Driver claiming she blacked out - not liable for crash?!

Driver claiming she blacked out - not liable for crash?!

Author
Discussion

EazyDuz

2,013 posts

109 months

Tuesday 22nd January 2019
quotequote all
uknick said:
She knowingly does something that could result in a blackout, so she must bear some liability. From what I've read on this thread, and others, posted by those that are involved in the legal side of insurance this is the important bit. If you do something that could cause an accident then you're negligent and liable.

It's not even comparable to someone who has a stroke out of the blue without any prior warning.

Lol we dont know if she was fasting, thats something I said could be the cause of the blackout. In reality it could be due to an undiagnosed problem. Truth is all she needs to say is, 'I blacked out, I dont know why because I have no illnesses or conditions'. Which boils down to no one is at fault, its just one of those things

daveinhampshire

531 posts

127 months

Tuesday 22nd January 2019
quotequote all
There would be liability in the county court. You damage someone else's property and you are expected to put that damage right. I'm not quite sure how insurance companies are able to circumvent this and dump liability onto innocent motorists.

Mark-C

5,122 posts

206 months

Tuesday 22nd January 2019
quotequote all
daveinhampshire said:
There would be liability in the county court. You damage someone else's property and you are expected to put that damage right. I'm not quite sure how insurance companies are able to circumvent this and dump liability onto innocent motorists.
Great ... another legal expert ... please read the whole thread and let us know what you know that the insurance industry doesn't know.

Thanks

macushla

1,135 posts

67 months

Tuesday 22nd January 2019
quotequote all
daveinhampshire said:
There would be liability in the county court. You damage someone else's property and you are expected to put that damage right. I'm not quite sure how insurance companies are able to circumvent this and dump liability onto innocent motorists.
Errrrrr, there wouldn’t. Do you really think a case like this has never been run through the courts?

eldar

21,781 posts

197 months

Tuesday 22nd January 2019
quotequote all
EazyDuz said:
Lol we dont know if she was fasting, thats something I said could be the cause of the blackout. In reality it could be due to an undiagnosed problem. Truth is all she needs to say is, 'I blacked out, I dont know why because I have no illnesses or conditions'. Which boils down to no one is at fault, its just one of those things
I assume DVLA will decide random and unpredictable loss of consciousness is not conducive to driving until a reason is found.

daveinhampshire

531 posts

127 months

Tuesday 22nd January 2019
quotequote all
All I can see from reading the entire thread is an insurance company is dumping their responsibility based on a self signed sick note from their client. Apart from that many barrack room lawyers wading in with their judgements(me included) followed by queeny strops from those complaining we haven't read 5 pages of debate over holding a phone or being in possession of a phone.

macushla

1,135 posts

67 months

Tuesday 22nd January 2019
quotequote all
daveinhampshire said:
All I can see from reading the entire thread is an insurance company is dumping their responsibility based on a self signed sick note from their client. Apart from that many barrack room lawyers wading in with their judgements(me included) followed by queeny strops from those complaining we haven't read 5 pages of debate over holding a phone or being in possession of a phone.
No, you’ve jumped to a conclusion based on what the OP (who’s conveniently not around any more) has said. The girl is claiming it and the insurer has passed that info along, much like you’d expect your insurer to defend you in a claim. However, her insurer will decide down the line whether this is a viable defence or not. Most on here don’t think it is and time will show this, but in the short term we’ve had lots of outrage, guesswork, hearsay and tangential arguments.

TwigtheWonderkid

43,400 posts

151 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
daveinhampshire said:
All I can see from reading the entire thread is an insurance company is dumping their responsibility based on a self signed sick note from their client. Apart from that many barrack room lawyers wading in with their judgements(me included) followed by queeny strops from those complaining we haven't read 5 pages of debate over holding a phone or being in possession of a phone.
If that's all you can see, you are pretty blinkered. Why don't you actually read the thread, and you might actually learn something about basic law of tort, liability, negligence, etc.

EazyDuz

2,013 posts

109 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
eldar said:
I assume DVLA will decide random and unpredictable loss of consciousness is not conducive to driving until a reason is found.
There is a term for it, 'transient loss of consciousness', which has no reason to happen and may never happen again. DVLA cant do anything about it. That's like claiming someone has the plague because they coughed once in their life.

Pothole

34,367 posts

283 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
TwigtheWonderkid said:
super7 said:


I'd be interested to see what the police wrote down in the back of the police car? And if they won't say, i'd press charges of DWDCA and see what came out of it.
How does an individual do that?
They have to move the the USA first.

