Hit by a car backing out of a driveway?

Hit by a car backing out of a driveway?

Reversing a vehicle requires care and consideration for potential hazards – especially when visibility is reduced which is often the case when a driver is backing out of somewhere. A manoeuvre like this needs to be performed slowly and steadily to ensure that other drivers or pedestrians are not put at risk.

But despite the obviousness of all of the above it is still a common scenario in road traffic accident compensation claims – so read on for your rights.

First and foremost, if you are the victim of a driver backing out of a driveway, road, or other side area, you ought to be the blameless victim here. The rules of the road are pretty much the same for this as they are for a driver emerging from a side road or side area – i.e. you have the right of way!

It is primarily the responsibility of the driver that is backing out to ensure that their trajectory is clear to avoid hitting other vehicles or pedestrians. So, if you are a correctly proceeding driver that has been hit by a car backing out, or if you are a pedestrian going by in the same circumstances, you should have a winning claim for personal injury compensation.

The same goes for cyclists and motorcyclists too.

What to do!

Hopefully the driver at fault will have done the right thing and accepted liability but if you are ever unsure of their intentions you may want to contact the police. Any evidence you have of photos at the scene of the accident or photos of vehicle damage can be useful as well.

Contact us for expert help on winning your claim for personal injury compensation and for ensuring that you receive the maximum amount possible and keep more of your payout. Due to the legal reforms from April 2013 it can be somewhat of a minefield when it comes to choosing the right lawyer for you and ensuring you don’t get stung or ripped off.

Here is what you need to look out for:

• Avoid claims management companies or accident advice services – go to a law firm direct and cut out the middleman to avoid additional fees or percentage deductions
• Don’t pay anything upfront – you shouldn’t have to in our opinion and we don’t charge our clients upfront for cases like this

Here’s some more useful stuff that you need to know about how we work:

• We don’t take out insurance as we cover you instead – so you can avoid hefty payments of £1,500 for After The Event insurance but you still enjoy protection from us!
• 25% is the most a lawyer can take for their Success Fee but we don’t have to take the full amount AND we don’t have sneaky additional percentages and fees that many law firms do
• Some law firms will not be as upfront as they ought to be about how fees work – so if you want to claim the safe way, speak to us