In a rest area on motorway there was a collision between my car and another, both leaving parking spaces. My nearside rear corner was dented, his off side rear door. I contend that it was not my fault as I had cleared my parking bay,and momentarily stopped to change gear to move forward. However my insurance company say it is 50/50 - easy way out for them as both cars insured by AXA.
Now in the Uk there are companies who can determine with a degree of accuracy who was at fault from the position of damage on the cars. Does anyone know of any similar in France? Google search has failed to find any. Itās not so much the ā¬250 excess it is the principle.
Accident Diagram.pdf (14.8 KB)
Did you both complete the joint-accident-declaration form (I forget the proper name)???
Constat amiable, you can even do it online now, just download an app.
@Gprit does that mean you had been reversing? Then you are 50% in the wrong I think. @fabien should be able to tell you.
You do seem to be rather speeding and accident-prone.
(Bonjour, sāil vous plaĆ®t, merci).
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First āincidentā and first speeding in 40 years!!!
I had ALREADY reversed and was et to move forwardā¦HE chose to reverse when the path was not clear. Incident form filled in.
I guess if you were stopped the accident couldnāt have been your fault, but how do you prove you were stopped?
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It sounds as though your mind is made up as to the rights and wrongs anyway. My non-expert, non-witness view is itās 50% 50% but good luck to you arguing differently.
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Must confess that, judging from the diagramā¦ I might well think that car A went into car Bā¦ 
50/50 is probably fairā¦ although Iād love to know the written comments/diagrams of both drivers
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I wonder whether one of those dashcams (front and rear) would be of any help in this type of situation.??
A very difficult situation to resolve, as I guess the other person is probably also quite adamant it was your fault. And no witnesses?
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As described, I think this pattern of damage would make a difficult argument that the other is 100% at fault. I had similar in the UK and got absolutely nowhere.
@John_Scully ā¦that is the conundrum. The fact is that I had left my parking bay and he had not. so to my mind he was freversing without due care and attention. The other driver says 50/50. If his insurance company was not the same as mine I am sure AXA would fight harder on my behalfā¦
But, as I said originallyā¦fault CAN be determined by points of contact - I would just like to find someone/company in France that can testify regarding that.
Indeed. But imagine you are presented with damage on two cars. One has a dented rear door, the other has a dented rear wing. Given that cars do not usually move sideways, what decision are you likely to come to?
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From the description it sounds like the other driver was at fault.
Persuading the insurance company to see it that way, however,ā¦
Edit - having now looked at the diagram I am not surprised it was deemed to be 50/50.
This is a bit of a tricky situation indeed. Based on your drawing itās indeed a 50/50 responsibility. I try to remind this as often as possible but in France they only look at the boxes checked and the drawing thatās it (quick tip, let the other driver write whatever they want if that eases them, especially if it helps you check the right boxes ). The responsibility is based on a ānomenclatureā which sometimes doesnāt seem fair but is supposed to be partial. In your case, an incident on a parking lot often means itās 50/50 at best and to answer your question there isnāt an āindependentā third party that can assess responsibility in France. Itās either you have law enforcement as witness OR the insurance company has to apply the nomenclature. You can challenge the nomenclature but this is the law in France so there is no room for interpretation and in your particular case unfortunately it says 50/50 responsibility really sorry about that. I know it doesnāt help much but at least I hope it sheds some light on the topic?
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Thanks for all the commentsā¦I am kicking myself that in the spur of the moment we just drove to a quiet area to complete details, instead of stopping and taking photos.
I bet everyone was pleased that you did, so on their behalf, I thank you both!
In LeClerc the other day, one of the very hot days, a similar incident that blocked the whole car park in and out. Both refused to move, one even wanting the gendarmes - all for two little dents.
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The last time I was over I drove into the local Super U car park - this has rows of bays parallel to which are roadways (2-way), at the āsidesā there are further roadways at right angles to the lines of bays.
Starting to turn in towards the bays I was bemused to find a car heading straight towards me - on the left of the roadway, having just exited (I presume) a bay.
It took me a moment to fully process this scenario since the car was clearly on the wrong side of the road - then I realised it was a brit 
Thankfully I had not fully executed my turn so I was able to divert and turn down the next row. Phew.
In case itās not clear from my description (quite likely I would have thought)
Part of the car park is covered, hence the bit white square.
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This could be a very important point. Assuming you were stationary as you say it is the other driverās fault for hitting a stationary vehicle.
I am pretty sure in that case that my dashcam would record your stop, and also the following impact. I do hope if you have one that you have saved the relevant file and that your dashcam is up to date regarding time and date.
I deliberately always stop dead at a stop sign. Not because I am a saint but because the action of slight dipping on the suspension definitely records it just in case a gendarme should step from behind a bush and mistake the precise action.
If not then I am sorry to say that 50/50 may well be the best you could hope for.
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Iām with David on this. Lifeās too short so choose your battles wisely and, unfortunately, this is a battle youāre unlikely to win regardless of whose fault it really was.
As a family who had quite a few minor and very major prangs over the years in France, I also agree with the letting it go reasoning. I hit a bollard in Super U back in around 2001 with my brand new car and did a nice dent and paint damage but upon getting a devis from my local garagiste, we decided to forgo any claiming on insurance and paying out ā¬250 which most likely would have increased future premiums and paid for the repairs ourselves at around ā¬400 if I remember. I just could not be bothered with weeks of arguing and then having their chosen garage do the repairs after the mess Peugeot made on our badly damaged trafic some time before and tried to charge for storage for several weeks when they couldnāt be arsed to get it done for the insurance company, needless to say, we changed insurers after that! Life is too short to argue over a small sum.
With Credit Agricole car insurance, you only pay out 50% of your excess for a 50/50 or āno faultā claim.