The highway Code states, See bullet point 1 as car pulled out and knocked me off :
Parking239Use off-street parking areas, or bays marked out with white lines on the road as parking places, wherever possible.
If you have to stop on the roadside:
do not park facing against the traffic flowstop as close as you can to the sidedo not stop too close to a vehicle displaying a Blue Badge – remember, the occupant may need more room to get in or outyou MUST switch off the engine, headlights and fog lightsyou MUST apply the handbrake before leaving the vehicleyou MUST ensure you do not hit anyone when you open your door – check for cyclists or other trafficit is safer for your passengers (especially children) to get out of the vehicle on the side next to the kerbput all valuables out of sight and make sure your vehicle is securelock your vehicle[Laws CUR reg 98, 105 & 107, RVLR reg 27 & RTA 1988 sect 42]
The one you have underlined is basically guidance, it is not an offence to fail to comply.
Doesn’t change the fact that he is in the wrong, and that he will likely have little to no defence because he was sitting on the wrong side of the car and couldn’t possibly have seen what was coming from the other direction, unless the vehicle was larger than the vehicles parked in front of him.
Could perhaps go for dangerous driving, because it is a standard that falls below the standard employed by a reasonably competent driver, but it might be a stretch for the police to do that.
There are a number of offences outside of whatever local regs may be in place when parking.
Firstly, parked wrong way at night without lights is quite a specific offence (but this really applies to cars) and I cannot recall when I last heard someone being done for this offence, but it exists.
Leaving a motor vehicle parked and unattended with the engine running is referred to as “Quiting a Motor Vehicle”, the first offence I ever reported someone for decades ago. This again is a specific offence and I know that people do still get done for this offence.
And opening the door and hitting someone, either a cyclist, a car or a pedestrian can result if the offence of negligent opening of a door, again a specific offence and one again that people do get done for.
The remainder are advisory but in any case really apply to vehicles with more than 2 wheels.
