My car was parked outside my house in New York State on the wrong side of the road and my neighbor hit it coming down the street. Am I likely to bear any of the blame, logic notwithstanding?
Thanks!
What time of day was it struck?
About 5:15 Eastern, plenty of daylight and space on the road.
It doesn’t matter if the car was parked legally or not, its was a stationary object so it the responsibility of the person driving not to hit it.
Think of it this way, a car stalls, the driver leaves the car to call a tow truck, someone hits the stalled car, who’s at fault, the driver of the other car.
My opinions are subject to change with new facts.
That’s what I’m thinking. There was no way she should have hit my car.
Thanks for the input.
I saw a picture of a car that had two front ends. You could park that on any side. How could it be ticketed for a burned out tail light?
He will get a moving violation ticket and you may get a parking ticket.
Would she have hit it if facing the correct direction? Yes.
Did she back out of her driveway into it - wasn’t expecting a vehicle to be there?
Sorry this happened. Hope it does not sourelationship.
Find out if it is illegal to park on the “wrong” side of the street in NY state. This might be as simple as calling the state police or local police. I can believe that it could be illegal on a busy city street, but not on a quiet suburban road. But ya never know. You should also contact your insurer. I bet they know whether it’s legal or not. And they can also handle fixing the damages with your neighbor’s insurance company.
Most of NY State has Odd-Even parking. On Odd number days you park on one side…and even number days you park on the other.
This is up to your insurance company and his to work out. If there’s no police report assigning liability, it’s entirely possible that you’ll each be held 50% liable. Logic notwithstanding.
I agree with whats said. Being illegally parked, if that’s what you officially were, is evidence in an accident report. As far as blame is concerned, you could get a parking ticket after the fact, but the rest is up to the insurance company. Once you get by the ticket issue, it’s in their hands and is a civil matter. Assuming that no one was injured, you’re about to find out how good Progressive, Allstate, State Farm etc. is. Let us know.
Why were you parked on the wrong side of the street in the first place?
Was your car right up against the curb, or 3 feet into the middle of the street?
Was it a direct hit in the middle of your car, or did she clip your side mirror?
Is parking even allowed on the side of the street you were parked on? If not, you were blocking the traffic lane.
Why did she hit your car?
Was there another vehicle coming and she misjudged it?
Was there too much snow, and she hit the brakes and slid into it by accident?
BC.
Yes, but your car is still supposed to face in the “correct” direction for travel. One of my pet peeves is people who park facing the wrong way for the side of street they are on. Seems to be more prevalent on the east coast. There’s a reason why the back end of the car has passive reflectors built in…
NYS employs ‘pure comparative negligence’ where a percentage of fault is assigned to each party and any compensation awarded is reduced by the % fault. If you’ve only gone through your auto insurance to make claims, you may not even be aware this exists. But you’re a percentage at fault just for being there. The argument is; if you hadn’t parked your car there, it wouldn’t have been hit. Seems goofy but those are the rules. I was self-insured for many years in a state with the same system. I had to make several claims over that period and battle with the insurance company over my % fault. Usually 5-10% just for being there.
If the OP was parked facing the wrong way, I’d be willing to bet the % fault will go up, regardless of the fact it was light out. It would go up even more if it was dark when it happened…
From the post, I’m not sure if:
(1) The car was parked on the side of the road that is designated “no parking” (i.e. only one side of the road allows parking, and OP was parked on the opposite side),
OR
(2) Both sides of the street allow parking, but OP was parked in the wrong direction (i.e. he couldn’t find a spot on the–correct–right-hand side, so he parked on the left-hand side–legal parking, excepting the fact he was facing the wrong way.)
If it’s (2), OP’s neighbor is a complete phallus for trying to weasel out of his responsibility. Even if it’s (1), neighbor has a responsibility not to run into stationary objects.