We’re travelling through USA at the moment, and just had a car prang in a car park outside a shopping centre. A lady in front of us all of a sudden started reversing into us (witness who was helping get the ladies things to the car told us afterwards that she clearly wasn’t looking).
Honking our horn, we quickly tried to reverse out of the way. But ended up hitting the car behind us.
The lady who was clearly at fault for this claimed since she didn’t hit anyone, it was our fault for hitting the other car and drove off (we have her licence plate number). The poor woman in the car who got hit, took our insurance details and left.
Our vehicle didn’t get any damage, its a bit of a tank, however the woman’s car got some bumps which she’s gonna go get fixed and ring us later.
Legally who is at fault here? And what should we do about it? We are backpackers, from another country who don’t know the rules here in the USA. And would be very irritated if we had to pay for something that clearly wasn’t our fault.
""The lady who was clearly at fault for this claimed since she didn’t hit anyone, it was our fault for hitting the other car and drove off"
And she’s right.
She didn’t FORCE you into another vehicle, because her vehicle made no contact with you.
You, on the other hand, did run into someone else.
Which is very clearly your fault. Contrary to your claim that it isn’t.
In the US, and practically any country for that matter, people are held responsible for what can be proven.
What can be proven is that you ran into another vehicle. It cannot be proven whether the other woman had anything to do with your actions.
And that’s just simple logic. No point in being irritated about it."
I’m sorry, we should have stayed where we were and let her hit us. Is this what you are saying? Because that hardly seems like a sensible suggestion.
"Think about it this way. Let’s say someone tries to punch you.
You duck out of the way, and in the process, YOU injure someone else.
Are you saying you’re completely not at fault for injuring that other person, and the person who tried to punch you somehow caused it?"
Um… yes this is EXACTLY what I am saying. Of course the other person caused it. I honestly don’t even see how that could possibly be in question.
I obviously wouldn’t choose someone else to be hurt instead of me, so selfishness isn’t the issue here, but if I stepped on someones toes backing out of the way of someone punching me. That is the fault of the aggressor punching me.
If the law in this country says we should have allowed ourselves to be hit then that is one screwed up system.
Witnesses and the person who was hit by us all agree that the fault lays with the woman who drove off. Perhaps I have not described the situation properly to you people, but morally there was no question, only the law is in question