Trouble in the parking lot: What applies: priority road or right-before-left?

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a supermarket or a hardware store: you’re often on the road in public car parks. And there it also likes to rumble. Does the right-before-left rule apply here or not?

The rules of the road traffic regulations may apply in a public parking lot of a supermarket. The operator does not even have to expressly order them for this. If the lanes between the parking lots are primarily used for finding a parking space and not for vehicular traffic, the rule of mutual consideration applies. This is shown by a judgment (Az.: 17 U 21/22) by the Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Frankfurt am Main, to which the ADAC refers.

The case involved a large parking lot at a hardware store. Signs pointed out that the road traffic regulations (StVO) apply here. A route led without interruption to the exit. From the side ran some driveways to this. Parking bays were found on both sides of the access roads and to the left of the exit lane.

Two drivers collided at an intersection with one of the driveways. The driver in the direction of the exit then wanted compensation from the oncoming vehicle. His argument: The right-before-left rule does not apply here, but he would have been on a priority road. The other referred to the right-before-left rule according to the StVO. The courts had to clarify.

The Higher Regional Court ruled that the damage should be divided equally. The rules of the StVO are therefore applicable to such private but publicly accessible parking spaces. The owner does not even have to explicitly identify this with signs.

However, in a parking lot like here, the principle of mutual consideration always applies. Both lanes had parking bays, which according to the verdict shows that both are primarily intended for the search for a parking space and not for the flow of traffic. In such situations, the principle of mutual consideration applies.

Something else only applies if the street character is clearly given, which can be seen, for example, in directional lanes, curbs and partitions, as can be found at many motorway service stations, for example. This was not the case on site. Both parties involved in the accident had not sufficiently fulfilled their duty of care and had to accept that the damage was shared equally.