A car driver, was pulling out across the front of a stationary bus in order to turn right down the road in the direction opposite to that in which the bus was facing. He collided with a moped which had overtaken the bus on its offside. The car was only about a yard beyond the offside of the bus at the time of the collision.
Held: (majority) The driver was not negligent. Lord Justice Phillimore said: ‘the first defendant came out extremely slowly and extremely carefully. In effect he inched his way out beyond the line of the bus . . If you have a small vehicle like a bicycle or motorcycle, you are in the fortunate position of taking up so little roadspace that you can slide along in the offside . . but if you choose to do this it does seem to me to warrant a very, very high degree of care indeed because you are blinded to a great extent to what goes on on the lefthand side of the road. You must therefore continue to ride or drive in such a way that you can immediately deal with an emergency.’
Judges:
Lord Justice Phillimore
Citations:
[1969] 1 All ER 275, [1969] 1 WLR 69
Negligence, Road Traffic
Updated: 05 May 2022; Ref: scu.401638