Legal Question

[venta]

So: I believe that it is illegal (or at least against the Highway Code, which is not necessarily the same thing) to reverse from a road onto a more major road. I believe, as a consequence of this, that it is at least as illegal to reverse out of your drive onto the road. If the snarl up caused by the Fiat Multipla[*] in Sonning Common this morning is anything to go by, it bloody should be illegal.

However, various friends have assured me it's fine to reverse out of your drive on to the road - it can't possibly be illegal, because "everyone does it". Anyone know ?

[*]Surely the ugliest car in the world, and clearly born out of some deranged mechanic's bastard vertical cut-and-shut project.

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Does anyone else notice a bit of an inconsistency there ?

Comments

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I've never understood what it would mean for a car to have right of way in that situation anyway. It's never legal to run over a pedestrian,

Well, obviously if the pedestrian is already in the middle of the road where he can be seen, it makes no difference at all. The difference occurs when the pedestrian is standing at the kerbside ready to cross.

Then it's the same as a zebra crossing - if a car observes a pedestrian waiting, and the pedestrian has right of way, then the car should stop to let the pedestrian cross. If the pedestrian does not have right of way, then the driver is within his rights to continue. If the pedestrian then chooses to fling himself in front of the car at the last moment, it's the pedestrian's fault and the driver has run someone over entirely legally.

It's also the same as with cars - if you hit someone who has right of way, then the accident is almost certainly your fault. This can have a significant effect on your no-claims bonus, even if the someone you hit was a pedestrian.

My opinion on this case, though, is that it's stupid for pedestrians to have right of way when crossing T-junctions, because pedestrians typically spill all over the kerb all the time even when they're not crossing. So there is no way for a driver to know whether a given pedestrian is about to cross the road, and thus no way for a driver to know whether or not he can turn in. Any reasonable system at all would hold the party with the least momentum and the highly unpredictable movement to be responsible for avoiding collisions in this kind of situation.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Any reasonable system at all would hold the party with the least momentum and the highly unpredictable movement to be responsible for avoiding collisions in this kind of situation.

Steam gives way to sail :)

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Exactly - a truly stupid rule to try to apply when you're sitting in a dinghy in front of an oil supertanker that you well know takes something in excess of 2 miles and half an hour to stop.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

If you were considering a horserider and a car with power steering though, it would make more sense - a car is less likely to go all skittish if the horse makes a loud noise.