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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Who is in the wrong here? Re two car drivers.

116 replies

Chocolatereindeerr · 02/12/2022 19:26

Please tell me who is in the wrong here.. I understand it’s probably both but what would happen if it went to insurance?

I was passenger in car A.

car A- fails to stop behind a parked vehicle and give way to oncoming vehicle but would of made it round in enough time if the oncoming car went appropriate speed.

car B- on coming. Notices car A has not given way and puts his foot down and aggressively speeds up towards car A.

the result of this was both cars clipping wing mirrors but could have been worse.

car A pulls over as wing mirror was pushed in and 30 seconds later Car B has turned round and parked behind car A.

Car B driver gets out his car and aggressively starts shouting that Car A driver has knocked his wing mirror off. car A driver apologies and mentions that car B driver was coming fast and that he should of slowed down. Car B driver agrees to putting his foot down but said that it’s his right of way, he wasn’t stopping.

who is in the wrong?

OP posts:

Bard6817 · 03/12/2022 12:24

B is a twat. A was making an abnormal maneuvre to avoid a hazard and should made sure there was ample space and time to avoid a collision. A is liable. Unless you have dashcam footage to evidence that B intended to cause the crash, A is liable.

BatshitandBonkers · 03/12/2022 12:30

A should have waited but B is an arse

DownNative · 03/12/2022 14:46

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 03/12/2022 12:21

It is clear that car A failed to wait, it can't be proved that car B speeded up, if he admitted it at the time he certainly wouldn't admit it to his insurance, so the insiurance would find against A.

I imagine, before long, cars will be fitted as standard with timed speed recorders which would be used as evidence in cases like this; but there's also no proof that B didn't hugely speed up.

Once A was on B's side of the road, and thus blocking it - whatever the rights or wrongs of A being there - it was clearly not good driving for B to deliberately proceed when the road ahead was obviously not clear. Around our way, the bin lorry will often block off a road with a line of cars parked on one side, and you just have to wait a minute or two; if you were stupid enough to just drive into it anyway, I'd expect any insurer to cast doubt on your eyesight or ability to drive safely plus you can't recycle wrecked cars that way anyway.

Yes, you can be annoyed, even angry, that somebody/something is impeding your way, but you can't just ignore them and plough on regardless - any more than you can pick up a very slow little elderly pedestrian holding you up on a narrow pavement and fling them over a hedge.

You're presenting here an Argument from Ignorance which is an informal logical fallacy. You have to stick with what can actually be proven.

And that is Car A failed to follow all the Highway Code requirements as stated in Rule 162-63.

The onus is clearly on A to wait until road ahead was clear enough to proceed. That's what the rules mentioned state. They didn't. A was obviously in a rush too.

DownNative · 03/12/2022 14:55

NalaNana · 03/12/2022 10:57

@DownNative of course we're taking the OP's word for it. If driver B didn't speed up, there would be no point in this thread as obviously driver A would be at fault.

You can't just pick and choose which parts of the OP are true based on which parts support your view. Oh, I've just decided that the OP wasn't a passenger at all, they were the driver, so they had the best view in the house blah blah blah 🙄

Well, that's just blatant Circular Reasoning right there! Completely illogical to base anything on.

In this situation, the Highway Code would be referred to AND compared to the account given by the OP. On that, A is at fault for all the multiple reasons cited.

There's no indication at all that b broke the speed limit in the OP. They simply described the speed as "aggressive", so Completely subjective. Certainly didn't assert anything close to "B exceeded the posted speed limit"!

So, you have to look at the claim and, yes, pole holes in it according to Rule 162-63. Highly striking you simply cannot quote the Highway Code in support here.

A is clearly at fault and should re-read the Highway Code again.

NalaNana · 03/12/2022 15:48

@DownNative driver A has only breached the Highway Code if you accept that they didn't have suitable time to carry out the manoeuvre. You believe they didn't, I believe they did, and the only reason the manoeuvre wasn't completed in time is because the other driver sped up towards them. This is supported by the OP.

There was only one parked car to pass, and even with driver B speeding up they only just clipped wing mirrors which suggests that if driver B hadn't have sped up, the collision wouldn't have happened.

The OP doesn't say driver B was speeding I'll give you that, but they do say that they weren't driving at the appropriate speed and put their foot down, maybe they could confirm what they meant.

In terms of offences, speeding up towards an oncoming vehicle is careless and falls below the standard of a competent and careful driver and that is an offence under the road traffic act.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 03/12/2022 18:52

You're presenting here an Argument from Ignorance which is an informal logical fallacy. You have to stick with what can actually be proven.

Without any cameras, witnesses or geo-positioning records, how can you even prove which side of the road they were on when it happened? Much less the exact positioning of the parked cars at that exact time.

If all you have to go on is any damage to the offside wing mirrors of both cars, how could anybody take it as categorical proof that one of the cars was at fault?

itstrue · 03/12/2022 19:00

I have a friend who is a traffic officer. He would say that you presume other cars are travelling the correct speed when making driving decisions so I'd say car B was in the wrong here

BaileySharp · 03/12/2022 19:15

Car B if car A could have made it past in time. Being safe trumps right of way so car b should have reacted correctly to the situation and slowed rather than sped up seeing that car A had gone. Car A maybe shouldn't have gone if there wasn't really time but knowing what aggressive drivers can be like I can believe there was time but car B was being a wanker

gbconfused · 03/12/2022 22:48

If car A went over the line then it's car A. Otherwise car B

piedbeauty · 04/12/2022 17:25

I was driving today and had a similar situation.

I was car B. Car A was coming towards me too fast and aggressively on my side of the road. So I stopped and waited for them, silently judging them, instead of driving at them like a lunatic to make a point. 🤷🏼‍♀️

DonnaBanana · 04/12/2022 17:50

People need to learn what right of way is. It’s priority with all else being equal. It doesn’t give you the right to crash into people or run people over because you have an inalienable right to proceed

poefaced · 04/12/2022 17:59

Car A driver was a twat.

FloydPepper · 04/12/2022 18:18

A was at fault.

B decided that “being in the right” was more important than “avoiding an accident”. When I’m B, I stop even though I don’t have to.

but A is definitely at fault

RunningFromInsanity · 04/12/2022 18:23

A was in the wrong, B was a dick

thing47 · 04/12/2022 18:44

It depends on whether B was speeding, or just speeding up. If B was actually breaking the law by exceeding the speed limit, the parameters change.

A friend of mine hit a motorcyclist on the main road when pulling out of a side road, which would normally be clearcut that he was at fault, but when it was found that the motorcyclist was going about 20mph over the speed limit, the case was dropped by both the police and the motorcyclist's insurer.

In this case we don't know whether B was actually speeding or not so it's impossible to say for certain who is at more fault.

Bridgeth29 · 04/12/2022 18:50

Car A is in the wrong.

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