I can understand your frustration over this, but she was moving, and against the flow of traffic.

"Isn't there any obligation on the pick up driver to be going at a reasonable speed, particularly at a 90 degree bend, and paying sufficient attention to driving conditions and other road users to avoid scraping the sides of a car parked in the street?"

Unless you have omitted something, he did not hit any parked cars - he hit a car that was reversing. Quite posssibly he was driving carelessly, but you will need more evidence (witnesses?) to pin that on him.

Even if he was unsighted as your daughter started her manouvre (and you could argue he should have been driving at a speed at which he was able to stop/avoid the collision) I'm afraid you're going to struggle to get anywhere with this.

Sorry!

Edited by FP on 11/11/2013 at 19:53

She reversed backwards about 3 feet to enable her to drive out of the space. As she did so a pick-up truck zoomed down the road towards her and turned left at the 90 degree bend immediately behind her and as a result struck the side of her car denting the side and ripping off the near side rear light cluster.

From the above, your daughter was parked 3 feet (or less) from the junction with the road the pickup turned into.

Highway code rule 239

• do not park facing against the traffic flow

Rule 243

• do not park opposite or within 10 metres (32 feet) of a junction, except in an authorised parking space

Was this an authorised parking space? If not, the above points may have been taken into account by the insurers.

"She reversed backwards about 3 feet....."

If there's some way of reversing other than backwards, maybe she should have tried that ;)

Seriously, I agree with the views above in general, but the pick-up driver could have been more careful, and it might be worth trying to get a portion of the blame shifted to him.