Question

[birdbrain]

If someone's brake lights aren't working and they stop and you rear end them because their brake lights didn't come on, who's at fault?

[kevinday]

IMHO you are, however the faulty brake lights would be mitigating circumstances and may well persuade the insurance co to go 'knock for knock'.

[DJFish]

I'd imagine it would be them at fault, but it'd be difficult to prove the lights were defective once they're in small pieces in the road.

[esselte]

S'pose it depends on whether the bulbs or some other part of the brake light circuit was faulty.Switch perhaps?

[towman]

If it`s a nasty one and Crash Investigation are called in, they can tell if the bulbs were working by the deformation of the filament. i.e a hot wire will bend due to the forces involved, a cold one will not.

[havoc]

With the exception of an emergency stop, if you're driving so close to the car in front you can't react in time when you perceive it slowing down, then arguably you're at fault.

Even with emerg. stop, seeing the car in front nose-dive is a pretty good clue, lights or not!!!

[parrot of doom]

Always your fault. If they hit a solid brick wall, their brake lights wouldn't come on.

[echo]

kevinday said:

IMHO you are, however the faulty brake lights would be mitigating circumstances and may well persuade the insurance co to go 'knock for knock'.

DJFish said:

I'd imagine it would be them at fault, but it'd be difficult to prove the lights were defective once they're in small pieces in the road.

Not necessarily. If the break lights were on when you damage them the filaments go all gooey and melt. If they are off (or had already blown) the filaments will show a brittle fracture. Has been used many times before in accident analysis.

[echo]

towman said:

If it`s a nasty one and Crash Investigation are called in, they can tell if the bulbs were working by the deformation of the filament. i.e a hot wire will bend due to the forces involved, a cold one will not.

Beat me to it

>> Edited by echo on Monday 7th March 16:27

[viggen114]

topic said:

brake lights aren't working

That will be a Ford then

[Streetcop]

It could end up a 50/50 collision...

Partly the fault of the 'no brake lights' driver...as their vehicle wasn't 'roadworthy'....

Partly the fault of the following driver....as they weren't able to stop in the distance they can see to be clear.

[birdbrain]

Thanks guys. It hasn't actually happened but I was discussing it with someone the other day and we couldn't decide.

[havoc]

Happened to my fiancee - she was rear-ended in a queue of traffic, woman behind apologetic at the time, but wanted to keep it out of insurance. We discussed it and said no, wanted to go down insurance route, all of a sudden 3P is claiming Becky's brake lights weren't working.

Result: 100% against the 3P - 3P would have been expected to see car slowing down and act accordingly.