I entered a one way street and see another vehicle oncoming that shouldn't be driving on that segment of the street - whose fault would it be if there was an accident?
I entered a one way street and see another vehicle oncoming that shouldn't be driving on that segment of the street - whose fault would it be if there was an accident?
Obviously the person coming / going the wrong way?
Yup, fault isn't always clear cut, if for example you weren't paying attention because you didn't expect to see a vehicle in a one-way street going the wrong way, the fault is likely yours.
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This is bunny and friends. He is fed up waiting for everyone to help him out, and decided to help himself instead!
The person going the wrong way, you shouldn't have to expect him.
I'd say the person going the wrong way would be at fault, you haven't got to expect cars coming the wrong way, but you should be paying attention for other things so it depends on the situation I'd say
Not even an emergancy vehicle with it's blues & twos on? What about a bus who can sometimes ignore one way directions? Driving law does require that you drive with due care and attention, which includes expecting the unexpecting and at least attempting to prevent an accident.
If a collision occured and accident investigators discovered that the vehicle going the correct direction didn't attempt to brake or take evasive action (and there was time to do so), you could be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention.
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This is bunny and friends. He is fed up waiting for everyone to help him out, and decided to help himself instead!
I think the possibility of the person going the right way getting prosecuted would be tiny!
Depends on what "fault" you are talking about
Sadly its not as simple as "he was driving down the wrong way, so its his fault". If you saw him, had time to avoid him, but failed to take action, then the blame for an accident could be your fault. Even then it is not very straight forward, as it also depends on what the other party did - if they tried to stop/avoid you etc.
In reality though, the technicalities aside, in most cases you are likely to be in the right.
In my opinion, there's at least two aspects to this. Who is at fault can sometimes be very different from who gets prosecuted. For the later, you not only have to be at fault, but it needs to be provable.
So .... IMHO, Lucio and others are right. The guy going the wrong way clearly is at fault .... but he might not be the only one. If the guy going the wrong way realises his mistake, stops .... and then gets hit, then he's certainly at risk of a prosecution for going the wrong way down a one0-way street. At the very least, it suggests he wasn't paying due care and attention. But if he'd stopped, and is then subsequently hit by someone going the right way, I'd suggest it at least raises a large question mark as to whether the guy going the right way was paying adequate attention either.
After all, just because you have right of way doesn't mean you can assume the way is clear. What if a pedestrian had stepped out? A kid ran into the road? Even though you're going down a one-way street, you need to be paying attention in case the unexpected happens and, to be able to stop if it is possible. Sometimes it isn't possible, someone might step out giving you no chance to stop. But if something like that happens and you should have and could have stopped, but didn't, then you are partially to blame, at least.
But, as I said earlier, being partially (or sometimes, entirely) to blame doesn't necessarily mean you'll get prosecuted for it. Being at fault, and it being provable that you were aren't at all the same thing.
All drivers, at all times and regardless of right of way, ought to be paying attention precisely because the unexpected sometimes happens. And you owe a duty of care to avoid harm and damage if you can.
Oh, and on the subject of going the wrong way, years ago I was overtaking a lorry, at about 70mph, in the outside lane of a dual carriageway (and I mean one with a grass centre section and steel barriers), at night, when I saw lights coming the other way that looked like they were on my side of that barrier. I thought it had to be an optical illusion.
It wasn't.
Both the lorry and I emergency braked, to a standstill. The daft old git coming the other way, the wrong way down the fast lane of a dual carriageway, shook his fist at me, shouted out of the window calling me a few choice names, pulled between me and the lorry and carried on his way, still on the wrong side of the road. The lorry driver and I looked at each other flabbergasted.
So if the worst you get is someone that doesn't know which way to go down a one-way street, consider yourself lucky.
PS. If both I and the old git hadn't braked, despite that we both thought we were in the right, the result would have been a head-on smash at a rate of about 140MPH. And I certainly wouldn't be here today tell the tale.
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