Accident
 

I just had an accident with my lovely rover 75 :duh:

I was leaving the parking area of the Gym and when i was leaving the parking place i got hit by an young lady who wasnt paying attention at all. (and possibly driving too hard)(she also didnt brake)

She wasnt in sight when i was leaving the parking area and my car was already fully on the parking lot when i got hit.
http://i65.tinypic.com/2ivehyo.jpg

She hit me quite hard because the passenger side airbag deployed in my car (there was no passenger in the seat though. Only my bag)

http://i65.tinypic.com/1ixsgy.jpg
See damage in picture..... my rim is bent to the inside (cant drive my car) and my rear bumper is damaged pretty badly.

Keep in mind she was driving a 2009 model ford Ka (805 Kg).
The insurance company told me i was responsible because she had priority......

But she was not in sight when i was leaving so she must have been driving too hard for a parking lot (max 15km/h in the Netherlands). But i guess i will have to prove it in some way :shrug:.

So my question is how hard does she have to drive in order to deploy the side airbag of my passenger seat?
Also keep in mind that i was also driving forward at that time (arround 15km/h) when she hit me.

That's nonsense! everyone is expected to take reasonable care and she is not. She is blind until she completes her turn and should be expecting cars to be moving on her nearside. Chris S.

That's terrible and even more so that, as I think the law is the same in the Netherlands, it's a private place. You could offer to take her to Court? but that's very easy for me to say. I hope you find a sensible solution.

Yup, and apart from that. If she was going 15km/h and paying attention. She could have seen me and hit the brake pedal. (my car was fully out of the parking area so she had plenty of time)

But she apparently didnt see me (also didnt brake)...... Which resulted in a hard crash and unfortunately a lot of damage to my car :(

I dont think thats an option.

Its either i proof that she was wrong (by speed) or i will have to pay all the damage to my own car..... and on top of that my insurance will skyrocket from 90 euro each month to 155 euro each month.
The reason my insurance is so high is because im just 21 y old.
I have never been in an accident before this. And never even got a ticket. I have been driving my rover 75 everyday for 2 years now.

She probably was (she didnt see me at all, didnt even brake) but i cant proof it.....

And i did NOT reverse! i was leaving the parking area (driving forward).
we were both driving the same direction on the same road when she hit me.

If you both driving the same direction, then it is clearly her fault.

If she drove into the back of your car, it must have been her fault!:shrug:

IT WAS HER FAULT :(
but according to some stupid Dutch laws im responsible....

But to get back to my question.

Does anybody know how hard i must be hit in order for the side side airbag (passenger seat) to deploy?

I don't see it that way. The OP has moved from a parked parking space into the traffic lane. Just like moving away from the hard shoulder into lane 1. So not clearly her fault I my opinion.
Now looking at the diagram and the Yellow route there seems to be a lot of visibility to the Blue "square". To me either the blue square pulled out just in front of the yellow giving yellow insufficient time to stop or yellow was driving to fast or not paying attention of not intending to stop.

I would suggest yellow has right of way and so I'm leaning towards Blue being in the wrong but..... yellow knowing they are to go round a bend, should be driving at a speed where she can stop in the distance she can see.
The didn't brake bit of yellow is an issue.

If Blue can not prove speed or driver not paying attention I think it difficult to prove yellow at fault and best outcome I can see is going 50/50 . Any cctv covering the car park?


At what times did op look to his right from the time he started moving until impact? If op did not look right enough times or at appropriate times then oh dear.


anyway I'm sorry for the accident and hope it can be sorted without too much expense

macafee2