hypothetical car accident

[5029]

Where i live, there is a junction at the end of a road, where you can turn either left or right. As you approach the junction, the last house on the left hand side has their car parked outside their house, blocking the left hand side of the road. So to get to the end of the road and see whether it is safe to turn, i have to drive on the right and sit on the right HS as i edge out to the junction. My question is this: If a care comes from my right to turn left down the road, it will not expect a car to be there and will hit me head on. Whose fault will this be? his for careless driving, mine for being on the wrong side of the road or the parked car for causing a dangerous obstruction?

[sft42]

As with most situations like this there is no one easy answer and one person would of course have quite good justification to put blame on another....if you were stationery at the junction and the car hit you then I would be inclined to lay blame towards the person coming round the corner as they would be driving in a manner that was too fast to control the car properly for the prevailing road conditions....they would blame you for being on the wrong side of the road and you would blame the car parked illegally......I would ask your local crime prevention officer for guidance on this matter if you are really worried.

[5029]

Thanks, as far as I'm concerned its just a matter of time! I'm thinking anonymous letter to the owner of the house!

[Kerplunk]

Try a phone call to the local police station and ask it to be brought to the attention of the Traffic Wardens. You may not get an immediate soulution but a few fixed penalty tickets will make the owner of the car park elsewhere. I am sure it is illegal to park within 10 yards of a junction.

[sddsddean]

Certainly is kerplunk. It is illegal to park within 30 feet of a junction, although I have only seen this enforced once! However, these circumstances occur. If an accident happened as you described, I would blame the driver turning into the side road. You cannot assume that your way will be clear (although most people do) so you should approach any junction with caution, even if you have the right of way.

[mattie]

I know this does not answer your question, but the following happened to me. I was stopped at a junction, wishing to turn right, there was a car parked on the road I wished to join, on my left, with its rear end at the start of where the pavement started to curve round. Thus it was effectively blocking my view to the left. I had to nose right out to see past this car. While I was doing this there was a car waiting to turn right into the road I was leaving, the occupants of which where stopped in the middle of the road, staring at me, when they eventually turned in, the car stopped opposite me. It turned out the driver was an off-duty policeman in his own car, he informed me that what I was doing ( pulling out over the give way line and stopping) was dangerous driving, even though my view was obviously restricted. Everyone else I asked said they would have done the same, was I in the wrong?

[gazzawazza]

I've just been looking for my (brand new) copy of the highway code without success, but I'm sure there is a rule which states something like, "Never turn into a junction which you can not see to be clear at a speed which you can not stop." There is also something along the same lines telling you that you shouldn't drive at speeds where you can not stop in the distance you can see to be clear. I would say that say that it is definitely the other person's fault on the face of it.

[Ewood27]

I live in a quiet residential road. Some years ago someone parked a low sports car outside a house they were visiting. The person living opposite backed out of their drive, straight across the road and into the side of the sports car. They were furious. "You shouldn't have parked opposite my drive!" (No road junctions and no restrictions of vision, by the way). The sports car driver replied, very reasonably, "What if it had been a small child in the road?" Moral? Expect the other driver to be an idiot. You will not often be disappointed.

[davver]

If you are stationary at the time, then you have an even greater claim to being in the right(as it were!). From an insurance point of view, they would probably just take knock-for-knock. The [people of questionable parentage].