How you could be liable even if the crash was not your fault
LOAD shedding disrupts just about every aspect of our lives, and to add insult to injury, it also makes our road journeys more frustrating as all the traffic lights go out in affected areas.
Not only do motorists have to put up with increased travel times as traffic rapidly builds up at busy intersections, but crossing them also becomes more perilous as not everyone knows (or obeys, for that matter) the basic rules of a four-way stop.
But just because you theoretically had the right of way, doesn’t absolve you from all liability if another motorist – whose turn it isn’t – shunts you from the side, warns King Price Insurance client experience partner Wynand van Vuuren.
“Although you had right of way, and it was your turn to proceed, this doesn’t automatically mean you’re entitled to 100% settlement of the damages. If you’d kept a proper lookout and driven at the appropriate speed, the incident may have been avoided.”
Van Vuuren explains that in such a case, damages would be apportioned between both parties. For instance, the other driver, who didn’t wait his or her turn, might be held 60% liable for your damages, but you could be on the line for 40% of theirs because you failed to keep a proper lookout and take evasive action.
That certainly sounds unfair, but the fact is that drivers have a duty to be aware of their immediate vicinity when entering an intersection, whether it has robots or not, and this has been well established in our courts, Van Vuuren explains.
In the court case of Neuhaus versus Bastion Insurance Company, the judge explained that keeping a proper lookout meant more than looking straight ahead, it also included an awareness of what was happening in one’s immediate vicinity.
Thus, a motorist should have a view of the whole road from side to side and, in case of a road passing through a built-up area, of the pavements on the side of the roads too.
In the case of Rose’s Car Hire Company (Pty) Ltd versus Rice, it was held that motorists approaching an intersection where they may reasonably expect traffic to emerge, must be vigilant.
“They must control their vehicle to be able to avoid such traffic,” the judge said. “The fact that an intersecting street is a statutory stop street does not absolve the driver of the vehicle in the through street from his duty to be vigilant.”
While every case differs, the bottom line, says Van Vuuren, is that motorists should remain super alert every time they enter an intersection.
“Even if you have the right to proceed you still have the duty to look out for, and avoid, any hazards,” Van
Vuuren said. “If we all do that, there will be fewer accidents on our roads.”