Liability for overtaking crash
I was riding my Suzuki Hayabusa in May when I was involved in an accident. The police report finally arrived a month ago and my solicitors have said that the likely liability bracket is between 0% and 100%. This does not fill me with confidence that they know what they are doing. The circumstances were that I was following 2 cars for some time then the road straightened so I went to overtake them both but just as I set off the car in front of me also went for the overtake and I went into the back of it. How can this be my fault as I was already committed to the overtake?
Dave G, by e-mail
Answer
Fault for this accident or whether you were both partly at fault will depend on a number of factors. Was the driver in front aware of your presence behind him and for how long was he aware as this could lead to a finding that it was reasonably foreseeable that you were likely to overtake? Did the other car driver indicate or use his mirrors before his manoeuvre? Did you go for it at the same time, but with your acceleration much greater than the car? Was it simply just an unfortunate “accident”? Could you be criticised for not realising that the car was likely to want to overtake also and for trying to overtake 2 vehicles at a time? These are all questions that may be assisted by looking at the witness evidence but this is likely to be a case of shared blame.
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