car crash

[kawa4]

hi all. i just reversed in to a bmw and squashed his front wing in my falt i no. but he was parked on double yellow line's so will my insurance pay or not. or am i at falt. i will post this in motoring aswell.

[dot.hawkes]

Did he have a disabled badge in his front window?

[ChuckFickens]

of course your insurance will pay out!!

[dot.hawkes]

Chuck if the BMW driver was illegally parked then Kawa's insurance company might be funny about paying out.

what were the restriction signs?

[McMouse]

If it was your fault you pay. It doesn't matter where he was parked.

[redcrx]

doesnt matter where he was parked, you were at fault.

[redcrx]

your insurers will pay out

[kawa4]

he has no disable badge he was illegally parked and i never admitted liabilaty

[dot.hawkes]

I was always of the impression that if you were doing anything illegal at the time of an accident it voided your insurance policy.

[redcrx]

if he was parked, not moving and you hit him then youre still at fault regardless of whether he was parked legally.

[ChuckFickens]

precisely my point

you drove into somebodies car, the fact that it parked illegally doesn't mean your insurance won't pay out, and as the other car was parked it's kinda obvious whose at fault too.

[kawa4]

the car was left on yellow's unatended

[carrust]

Similar thing happened to a mate of mine, where a car was parked on the zig zag lines on a pelican crossing behind him. He reversed & hit him on the front wing. He phoned up the insurance company & he was told that it the other drivers fault, as he was illegally parked.

[redcrx]

unattended still doesnt matter. just means that it was sat in the same place all the time that you were driving at it and you didnt notice it

[ChuckFickens]

Dot, doing something illeagal does not void the insurance, otherwise every single speeding ticket in the country would be accompanied by a no insurance charge!

Also it's not the parked cars insurance that is in question here, it's Kawa, and he wasn't doing anything illegal.

[dot.hawkes]

no Chuck but if someone was speeding and hit another car, they would not be covered on their policy as they were committing an offence at the time of the accident. there is no claim made on insurance just because you are speeding, only when you have an accident. I am sure there is a clause in an insurtance policy that says any proven illegal action voids the cover.

[dot.hawkes]

The driver of the BMW was illegally parked and Kawa's insurance possibly have a 'get out' clause for not paying his repair claim as he had parked illegally.

[Barmaid]

Unfortunately, whilst Kawa's insurance company may like to think they can get out of it, they can't.

Kawa was negligent in hitting a parked car. The cause of the accident was NOT the fact that the car was parked illegally, since the vehicle was there to be seen. The accident was caused by kawa reversing into it. Thus the BMW has been caused a loss by Kawa's negligence. Kawa is therefore liable in negligence to the BMW driver for the cost of repairing the damage to his car. Just because someone is doing something illegal, it does NOT make them negligent (although in some circumstances, it may well be so). In this case, Kawa is liable in damages and her insurance company should properly indemnify her for the value of the claim since that is what insurance is there for.

[dot.hawkes]

is there no circumstance then whereby you invalidate your own car insurance thru committing a driving offence?

[Barmaid]

There may well be but I can't think of any - other than driving whilst disqualified perhaps, but to take this example even further, I have been involved in cases where one party was convicted of careless driving and the insurance company have still paid out to the injured driver. Of course, if that is the case, your premiums go upwards at a fast rate of knots.

A vast majority of accidents are caused when one driver is exceeding the speed limit, driving carelessly, doing something of rank stupidity but the companies still pay out.