Other driver pranged barrier while overtaking.

[Graveworm]

Pegscratch said:

Spot the one that is slow to react.

There are a million examples on YouTube alone of people who have reacted to something that wasn't going to actually hit them. It doesn't mean she's not at fault, that's an entirely different question.

I agree, I said the difficulty is that she may well be facing a driver who says that and she cannot say otherwise because she only believes she didn't cross the line and she never saw the other car.

[spikyone]

Graveworm said:

In terms of liability the difficulty, as it stands, is the OP says his wife "Doesn't believe she crossed the white line onto the other side of the road." Which might be faced with the other driver (Who she has to still admit not seeing) saying she definitely did, otherwise I wouldn't have had to avoid her. Add in that the requirements on pulling out to pass, don't dissappear just because you don't cross the centre line and it's not hard to see, some blame being attached on the balance of probabilities.

Without any evidence beyond one party's word against the other, and no damage to Mrs OP's car, what does the balance of probabilities say? If there's no CCTV or dashcam footage and Mrs OP has admitted nothing to her insurer, why would they accept liability?

[JeremyBearimy]

I don't know what the insurance will do (i hope you hear nothing), but the L200 driver is a cretin. Why would you overtake a row of cars behind a pulled in bus. Its just not worth the risk, the drivers would not expect someone to be coming up behind them so although they should check they may not, or may not check with due diligence / caught in the blind spot. So its just not worth the risk, let alone doing it fast enough to bin it.


I had a near miss with a moped last week, i was indicating to turn right and just caught a glimpse of a moped roaring up on my side. i had checked, but obviously your looking mostly forward and only glancing into the mirror.

[Graveworm]

spikyone said:

Without any evidence beyond one party's word against the other, and no damage to Mrs OP's car, what does the balance of probabilities say? If there's no CCTV or dashcam footage and Mrs OP has admitted nothing to her insurer, why would they accept liability?

Well that depends on how good one person's word is. The OP seems to be playing with a straight bat. If they tell the truth then they will say the same as on here.

If one person says something, which is not in and of itself capable of being shown likely to be wrong, and the other stays mute. Balance of probability goes to the one who says something. as that is all there is.

The fact the other driver has the OP wife's details will likely mean it gets to some need to explain, if they push on with it.

[Dont like rolls]

JeremyBearimy said:

I don't know what the insurance will do (i hope you hear nothing), but the L200 driver is a cretin. Why would you overtake a row of cars behind a pulled in bus. Its just not worth the risk, the drivers would not expect someone to be coming up behind them so although they should check they may not, or may not check with due diligence / caught in the blind spot. So its just not worth the risk, let alone doing it fast enough to bin it.


I had a near miss with a moped last week, i was indicating to turn right and just caught a glimpse of a moped roaring up on my side. i had checked, but obviously your looking mostly forward and only glancing into the mirror.

Some corrections your Lordship:

The bus was not already "pulled in", the driver was following it and it pulled in. It could follow the 4x4 had started his overtake before the bus started his manoeuvrer. It makes the rest of your statement a little shaky.....
"The bus in front of my wife pulled into the bus stop but was still sticking out a wee bit."

[JeremyBearimy]

The bus had pulled into the bus stop, now the bus may have had obstructions in the stop to prevent it from pulling all the way in, or they may have just not pulled completely in. Either way the bus was stopped at the bus stop. As a driver it is up to you to look for clues on the road ahead as to what vehicles in front may or may not do e.g bus stopping at bus stop.

If he was trying to multi vehicle over take before the bus stopped, he should have clocked the bus stop and twigged what may happen before attempting to overtake the OPs wife and the bus. He also should have been aware before his overtake of multiple vehicles that others may be considering the same thing.



But as i say thats for insurance companies to argue, doesn't stop the driver from being a cretin for either trying to go round all the cars behind the bus (its not rocket science to guess they may pull out) or trying to multi vehicle overtake in a stupid place

[Dont like rolls]

How good should his eyesight be to clock a country road bus stop from 4/500 yards away ?.........you expect a lot.

I advise you NEVER to overtake more than one car, the other may pull out and not look, that would be your fault obviously because you should have anticipated that.

Edited by Dont like rolls on Wednesday 12th February 22:54

[Paulm4]

Sorry, forgot to update this!

