DriveSmartBC

"I can't parallel park!" laments a reader. Although many of us have trouble with this aspect of driving, he didn't make this comment in the way you might think. "The other drivers won't stop to let me back in."

A number of readers contacted me after last week's column where I told about a man walking behind me when I was preparing to back out of a parking stall. These readers all told me that I should back into parking stalls rather than driving forward into them. The benefit of doing this is a far better view of the world when I try to leave the stall.

Whose fault is it if I back out of a parking space and hit someone driving by?

The Motor Vehicle Act places the responsibility squarely on the driver who is backing up. It says that a driver must not in any event or at any place cause a vehicle to move backwards unless the movement can be made in safety.