Anyone with ICBC experience? Very minor accident - help!

[.G.]

So I came home today to find someone sitting in the driveway of my townhouse complex - it's a one way driveway, meaning that there is only 1 entrance/exit.

Anyways, the fella moves forward while I pull into my garage. Now I have a double garage, but it's a tight squeeze so I start to back out (note: backing out of my garage is completely blind) to line up better and what should I see in my rear-view but none other than the guy backing into my space while I am parking my car. He had the gall to tell me I should watch where I'm going but I didn't want to argue, especially considering the proximity to my house, you never know with people anymore.

My question is who would ICBC find at fault? Me for backing out from my garage, or the other guy for not waiting for me to fully park in my garage? Oh, and for what it's worth, I wiped off the paint from his car, and I have a foot long scratch on my back bumper. I have another there already, so it doesn't bother me, but I'm not sure about the guy.

As it stands now, I have no discount for ICBC due to a similar dust up I had at SFU, but that one I knew was my fault and was willing to accept responsibility. I really don't to have to be paying a premium for a guy who was too impatient for me to park my vehicle, but who knows what ICBC thinks.

Anyways, any advice, insight or comments would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Blue In BC]

I think you'll be blamed unfortunately.

[Toppy Vann]

It doesn't sound like it will be a claim from your description of no damage.

How these things get adjudicated begins with who was doing what at the time of the collision.

You have a responsibility in law to ensure that as you are backing out it is clear behind you. If that is stopped vehicle behind you blue is right. You are 100% liable. Mitigating circumstances provide no relief as the courts have been clear in establishing how crashes like this will be decided with respect to liability. However, in saying there have been those rare instances where ICBC makes one determination of fault only to have an unhappy party take it to court where a judge hears witnesses under oath and makes a differing determination.

Where you get 50/50 decisions (albeit rare) is where both parties are backing up and both are negligent and hit each other.

[.G.]

We were both moving, I was coasting out of my garage, he was reversing as well.

Ah well, whatever will be will be, I suppose.

[TheLionKing]

Driving with undue care.

[Soundy]

Driving with undue care.

Strictly speaking, that means "more care than is appropriate".

The term you're looking for is "driving without due care".

They're completely opposite.

And to the original question: Toppy is probably correct; HOWEVER, the cited "exception" of both parties backing up may apply here. ICBC comes up with some pretty screwy conclusions sometimes, though, so you never know.

From your description of the damage, it may not even be worth your deductible to get it fixed, unless this is a really nice new car.

Was there any damage to the other guy's car? You know even if ICBC does find you 100% at fault, your rates are only affected if the other driver puts in a claim and has his damage repaired... and if you repay ICBC the repair costs, they won't jack your rates.

Of course, you can always offer to pay the guy's repairs directly, and forgo ICBC involvement, but that's not usually recommended, as repair bills have a notorious way of climbing. "Oh yeah, my mechanic says it's gonna be $500 instead of the original $100, so if you just give me the cash..."

[.G.]

He says he wants it fixed cause his car wasn't marked, whereas my bumper was previously scratched, so I don't care.

My only concern is that I just (meaning yesterday) got a job with Coast Mountain Bus and apperently they frown on any 'at fault' accidents during your probationary period. I could care less about rates and so forth. I just don't want to lose my job.

The guy is being a dipstick though (says he thinks I won't pay him if we go privately, even though I offered), so I've decided to take my chances with ICBC. From what the lady on the phone said, liability is going to come down to timing. Basically, who was there first. Based on the damage to my car (about a foot long scratch from right to left) and the damage to his (3 inch scratch and minor scuff in one location) I'd say he came across me.

Stupid confusing useless accident.

[Toppy Vann]

He says he wants it fixed cause his car wasn't marked, whereas my bumper was previously scratched, so I don't care.

My only concern is that I just (meaning yesterday) got a job with Coast Mountain Bus and apperently they frown on any 'at fault' accidents during your probationary period. I could care less about rates and so forth. I just don't want to lose my job.

The guy is being a dipstick though (says he thinks I won't pay him if we go privately, even though I offered), so I've decided to take my chances with ICBC. From what the lady on the phone said, liability is going to come down to timing. Basically, who was there first. Based on the damage to my car (about a foot long scratch from right to left) and the damage to his (3 inch scratch and minor scuff in one location) I'd say he came across me.

Stupid confusing useless accident.

The last thing you want to do is to settle this privately. Unless ICBC has changed its policy and you can check this out by calling their call centre, ICBC allows their policyholders to repay the cost of damages they pay on your behalf and this does not then count against your insurance. What this does is prevent you from being ripped off by some one decided to get you three estimates at very high prices from their friends and also prevents fraud. By the latter I mean that the guy takes your cash and then someone hits that spot and he keeps collecting for the same damage (albeit in this case it doesn't sound like much if any damage).

This also prevents the person from all of a sudden serving you with a writ for bodily injury damages and don't kid yourself I have seen claims for disability (guy can't work) for a screwdriver falling off a shelf in the car hit in a minor parking lot crash and landing on some guy's foot and now he can no longer work.

[Soundy]