Overtaking Vehicles That Turn Right
Posted on July 13th, 2009 in Lawyers Surgery by Author
Your driving down the road behind a long queue of traffic.. it’s moving at a snails pace, it may as well not be moving at all! You suddenly see a gap in oncoming traffic and decide it is safe to proceed and overtake the slow cars. Your past a few when suddenly, without warning, one of them turns right straight into your path and smash; your vehicles collide. You think to yourself that the other vehicle should have checked his/her side mirrors and there blind spot before pulling out. But who’s to blame in this road traffic accident scenario as far as the Law is concerned?
Unfortunately, the answer isn’t a simple one. This area of law is a bit grey and there are several different opinions on the matter…
Take the case of Pell V Mosely for example. In this case, the person making a claim was a motorcyclist who overtook a line of slow moving traffic on a single carriageway. The Defendant turn right into a field and the two collided. The court held that the car turning right should have taken more care before turning. The judge therefore found the driver turning right 100% to blame on those circumstance.
Looking at this claim you would be able to sue the driver who turned into your path and recover 100% of your losses.
However, in other cases the court does not always totally take the side of the overtaking vehicle and the Courts do take into consideration the following when making their decision:
· The speed you were travelling at prior to the impact
· Whether the turning vehicle was indicating
· If the turning vehicle was not indicating, should it have been obvious in any way that the vehicle was going to or was about to turn or pull out?
So if you are the overtaking vehicle the Court may find in your favour but the specific outcome of your case will depend on the specific circumstances of the accident and the Court will take into account the above factors when making there decision.