Graveworm

8,496 posts

72 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
EazyDuz said:
There is a term for it, 'transient loss of consciousness', which has no reason to happen and may never happen again. DVLA cant do anything about it. That's like claiming someone has the plague because they coughed once in their life.
Transient loss of consciousness is indeed a term. Its a posh way of saying blackout which has been in the conversation since the first post. It is a symptom that can be caused by many things. It always has a reason to happen and may well happen again depending on what that reason is.

nonsequitur

20,083 posts

117 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
NikBartlett said:
If a phone is off and you have it clamped to your ear whilts driving can the Police still do you for this under the mobile laws ? Or will they be so incensed they'll try and stick a without due care charge on you instead ?
Only a prize turnip would hold a dormant phone to their ear.phonesilly

eldar

21,781 posts

197 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
Graveworm said:
Transient loss of consciousness is indeed a term. Its a posh way of saying blackout which has been in the conversation since the first post. It is a symptom that can be caused by many things. It always has a reason to happen and may well happen again depending on what that reason is.
Indeed. Comprehensive guide here.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK63822/

vonhosen

40,240 posts

218 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
EazyDuz said:
eldar said:
I assume DVLA will decide random and unpredictable loss of consciousness is not conducive to driving until a reason is found.
There is a term for it, 'transient loss of consciousness', which has no reason to happen and may never happen again. DVLA cant do anything about it. That's like claiming someone has the plague because they coughed once in their life.
Which is still likely to result in a minimum 12 months licence revocation & still having to declare a collision (inc circumstances) to future insurer once licence is regained.

uknick

883 posts

185 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
EazyDuz said:
uknick said:
She knowingly does something that could result in a blackout, so she must bear some liability. From what I've read on this thread, and others, posted by those that are involved in the legal side of insurance this is the important bit. If you do something that could cause an accident then you're negligent and liable.

It's not even comparable to someone who has a stroke out of the blue without any prior warning.

Lol we dont know if she was fasting, thats something I said could be the cause of the blackout. In reality it could be due to an undiagnosed problem. Truth is all she needs to say is, 'I blacked out, I dont know why because I have no illnesses or conditions'. Which boils down to no one is at fault, its just one of those things
I agree with you it could have been straight out of the blue without any contributory factor from her. In which case, as already discussed she could be covered by the automatism law. But, as stated it is hard to prove this defence in court. But, i'm pretty sure your fasting suggestion would not succeed. Your stroke example might well do.

stemll

4,109 posts

201 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
shatners bassoon said:
Pothole said:
Unless she said to plod at the time that she blacked out, their evidence should work against that claim.
Allegedly she was repeating something to the effect of "...I shouldn't have driven, I was feeling faint before I left..." which was (again, allegedly) understood by the witnesses to be part of the subterfuge.
If she did indeed say something along these lines to the police then could that make her (and hence her insurance) liable?

jm doc

2,791 posts

233 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
Apologies for not having read the whole the whole thread, but from a medical point of view if this person has made a statement that she has had an unexplained loss of consciousness then she must by law notify the DVLA and her licence will be automatically suspended whilst she has a full medical investigation.

This would most likely be for at least six months, but would depend entirely on the findings of the medical tests and investigation and what the diagnosis arrived at to explain the loss of consciousness.

It would be a very stupid statement to make if not true as the implications go well beyond those of a driving licence and may potentially affect employment opportunity and insurance for the rest of their life.


EazyDuz

2,013 posts

109 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
Graveworm said:
Transient loss of consciousness is indeed a term. Its a posh way of saying blackout which has been in the conversation since the first post. It is a symptom that can be caused by many things. It always has a reason to happen and may well happen again depending on what that reason is.
Not always a reason, thats incorrect. Just like spontaneous death. One can blackout with zero inherited conditions or lifestyle causes which would cause it. You cant hold her responsible for something that was out of her control. She didnt plan to blackout, she likely didnt starve herself to black out, and unless she has some kind of condition recorded on her NHS file which proves she is prone to blackouts, the blame is not on her.


WJNB

2,637 posts

162 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
eldar said:
Graveworm said:
Transient loss of consciousness is indeed a term. Its a posh way of saying blackout which has been in the conversation since the first post. It is a symptom that can be caused by many things. It always has a reason to happen and may well happen again depending on what that reason is.
Indeed. Comprehensive guide here.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK63822/
Is this what the pilot of the Hawker Hunter accused of manslaughter x 11 at the Shoreham air show is claiming as his defence?



eldar

21,781 posts

197 months

Wednesday 23rd January 2019
quotequote all
WJNB said:
Is this what the pilot of the Hawker Hunter accused of manslaughter x 11 at the Shoreham air show is claiming as his defence?
In his case, caused by excessive G forces, I think.