I called our insurance, sent them pics and diagrams and my wife's explanation of what happened.
They had had no contact from the other party at this point, a couple of weeks after the incident. They said if no claim is made against us they will just remove the info from our file and there will be NFA.

I'll update if anything happens, thanks for the opinions/advice/etc 😁👍

[roadsmash]

Haha, class.

I think very few people anticipated the 4x4 driver never to make a claim!

[Dont like rolls]

I wonder then what type of 4x4 it was and how much damage was caused, an old wrecker then I am not surprised, a "work owned" would give the impression of a newer car of some worth, if so then I am surprised.

Good for your wife then.
I do hope the lesson of "Look before you Pull" has got out beyond the bedroom now

[Gary C]

Dont like rolls said:

And you think I am "certain" from what I said ?
Without a dash cam nobody can be, my and your conclusions are just one side or the other of two possibilities.

you certainly seem certain from what you have said

[spikyone]

Dont like rolls said:

How good should his eyesight be to clock a country road bus stop from 4/500 yards away ?.........you expect a lot.

I advise you NEVER to overtake more than one car, the other may pull out and not look, that would be your fault obviously because you should have anticipated that.

Edited by Dont like rolls on Wednesday 12th February 22:54

The fact that there's a bus a couple of cars ahead of him should've been enough indication that there might be bus stops around. Even if I don't know an area, if I'm following a bus I consider the possibility that there just might be bus stops too.

This sounds like an unnecessary overtake with a reasonable amount of hazard rather than a well-planned multi car overtake. Nobody would suggest you shouldn't pass multiple cars; what you should do is understand why those cars are going slowly and what the hazards might be, and have the opportunity to abort if needed. In this case, with the bus clearly stopping, 4x4 should've considered aborting behind Mrs OP.

[popeyewhite]

roadsmash said:

Haha, class.

I think very few people anticipated the 4x4 driver never to make a claim!

Don't get ahead of yourself, people don't inform ins companies for other reasons, eg fear of rise in premium post claim/notification regardless of blame. Further, as the OP/OP's wife has informed their insurance company and been told NFA it will be interesting to see how the event is logged. Often 'incident' without claim/blame can result in rise in premium. Just saying.

Edited by popeyewhite on Thursday 13th February 11:52

[roadsmash]

popeyewhite said:

Don't get ahead of yourself, people don't inform ins companies for other reasons, eg fear of rise in premium post claim/notification regardless of blame. Further, as the OP/OP's wife has informed their insurance company and been told NFA it will be interesting to see how the event is logged. Often 'incident' without claim/blame can result in rise in premium. Just saying.

Edited by popeyewhite on Thursday 13th February 11:52

Absolutely, it just made me chuckle how none of us ever really considered that the 4x4 driver might not contact his ins company.

[Mandat]

Lord Marylebone said:

I don’t see how this can possibly be Mrs OP’s fault given the information provided.

The important bit is that she didn’t cross the white centre line. She merely moved close to it in order to safely clear the pulled-in bus, which was slightly protruding into her carriageway.

Based on the streetview link that the OP provided, the carriageway is particularly narrow, as is the bus stop layby.

If the OP's wife did move over to pass the back end of the protruding bus, there is no way that she would not have crossed the centre line.

[Hol]

Dont like rolls said:

Stuff in an excessive number of posts)

for the official record, why Exactly did you join Pistonheads 4 months ago?

[Dont like rolls]

Off Topic

[paulrockliffe]

Mandat said:

Based on the streetview link that the OP provided, the carriageway is particularly narrow, as is the bus stop layby.

If the OP's wife did move over to pass the back end of the protruding bus, there is no way that she would not have crossed the centre line.

Street view shows the road is about a foot wider than a wide bodied motorhome. So about a metre wider then a car. If 18" of bits is sticking out, how much room is left to the white line? Enough that its possible.

[oyster]

Dont like rolls said:

The bus caused him no problems, another driver pulling out without checking their mirror did.

I would never overtake in this situation.
I would see the bus approaching a bus stop and hold off for a likely better opportunity after the bus stop.

[Graveworm]

oyster said:

I would never overtake in this situation.
I would see the bus approaching a bus stop and hold off for a likely better opportunity after the bus stop.

But if you were behind a bus which pulled in partially blocking a road would you pull out into the path of an overtaking motorist, who wasn't as observant or as good at anticipating things as you?