would you step behind a reversing car in a car park?

imagine the scene – it’s getting dark, raining, in a local minimarket car park. There’s a car with its engine running about 5 bays away from where your car is parked. The reversing light comes on.

Would you step behind this car or wait until it had done its reversing?

Happened to me this evening, I was doing the reversing. look all around, release handbrake & start – slowly – reversing out, looking over my shoulder as I go. suddenly there’s a loud bang, like I’d hit something hard and fast. So I stop moving, put the car back & get out to see what I’d hit.
nothing there.
5 bays away there’s a bloke going round the back of another parked car & climbing into his own.

So I wait until hes reversed out & asked – politely – “was that you? did I hit you? I’m sorry, I didn’t see you, where did you come from?”

“no, you didn’t hit me but you could have done and broken my leg. That would have cost you a lot of money”

“sorry again; what did you do to make that loud bang?”

“I hit your rear light with my hand”

“very hard from the sound”

“yes, I had to or you would have run me over”

I was all apologetic & as it turned out no harm done, but now it’s bugging me. Was he looking to make a scene? or one of those ambulance chaser fees?
“broken his leg” at car park speeds? if he was lying down behind my car perhaps, but he wasn’t there when I got into the car.

yes my observation let me down, and had I hit him I would have been in the wrong, but seriously, walk behind a reversing car?

not you r observation by the sound of it but his. Blame culture by his response!

I have to reverse out of my drive over a footpath and onto the road.
there is a wall at the end of the drive which obscures my view of the pavement so I slowly creep out in case anyone is walking past.
4 out of 5 people just walk into the path of the car even if I’m nearly on the road.
I used to think they were in the wrong, or at least very discourteous.
given the number of people that do it, I now wonder if my opinion is wrong. or are 4 out of 5 people just dicks?

Idiots born every minute.

Bit like on the radio today ” i wont get skin cancer i go out in the sun for ages but its not like its warm”

Survival of the fittest, never walk behind a moving vehicle unless you have made eye contact with the user and they have visible stopped and signaled you to go

Sad thing is had you hit him it probably would have cost you alot of money – ita the uk we live in today.

Brakes you do know your supposed to reverse. To your drive right …..

Reversing out onto the road is frowned upon.

I won’t go into detail, but it’s very hard to reverse into the drive for a number of reasons. Possible, but a massive PITA.
And anyway, even if I’m going out forwards, people still walk in front of me.

In the guys defence did you have your foot on the brake when you put it into reverse? Most modern cars have s*** indicators and reverse lights which are difficult to see when the brake lights are on. Also, if you had the brake on and he saw you look around he might have judged that you saw him and were waiting (suppose that also applies even if you didnt have the brake on).

A good reason to reverse into parking spaces, rather than out.

“You often see drivers struggling trying to reverse out of parking bays especially at night or if they have passengers in the back seats, however drivers who have reversed in can drive straight out. Not only is it safer to reverse into a parking space it is more eco-friendly as you will not use extra fuel manoeuvring when the engine is cold.”

http://www.learnerdriving.com/learn-to-drive/driving-lesson-briefs/bay-parking

But, no. I wouldn’t walk behind a reversing car, especially at night.

I’d not walk behind a reversing car, self preservation and all that.

However it is far safer to reverse into a closed box than into traffic.

if I had reversed into the space & been ready to drive straight out (as I usually do, probably 8 times out of 10), would he have still walked across the front of a car with engine running & lights on? OK I would have seen him better, but still…

STATO – no, handbrake on, not on footbrake. put left foot down on clutch, engage reverse, find biting point, release handbrake – observing all the time. Having said that, it’s a Citroen C4, reverse light is on the bottom of the bumper, nearside, so if he’d approached me from the offside he might not have seen the light, but still, the crunch of a citroen gearbox & increased revs might have given some clues…

not sure if he expected me to get out as he’d already walked off to his own car.

Wish I’d thought of mentioning “contributory negligence” at the time…

you’ve forgotten the all important but abour reverse parking – escape and evasion! 🙂

Highway code says you should reverse ONTO your drive so that this doesn’t happen

If you had reversed into the space you wouldn’t have had this problem

HTH

djglover – you’re right, and I normally do. I just got lazy. won’t be doing that again

Doesn’t matter – at the end of the day he’s a pedestrian and you’d have been at fault. Yes he was probably proving a point, but do you ever not slow down when people walk slowly across the road proving how much attitude they have or do you speed up / pull up and confront them?

He may have been paying less attention than he should have been (twittering / texting) and you caught him by surprise.

I find in these circumstances to put it down to experience – no harm done and all that

john_drummer, you should have stood in the way of his car as he left – then sued him when he ran you over.

Highway code says you should reverse ONTO your drive so that this doesn’t happen

reversing onto the drive is actually more dangerous than driving on forwards, for users of the footpath and traffic on the road.

