Parking Lot Accidents in Charleston: Who Is Liable and What You Should Do

The Incident

On a Saturday afternoon in May 2026, a 67-year-old Mount Pleasant woman was walking from her parked car toward the entrance of a grocery store in the Towne Centre shopping complex when a driver backing out of an adjacent space struck her at low speed. She was knocked to the ground and fractured her hip on the asphalt. Bystanders helped her up, but she declined to call 911 and drove herself home. Two days later she could barely stand. Surgery was scheduled within the week. Only then did she discover that the driver had left the scene — and that the store had a surveillance camera pointed directly at that section of the parking lot.

What South Carolina Law Says

South Carolina courts have held that drivers in private parking lots are still subject to the duty of reasonable care and that traffic regulations — including rules about right-of-way, speed, and yielding to pedestrians — apply in private lots open to the public. This means a driver who strikes a pedestrian in a parking lot can be held liable under the same negligence standard as a driver on a public road.

Additionally, the property owner — the shopping center, grocery store, employer, or garage operator — may bear independent liability under premises liability law if a dangerous condition of the lot contributed to the accident. Common property owner failures include:

• Inadequate lighting in parking decks or surface lots at night
• Faded or missing lane markings, stop signs, or directional arrows
• Potholes, crumbling asphalt, or raised pavement sections that cause trips and falls
• Obstructed sightlines from vegetation, signage, or parked vehicles
• Inadequate pedestrian walkways or crossings

When both a negligent driver and a negligent property owner contribute to an injury, South Carolina's joint and several liability rules allow an injured victim to seek recovery from either or both defendants.

Your Rights and Options

After a parking lot accident, document the scene as thoroughly as you would any road accident: photograph vehicle positions, damage, road markings (or the lack of them), lighting conditions, and any property hazards that contributed. Many parking lots and garages have surveillance cameras — request that footage be preserved immediately, as it is often overwritten within 24 to 72 hours.

If you are a pedestrian struck by a vehicle, the same rules apply as on a public road: call 911, seek immediate medical attention, and preserve all evidence of the injury. Do not assume the low-speed nature of the collision means your injuries are minor — soft tissue and orthopedic injuries are common even at 5-10 mph.

What I Look For When Evaluating These Cases

In parking lot accident cases, I investigate both the driver's conduct and the property owner's maintenance history. A request to the property owner for maintenance records, prior incident reports, and inspection logs often reveals a pattern of known defects that were not corrected — evidence that strengthens the premises liability claim considerably.

How Insurance Companies Fight Back

The at-fault driver's insurer will typically argue the victim failed to watch where they were going or walked in an area not designated for pedestrians. The property owner's insurer will argue the condition was "open and obvious" — a defense that, while valid in some contexts, does not apply when the property owner's negligence created a trap that a reasonable person exercising ordinary care would not have anticipated. An experienced premises liability and auto accident attorney can address both defenses simultaneously.

Related Practice Areas at Traywick Law Offices

Parking lot cases straddle car accident and premises liability law. If a pedestrian was knocked down, slip and fall principles regarding walkway conditions may also apply. In cases involving commercial properties, negligent security may be relevant if the injury occurred during a criminal act facilitated by inadequate lighting or surveillance.

My Final Thoughts

Parking lot accidents are taken less seriously than road accidents by insurers, which is exactly why having legal representation levels the playing field. If you were injured in a parking lot in the Charleston area, contact Traywick Law Offices for a free evaluation of whether the driver, the property owner, or both owe you full compensation for your injuries.