Legality of parking close to a driveway

hi

my girlfriend bumped her car into a neighbours car and we are wondering what, if any, the legal aspects are.
she reversed out of our driveway and in so doing hit his car. It was parked outside his house perpendiclar to our driveway and immediately opposite. The road is narrow and we need the space (when reversing) to exit onto the street. He parked that way because he couldn't park normally due to a house party that night in the house.

My girlfriend has said that she thinks it is illegal to park opposite someones driveway. Can anybody here corroborate this?

As it stands, my girlfriend, having owned up to it and having got in touch with her insurance company is going to have to pay 800 Euro more in insurance. the quote to get the repairs made comes to 1200 Euros. He says that he can park anywhere he likes on his property (although half the car was on the road and I am pretty sure this isn't his property).

Anyone willing to shed light on this?
Thanks
Rob

Don't think it really matters if he was parked illegaly or not... But who knows. Good luck

It certainly is illegal to bump into someone´s illegally parked car ...

I would have thought that either she is at fault or she is not. If she is at fault the injured party has to make a claim against her insurance (Autohaftpflicht) and they pay in total. AFAIK Haftpflichtversicherung does not have a Selbstbeteiligung whilst Kasko (which covers damage to your own property) usually does. Do you have a Verkerhrsrechtsschutzversicherung (which would cover most of the costs of sorting this from the legal point-of-view)?

Or by "800 Euro more" do you mean that is what her annual insurance bill will go up by when her no-claims status is moved a few rungs up the ladder?

800 euros! what sort of car does she have?!

If the road is too narrow then I believe it is Illegal to park opposite a driveway.

I had a huge run in with a neighbour who said I couldn't park opposite his exit. He even put up a sign with the law number on it. Unfortunately for him the council and police both said he was talking out of his hat as the road was wide enough. I not so politely told him where to put his sign.

I really doubt this helps you though.

My wife did exactly the same thing. Our kids' piano teacher parked directly across the street in a spot she (or anyone else for that matter) had ever parked (across the neighbor's driveway), and my wife backed right into her car.

Creased the door and didn't even break the paint. Not a scratch on my wife's bumper.

EUR400 ... which came straight out of the anniversary present budget

Sort of had the same. Woman reversed her car and swung the front end round, managed to hit the rear quarter and passenger door of my legally parked car. She said "It was not my, I was talking to my friend so did not see your car". She then proceeded to tell me that her husband would go "mad" as his car was only a few days/weeks old and that she had done exactly the same with his last car when it was so new.

Her insurance paid in full.

Another woman drove into the back of me whilst I was stationary at a roundabout. She got out of her car and waived a bit of paper at me saying "It is okay, I am insured I did this a few weeks ago"...superb. She then said she suspected I was not insured as when I found out she was a doctor on call, I offered to drive her to her patient and she found that "too nice".

I was insured and her insurance paid in full.

Whilst I was working at the DESY lab in Hamburg we had a Japanese colleague who drove an exceedingly ancient VW beetle. Finally the day came when ever Herr M. recognised that the car was for the scrap merchant. So he set off, calling at a nearby shopping centre on the way. There a woman ran into his car & the rear bumper fell off! She lept out, said the German equiv of "your car looks to be in poor condition - will you accept 300DM cash?" Herr M. quickly said "AGREED" and drove off to the scrap merchant...

You drive into, on, over a stationary object it is clearly your fault unless it was hurled there shortly before and you had no time to react to it being there. Doesn't matter if it it was a rock, corpse or car. Wildlife or cows is another matter as it seldom can be proven if they were standing still or just jumped while you drove past. Also if you have to stop in a hurry and the car behind you hits you, it is clearly the driver doing the hitting that is at fault. He was following to close (tailgating). That is as valid here (in Canada) as it is everywhere else.

The same happened to me an hour after I bought my first third-hand Moped for DM 35.- ages ago ... I graciously agreed to accept DM 50.- cash

She can't drive and now you think she knows the laws.

Take pictures of the situation, draw a plan to scale and submit it to your insurance along with the accident details. Request them to check the legal side, after all your premiums pay their lawyers.

Yes, it's (probably) illegal to park there. But, in such a case, you're still fully to blame if you hit it while getting out of your driveway.

The proper way would have been to have it towed, upfronting the money for that yourself. In a legally clear situation, you'd then be able to recover the costs from the owner, if necessary through the courts.

Given their lacking spatial judgement, it's not surprising that all these stories refer to wimmin. The reason we still allow them to drive is that their accidents are all little bumps at low speeds; it's the men who cause the devastating, lethal accidents.

We just have to patient while we wait for them to "squeeze" their cars through gaps wide enough to drive a tank through.

Thought it was so we had someone to drive the car home from the pub?

_{Runs and hides.}

Actually the German Law states that a vehicle that is stationery cannot cause an accident so its your fault.

So his girlfriend is in the clear then. That'll please her.

Surely there must be some context there?

If I parked my car on the outside lane of an autobahn I'd expect some sort of comeback if there was an accident.

Has anyone actually determined that the park car was "parked illegally" or is it just wishful thinking on part of OP / his girlfriend? However, this wasn't on the Autobahn so I suspect wether the car should not have been there is irrelevant.

That part of her question hasn't been answered. I still believe there is a law but it depends on the width of the road.

Autobahnen und Kraftfahrtstraßen ... Auf schnellstem Weg nach Flensburg

Sie parken auf der Autobahn / Kraftfahrtstraße : 40 Euro 2 Punkte

Sie gefährden andere Verkehrsteilnehmer : 50 Euro 2 Punkte

Sie verursachen einen Unfall : 60 Euro 2 Punkte

As I said, let specialists decide. But keep us posted!

Be interesting to know what the laws says about the road width, or lack of it.

According to § 12 Abs. 3 Nr. 1 StVO parking is not allowed within 5m of a junction (as well as many other places).
But hitting an illegally parked car does not necessarilly mean the accident is all or in part the fault of the illegal parker. It MIGHT be a contributory factor, however, and depends on the circumstances. If the parked car was in clear view and the girlfirend simply didn't see it, then it's as good as her fault as she was simply careless. Unless the police bring any sort of prosecution against whoever parked the car as a result of the accident then the insurance company won't play ball.

Unless, of course, the insurance passes on the info to the police that the damaged car was indeed parked illegally, thus giving its owner partial blame and possibly getting him a fine.

Unlikely, after the fact. Had the driver called the police following the accident, and they had attended the scene and witnessed the "offence", then they might have considered prosecution, bit I really can't see either the insurance company being bothered to persue it or the police being bothered to consider it, when it sounds more like an aggrieved driver attempting to wriggle out of an increased insurance premium. The driver might also be open to prosecution for lack of care, so it's a risky approach...

Anyway, having reviewed the original post, the "offending" car was parked close to a "driveway", not a junction, so was probably totally in his/her right...

I was parked on the road when some sort of street cleaner on the pavement went by and scraped my mirror (which was folded in) and the door handles. I was very grateful to discover that they called the police as I wasn't present, though I suppose with hindsight it could have been to check if I was legally parked (which I was.)
Either way, I'm one of these people who carries a camera in my bag, so I made sure I took lots of photos. Which in the end weren't necessary because I had the police report number and that helped enormously.