him (he was parked, not moving). She admitted fault, all apologetic, etc...; didn't hear anything from her for 2-3 days then all of a sudden she told her insurance that he hit her. Ultimately got settled at 50/50 because of no proof.

total bullshit, but what can you do w/o proof

Im not all that concerned about it - the estimator reckoned there was 1500$ worth of damage - other than some slight scrapes that I cant really see i cannot tell the difference to be honest if theres damage or not. I cant see how a door costs $1500 for part and paint and thats if they replaced the whole door.

Also regarding fault when it happened I thought this is a open and shut case as not only did she admit fault to me she was the only one giving me her insurance information - that seems to be a red flag right there - if she wasnt at fault why would she offer up that info so willingly.

$1500 is a really good price. When I got hit it was $2300 for parts, paint and labor for just a front quarter panel.