Who pays after pedestrian causes crash?
I was riding home in Luton, one lane in either direction. In the oncoming lane was a bus that had pulled over. A car went to go past the bus but as he did so a lady walked out from in front of the bus. The car swerved to the right to avoid her entering my lane and causing me to swerve left to avoid the car. I came off and fortunately not badly hurt but the bike and my kit were damaged. My insurer is saying they cannot recover my excess as the car driver did nothing wrong. Is this right? What about the pedestrian?
Roger S, by e-mail
Answer
You didn’t do anything wrong. The car driver and pedestrian did. The lady should not have tried to cross a road in front of a bus. It is foreseeable that other vehicles may be overtaking. Likewise it should have been foreseeable to the car driver that when a bus has pulled over, pedestrians may try to cross the road in front of the bus. It will depend on the precise movements and timings to give an accurate liability apportionment.
Many buses these days have CCTV cameras front, back and side so you should obtain this as it will show exactly what happened and where everyone was positioned. Your insurer should pursue the car driver’s insurer and if they want to bring in the pedestrian then they can. She may have house contents insurance covering third party liability or assets to meet the claim.
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