Insurance liability question

If you are overtaking 2 vehicles on a road, safely and legally, and whilst overtaking the first vehicle, that vehicle pulls out (to overtake the most forward one) and thus hits you...who do you think would be liable?


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<---XXXX
<---XXXX Car1 overtaking Car2 and Car3
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<-- XXXX XXXX
XXXX Car3 XXXX Car2 hits Car1 whilst trying to overtake Car3

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If you don't know, points out of 10 for my ASCii drawing please!

I think the car that pulls out into an already overtaking car is in the wrong. An overtaking maneouvre is perfectly legal if at the correct place and speed and would be viewed as if you were on a dual carriageway, hence the driver that pulls out into the overtaking car was not paying due care and attention before pulling out.

I would imagine that the 2nd car that pulled out in to the already overtaking (1st) car would be liable as he should have checked mirrors and blind spots before pulling out to overtake the 3rd.

i'm pretty sure theres no way your going to get anything bar a 50-50 on something like that - while the second car to pull out would technically be at fault an overtake is a own risk manover

I'd go with what Siliconslave said

Yeah, that's what I think. The second car to pull out isn't immediately to blame. Especially when the first car is trying to overtake 2 cars at once.

(it appears that the drawing didn't work as I hoped, so 2/10 for that!)

I would agree with siliconslave, unless you are very lucky it will probably work out to be a 50/50 case.

As the answer I was going to give (50/50) is already there, I award you 1/10 for your drawing, based purely on effort, not skill

when you pull out to overtake (or do anything really) you have a duty to make sure that the manouver is safe to commence.

therefore, the tool that was being overtaken and then drove into the side of the passing car is in the wrong because he should have checked for passing vehicles before changing lane. its a very simple rule of the road.

that is the way it would go in Court 95% of the time.

Matt82 said:

when you pull out to overtake (or do anything really) you have a duty to make sure that the manouver is safe to commence.

therefore, the tool that was being overtaken and then drove into the side of the passing car is in the wrong because he should have checked for passing vehicles before changing lane. its a very simple rule of the road.

that is the way it would go in Court 95% of the time.

Click to expand...

Yes fair enough, but as car 1 is the first to move out and commence the overtake of cars 2 and 3 ahead of him, he is obviously then on the wrong side of the road, (unless I have missed something and it was in fact a dual carriageway) so when car 2 then moves out to overtake car 3 and pulls out into car 1 as he is going past, they are both actually in the wrong.

This would be seen as 50/50 because they both could have behaved better.

Two possible other outcomes that would have been seen as safer

Situation one:-
Car 2 should be looking where he is going, and should have avoided the contact by looking in his mirrors and seeing car 1 approaching so delayed his overtake.

Situation 2:-
Car 1 should really have expected car 2 to pull out on him, (always expect the unexpected - a very good maxim to drive by) and therefore either accelerated to complete the manouver before car 2 had even realised he was there, or secondly, backed off to allow car 2 to pull out in front of him and then either follow car 2 past car 3, or pull in behind car 3 untill car 2 has gone past car 3 then car 1 could safely pass car 3 without incident, and worry about car 2 further down the road.

So as both parties could have done better than they did in the circumstances it would, most likely, be treated as 50/50.

overtaking is not itself an illegal or negligent act. his manouver was perfectly safe until the other car drove into the side of him. the other car has a duty to check for passing vehicles when overtaking, you can check the highway code guidance book

the claim (if/when it gets to Court) will be for the damage to the side of vehicle 2. that damage did not arise due to v2 driving onto the wrong side of the road. it arose when v1 changed lane without checking for other cars.

just because v2 is on the wrong side of the road, it does not give v1 a right to go drive into him.

your arguement would be as good as driving into a car that was parked on double yellow lines and saying "well he shouldnt have been there"

you basically need to be looking where youre going.

ive only had one or two cases like the OP's post go to Court, as no one would bother letting it be disputed that long

Matt82 said:

overtaking is not itself an illegal or negligent act. his manouver was perfectly safe until the other car drove into the side of him. the other car has a duty to check for passing vehicles when overtaking, you can check the highway code guidance book

the claim (if/when it gets to Court) will be for the damage to the side of vehicle 2. that damage did not arise due to v2 driving onto the wrong side of the road. it arose when v1 changed lane without checking for other cars.

just because v2 is on the wrong side of the road, it does not give v1 a right to go drive into him.

your arguement would be as good as driving into a car that was parked on double yellow lines and saying "well he shouldnt have been there"

you basically need to be looking where youre going.

ive only had one or two cases like the OP's post go to Court, as no one would bother letting it be disputed that long

Click to expand...

I realise that one car has no right to drive into another, but both drivers could have driven the conditions and circumstances better, so I am just saying they are equally to blame, they both did things wrong so why put the blame on one and not the other??

like i said, overtaking is not an illegal or negligent act. the claimed damages were not caused by V2 overtaking, they were caused by V1 not checking for passing vehicles and driving into the side of V2.

sometimes the decissions are not completely logical, but its the way the Court's mind works that decides the outcome