Diligent Driving: 5 Parking Lot Accidents to Avoid

Though less dramatic than high speed highway disasters, parking lot accidents are among the most common car mishaps. The vast majority of these are low impact collisions, which are rarely life-threatening but can result in serious injury to the driver and damage to the car. Here are the most common causes of accidents:

Sudden Stops

If you bring your car to a sudden halt and the car behind rear-ends you, the other driver is at fault. However abrupt the stop, drivers are responsible for paying attention and staying a safe distance away.

Parking Space Pursuit

However crowded the parking lot, don’t be tempted to quickly seize open spaces. Drivers often rush to grab such spaces, ignoring oncoming cars until it’s too late. The driver who made the turn is always to blame for making an unsafe turn.

Backing Out of a Parking Space

Drivers who fail to watch their car’s rear while backing out of a parking space often collide with other cars that are passing by. Unless the driver they collide with was speeding, the driver who was backing out is always held responsible for failing to look out for oncoming cars. To avoid these accidents when backing out, back up just enough to see the road clearly in both directions and only continue backing out once you’re sure it is safe to do so.

Driving Forward Out of a Parking Space

As with backing out of parking spaces, if you get into an accident while driving forward out of one, it is almost always your fault. In this case, even if the driver you hit was speeding, the accident will likely still be blamed on you, as there are fewer obstacles to seeing the road while moving forward than while backing out.

Two Cars Backing Into Each Other

Sometimes, two cars will be backing out of parking spaces on opposite ends of each other and end up colliding. Assigning blame for such collisions is difficult, as each driver bore the same responsibility to look for danger. Unless one driver was going much faster than the other or for some other reason was clearly being more reckless, these accidents must be resolved through comparative or contributory negligence claims.

If you’ve been involved in a car accident through no fault of your own, contact Campbell and Associates to learn more about proving your innocence and seeking redress.