Hi all

just wanted to float a few accident queries and try and ascertane liability.

1, If a driver exits car by swinging his door open as far as possible in on coming traffic. Is it his own fault if he is struck?

2, By nosing out into on coming traffic, would the 'noser ' be liable (if hit) for not adhering to the road markings?

just a few questions Ive had floating around for a while. Theres a certain area where I live and this goes on all the time, you have to have eyes in the back of your head to negotiate the road.Also, the parking is atrocious, blocking visibility for the road ahead.

Fwog

IMHO the answer to both questions is the driver is a fault,

IMHO the answer to both questions is the driver is a fault,

But not necessarily wholly so.

The driver that hits him also has a duty of care. For example, if somebody opens his.her door and I can avoid it, then I am partly culpable if I do not do so.

Just because somebody makes an error, doesn't mean that anybody else is automatically relieved of any duty of care towards them.

Thanks for the replies ,folks.

I'm just a bit worried,as this seems to be the 'usual' pattern of behaviour on this stretch of road.

Ive had near misses on several occasions and ,due to on coming vehicles,had to slam my brakes on.

I just wanted to get a bit of info incase the unthinkable happens.

Cheers

Fwog

Hi all

 

just wanted to float a few accident queries and try and ascertane liability.

 

1, If a driver exits car by swinging his door open as far as possible in on coming traffic. Is it his own fault if he is struck?

 

2, By nosing out into on coming traffic, would the 'noser ' be liable (if hit) for not adhering to the road markings?

 

just a few questions Ive had floating around for a while. Theres a certain area where I live and this goes on all the time, you have to have eyes in the back of your head to negotiate the road.Also, the parking is atrocious, blocking visibility for the road ahead.

 

Fwog

It all depends on the circumstances of the accident, for the first one, if the oncoming driver can clearly see your door is open from a good distance and still collided with your door, then some contrib negligence may be held against him. However, this does just not happen - if you see a hazard in the road, as a driver you try and get out of the way, stop etc... so it can be very hard to prove contib negligence against the other driver. Unless you have an independant witness.

For 'nosing' out from a side road into oncoming traffic, whilst the highway code states that this is what you should do, the highway code does not always apply when assessing liability. Ultimately if you have pulled out (slowly or not) into ongoing traffic, you are likely to be held at fault.

If you told your insurers that you were slowly nosing out of a side road, and pulled hit a car on the main road, they would deal with the other parties claim.