Yes but then driving off. The drive is actually more dangerous for all concerned……

I appreciate that reversing in would avoid this but as there’s been plenty of occasions where I’ve been in motion, half way out of the space and people still walk behind me I think Brakes 4 out of 5 being dicks is pretty close to the mark

Reversing onto the drive is not more dangerous. What you do is wait until its safe. The thing is there is a little word that people have forgotten there. Wait. Wait until there is no traffic, wait until there are no pedestrians. So what if its inconvienient.
I bet we have all walked behind a reversing car. My daft wife does it deliberately! If for example I am parking in a tight space with the bike rack on and the car behind has a sloping bonnet she may get out to “spot” me. Where does she stand? Behind me! And then gets stroppy when I don’t move!

but do you ever not slow down when people walk slowly across the road proving how much attitude they have or do you speed up / pull up and confront them?

no, I tend to run the buggers over 😉

seriously though, I try to adjust my course so that I can go around them; if there’s no way to do that then of course I slow down. Had one today actually, managed to miss him. shame really, Darwinism at its finest

If I reverse into parking bay at our local Tesco – I can’t get the trolley to the tail gate to unload it: bays to narrow and trolley rolls away if left unattended.

I always reverse park my car in car parks, saves an awful lot of this kind of thing. If I remember correctly a lot of companies require their employees to reverse park at work.

I know one company I visit in Evesham where visitors are also required to reverse park, I arrived with my bosses in their cars and reversed into a bay as I always do, we went into the meeting and the first thing the buyer did was make my two bosses go out and park their cars correctly! 🙂

Thing was I’d told them before arrival that they said on their website that we needed to reverse park and they then ignored me! Not a good start to a business meeting me thought!

Trail rat is right about reversing onto roads, you’re supposed to reverse into the minor road not out into the major road.

Reversing onto the drive is not more dangerous. What you do is wait until its safe. The thing is there is a little word that people have forgotten there. Wait. Wait until there is no traffic, wait until there are no pedestrians. So what if its inconvienient.

I’m a very patient man 🙂 You’ll have to take my word for it that it’s both more dangerous and more inconvenient for all concerned if I reverse onto my drive. Lets just say that it involves a busy road, two not quite opposite junctions, the bottom of a hill, a bus stop, parked cars and a drive that drops away from the road and turns sharply.

I’m not normally one to say stuff like this, but: forget it.
Sounds like it all went ok, he was a twot, you apologised, you’ll never see the twot again. Fergedaboudit!

Brakes you are crossing a FOOTpath peds have right of way and are taking it. (some cyclists take their right of way also ,cheek of the feckers)

Why would a company require people to reverse park? I could be tired and missing something

Why would a company require people to reverse park? I could be tired and missing something

because its safer to reverse in than out. H&S culture rules supreme, well it certainly does in oil and gas

Brakes you are crossing a FOOTpath peds have right of way and are taking it.

I know that, which is why I stop. But if I was in their place I would like to think that I would realise that the driver is pulling out blind (forwards or backwards) and stop and let him out so I don’t get ran over or, and here’s an idea, maybe wave him out 😕

Pieface – Member
but do you ever not slow down when people walk slowly across the road proving how much attitude they have or do you speed up / pull up and confront them?

Just shout “This car’s harder than you!” as they bounce up the bonnet.

My company require me to reverse park, the theory being it is safer to drive forward out a parking space than reverse out.

Brakes some folk are just grumpy/ impatient/ do not give a shit.

Djg has it

Encourage a safety culture , by doing it at work all the time i now never drive into a space forwards

I also hold on to hand rails going up and down stairs

I wear safety specs when im Working on diy or in the garage ( its 2 fold i wear prescription glasses anyway so its just grabbing my work glasses instead of my reading glasses)

Its not a bad thing tbh and easier than picking and choosing when to be safe , no biggy really

at work we’re encouraged to bring a “safety tip” to all meetings.

some of the safety tips people (myself included) come up with can only be described as “I wish I’d thought of that before I …”

anyway, thanks all for your input. I still think he was making a mountain out of a molehill, but I wish my brain was quicker with silly put-downs.

I appreciate that reversing in would avoid this but as there’s been plenty of occasions where I’ve been in motion, half way out of the space and people still walk behind me I think Brakes 4 out of 5 being dicks is pretty close to the mark

Why should people give way to you just because you’re in a car?

Highway code says it’s the other way round. So you break the law, and THEY are dicks?

the highway code is not the law

Because its a car park with road markings on it, not a footpath?? But really it’s common sense, moving vehicle = might get injured, unless you’re gormless

I always reverse into a space, unless I’m gonna be loading up from a trolley that requires boot access.
If some idiot wants to walk behind a reversing car then they deserve to get knocked over. I’ll take my chances in court.

…he was making a mountain out of a molehill

To be fair, he just got on with his journey.

He’s not made a fuss – just a little slap on a car that was getting a bit close when he thought the driver hadn’t seen him. fair enough. He shouldn’t have been there but you’ve not hit him, so don’t worry about it.

A quick “didn’t see you, mate.” should have done it. 😉