In Australia it is also an ambiguous situation. A pedestrian who walks into the path of a vehicle is at fault. However a vehicle must give way to a pedestrian who has already begun to cross the road. When someone steps onto the road they become a road user and I believe they should have a duty to pay attention. Any other road user looking at their phone is committing...
Difficult one.
On balance.....yes, the Judge got it right.
If you are a road user, one must always be on the lookout for idiots and our yoga teacher was indeed an idiot.
We don't know how much time the cyclist had to react. If it was a matter of milliseconds, then it's unfair. If the cyclist themselves was being negligent, then yes, fair result. However, the yoga woman needs to understand she's at least 50% responsible for the accident.
'Mr Hazeldean did fall below the level to be expected of a reasonably competent cyclist in that he did proceed when the road was not completely clear.'
'The appropriate finding is that the parties were equally responsible and I make a finding of liability at 50/50.'
The result of the judge's ruling is that Ms Brushett is now guaranteed a payout, but will only get half of the full value of her claim.
One point I would make is that when taking a Driving Theory Test you have to watch a series of videos and react to possible hazards, scoring up to 5 points per clip.
The judge makes a salient point when referring to potential banana skins.
True, the woman was careless (rather than an idiot) but the apportionment of blame would appear reasonable from the report. As to damages, however, I am less sympathetic.
No she is to blame, the road is for vehicles, and pedestrians just cannot just walk onto them, without first looking if their path is clear.
It is a growing problem mainly carried out by young women these days, the times I have had to stop my car in supermarket car parks so has to let a woman whose is so busy looking into her phone, stroll past in front of my moving car.
While we are on the subject of cyclists however, another problem that should be stopped, and that is allowing them to ride on the roads whilst wearing headphones.
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