Who's at fault?

[Danielle9891]

Last month my partner was in a car accident and believes the fault was 50/50 while the other party believes he was at fault. Just wondering what do yous believe? I've only started learning to drive so I'm not 100% sure.
While driving along a road in N.Ireland (1 lane in each direction) a car ahead was going pretty slow so he indicated then proceeded to overtake. Unfortunately, the other driver decided to turn right into a driveway at the same time, resulting in the front of his car hitting the bumper of the other car and cracking it. The other driver is claiming for injuries and loss of work as well as the car repairs ect and saying he is at fault but my partner thinks it's 50/50 as he never saw her indicate and she must not have checked her mirrors.

What do you all think?

Does it matter who's fault it is. The insurance companies get to decide!
Can you please update and let us know what the outcome is.
Neither party comes out of it well tbh

Why does it even matter?

A fault claim and 50/50 are recorded the same way and will both affect his no claims and next year's premiums

Well everyone in the UK hates anyone else who overtakes, so you may struggle to win some people round.
I don’t think you have mentioned the speed limit or whether the 3rd party indicated.

Sounds like the 3rd party shouldn’t have pulled out onto the road when they did, however in a 30, it could have been poorly judged. Then they should have indicated to turn right.
Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre.
If they had have done that, then they would have seen your partner was going for the overtake, and your partner would have seen the indicator.
People that don’t indicate should be shot.
If your partner was speeding, then that’s where it could be his fault.

I’ve had this exact situation, but with a motorbike (which can make a difference as they have the right to ‘create a lane’ in some circs).

I was driving along my road. 30mph limit. Bike behind me approx 50 yards as just turned onto road. I checked mirrors, indicated right to turn into my drive, slowed down, checked mirrors again - bike closer, but behind me. As I turned he went to overtake. Hit my driver’s side door.

He was very polite, had seen indicators but assumed I was overtaking parked cars. Not an idiot or anything, he just added all the information he saw up wrong because he was focussed on the performance of his bike which, ironically, he’d just collected from mechanic after having it repaired.

It was quite straightforward as I had both front and rear dashcam footage, and ring doorbell footage as it all happened directly outside my home. And the biker was honest.

Insurance ruled it 100% his fault.

He was driving on the wrong side of the road, unaware of other road users, and hit someone in the back end. He's 100% at fault.

You can't blame someone for crossing into your lane when you're on the wrong side of the road and still far enough behind them to hit their back end.

Your partner is at fault. However, his insurance will decide if it thinks 50/50 will stand up in court.

I'd say 50/50 but insurance/police will decide

Diagram, please. Oh, and it's his fault for being impatient.

I definitely think some fault is with him but I'm not 100% if the other driver has some fault as well. This thread is more for me as a learner trying to understand if your overtaking on a road, where it is permitted and there is no cars coming your way and another driver pulls out in front of you is it a mistake on both parts or solely on the person overtaking?

I've only started driving so while it's up to the insurance to sort out I was wondering if you're overtaking what can you do to avoid this? When your overtaking can anyone just pull out in front of you and it will be your fault? I did my theory not long ago and I can't remember if it mentioned about overtaking. I'm a very nervous learner driver so I want to learn how to drive as safely as possible, especially as I will be driving (hopefully before Christmas) with a 1 year old. I've got her a Swedish plus tested car seat.

I was overtaking a tractor, indicating, giving space, etc. I had almost completed the manoeuvre when the tractor suddenly turned right into a field entrance (not into a road and not indicating). The tractor front tyre hit my rear bumper.

I was automatically found at fault, as I was overtaking. The tractor didn't claim as they had no damage.

If you're overtaking the responsibility is always on you to make sure there's absolutely nothing ahead or that is going to impact your overtake.

I agree that your partner was a fault in this instance.

There was nothing ahead. It was the car he was overtaking turned right without indicating.
But yes I think he should have waited

I actually work in motor liability and would say that's 50/50 all day long. The third party is going to struggle to get full fault as they should have checked their mirrors.

I would actually argue there's more fault on her for not indicating but hard to prove.

The most common case law is Pell vs Moseley which I imagine the insurance companies would go by which is 50/50.

No way really?!

I wouldn't have wanted to accept fault on that as an insurance company!

Definitely some liability on the tractor for not checking mirrors!!

This thread is more for me as a learner trying to understand if your overtaking on a road, where it is permitted and there is no cars coming your way and another driver pulls out in front of you is it a mistake on both parts or solely on the person overtaking?

99% of the time, the driver behind is the one at fault. If your DP wasn't sure what the other driver was doing, he should have slowed down, hung back and waited until it was obvious.

Overtaking someone who has just pulled out of a junction is incredibly reckless - if the other driver hadn't been turning off, she would have accelerated and then what would your DP have done? Gone even faster or been forced to pull back over to avoid an oncoming car?

The fact that he only hit her rear right bumper says that she'd nearly completed her turn when he hit her - which implies that he wasn't paying attention and should never have started to overtake in the first place.

I would say he was at fault. The other driver must have seen his car if she pulled out in front of him. I'd be surprised if they didn't indicate knowing there was a car behind. Or maybe they did but your dp had already started to overtake.

I pass a junction on a daily basis where vehicles often pull out in front of me (going straight on) when they really should wait (60mph road). I simply slow down a little before the junction and anticipate that this is going to happen and that I will have to wait for them to reach whatever speed they might get to ((40mph for some). I don’t overtake as it’s just part and parcel of driving, there’s slower vehicles and drivers and I just have to adapt my speed if someone is in front of me going slower. There are some overtaking opportunities but where there are junctions, driveways and parked cars etc isn’t the best place to do that. I think from what you described your husband is at fault.

I'd say he was at fault.

I know that road, Its rife for slow tourists and people on a day out not used to the road so I understand why he may have overtook. Even though it drops to 30 here and there it's mostly scenic not residential I think with insurance it'll come down 50/50 as he was on other side of the road so both at fault

Since you're a learner OP, asking for tips, my advice would be, don't overtake where there is somewhere that the driver you're overtaking might turn right into. Don't expect to be able to drive at the speed limit at all times, and if you're in any way unsure of whether to overtake, don't.
Overtaking on a single track road should be a rarely used manoeuvre, used only when it's really necessary. It is not something to be done just because you're impatient.

I drive daily, and have been driving for 25 years. I have overtaken another 4 wheeled vehicle on a single rack road this year - thinking about it I can't think that I have this year. It really should not be a routine thing to do.

Looks like most people agree its he's fault, I'll update once we find out what the insurance says.

Just to clarify It wasn't a full on bumper to bumper if that makes sense. Looking at his car it was his lefthand side of the front bumper collided with the back right-hand side of the other car's bumper as the driver entered the side of the road his was driving on.

Luckily the other driver had family in the house and they were all able to stand and talk after. I really hope the driver is ok as they mentioned 7 weeks prior they were in another car crash. Their airbags didn't go off so I'm hoping my partner and his car came of the worst.

There was a tour bus/coach and other cars pretty close behind so I was hoping they have CCTV that would show what happened. (Not that it really matters as he's either half at fault or fully, either way he's lost his no claims) the coach didn't stop though, it just waiting for them both to move their cars to the side of the road and carried on.

He's normally a careful driver and hasn't ever crashed in the 17 years he's been driving. Once I pass my driving test, I'm not sure I'd risk overtaking any car doing about 20/30 even if I was on a 60 road. You never know if they will turn into or in front of you and this road has loads of small driveways and farmer field entrances for people to turn into.