Everyone loves a "car bump, who's at fault?" question

The bus for making A think it was ok to pull out across a lane of traffic they couldn’t see down.

was the bus flashing driver A out? (OP didn’t say) or was he just doing that “don’t block junctions” thing that everyone is supposed to do but no-one does.

Are some folk trying to suggest that when overtaking a line of traffic you should only ever be travelling at a speed whereby you could stop in a cars length if someone or something emerges from between two vehicles?

In theory, yes.

In practice only if you think it’ll hurt you more than it’ll hurt them – ie cyclist, motorcyclist 🙂

Are some folk trying to suggest that when overtaking a line of traffic you should only ever be travelling at a speed whereby you could stop in a cars length if someone or something emerges from between two vehicles?

pretty sure if I said I’d been doing this on my bike and a pedestrian/car emerged and I hit them, plenty on here would be saying exactly that. Guess it’s different if you’re in a car.

if driver B was in a very slow moving lane then driver A slowly emerging seems semi reasonable to me in these circumstances. People in driver B situation not letting others turn right when at most they are going to move a couple more car lengths forward – or actually just block driver A in, are quite annoying IMO.

A

A as B has right of way and therefore does not need to be able to stop in the distance they can see.
if they had been speeding or driving like a loon then it can get up to 50/50.

People in driver B situation not letting others turn right when at most they are going to move a couple more car lengths forward – or actually just block driver A in, are quite annoying IMO.

Annoying maybe but it doesn’t make them at fault.

A as B has right of way and therefore does not need to be able to stop in the distance they can see.

eh?

I’d normally say A aswell, like with rear end shunts it’s generally obvious who is to blame, but sometimes the details/circumstances can push it the other way.

Annoying maybe but it doesn’t make them at fault.

agreed, it just makes them arseholes, rule 151 does cover this but again it’s a “you should” so no one bothers with it.

Someone above claimed B needed to stop in the distance they could see so I was countering that [ badly obviously]

sometimes the details/circumstances can push it the other way.

Agreed hence why i mentioned excessive speed
or say C stops to flash out A and then B overtakes C and hits A

Agreed hence why i mentioned excessive speed

Still almost always A’s fault.

or say C stops to flash out A and then B overtakes C and hits A

In the OP’s case, still A’s fault.

You need to be able to stop in the distance you can see is clear, and reasonably expect to remain clear.
It is reasonable to not expect a car to pull out of a minor road into your path.

I agree with your view FWIW but I thought if you overtake – which you can only do when safe to do so ie you can see its clear they ended up 50/50 as there is always more onus on you when you overtake as its a sort of at your own risk manoeuvre.

Many years back I was undertaking a large Luton van that was stationary waiting (and indicating) to turn right into a side road. A car coming the other direction also wanted to turn right into the opposite side road (on my left). Due to the van we didn’t have line of sight on each other and I hit the side of the car as I was about level with the van when the car shot out in front of me, barely had time to hit the brakes (not that much would have happened see below). Following that after accident moment of “oh dear” where you gatther your thoughts as you take in what has happened, I looked up to see the two occupants out of the car and legging it away. Turned out the car had been stolen a couple of days before. Police attended and agreed the other car was at fault, possibly the fact it was stolen played a part in their view, but it shouldn’t really have a baring. However as they were not caught I had to take the damage on the chin, not that claiming from them would have likely yielded anything. I’m thankful I was in a Series 3 Land Rover, so only suffered a bent bumper and slightly bent wing. The Astra I hit was likely a write off with the front side wing/door area stoved in and my bumper had taken the top of the wheel in so it was almost horizontal.

if you overtake

If I understand the OP correctly, B was not overtaking but using the second (outer) lane and the bus was stationary in the inner lane.

Yes i am describing a totally different scenario…..which i did in my clarification point to another unclear post

The fail is with me today 😳