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06 Sept 2025

Gardaí in Kilkenny advise motorists to reverse into parking spots - your thoughts?

Gardaí in Kilkenny advise motorists to reverse into parking spots - your thoughts?

Picture: An Garda Síochána

The latest post from gardaí in Kilkenny relates to the potential implications and/or hazards of parking your car in a certain way.

"One of the motorist's greatest decisions when doing their 'messages' is whether to drive forward into a parking spot or reverse in," gardaí stated. 

"Interestingly when we investigate collisions in car parks the party at fault is almost never the one driving straight out, in fact those backing out and failing to observe account for much of the fault in car park collisions.

"Why? Probably because the person who backs into a space has clear vision of all hazards before they manoeuvre, they then can use their mirrors to help guide them in. Mirrors and a healthy dose of caution and not relying on parking sensors and reversing cameras.

"On a public road, the rules of the road demand that we back from major to minor, meaning we should where possible back into a driveway that does not facilitate turning within.

"Of course probably the best reason to take the extra care is that a small child or indeed someone in a wheelchair is completely obscured by the height of the back of many or most modern cars. Thus reversing out where the best assessment of hazards is not possible increases risk."

Gardaí acknowledged that the same advice applies when parking in your driveway.

What do you think?

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