Took down a biker

[The Stranger:Me]

Seems to be quite a few riders are familiar with the laws in Australia, well done guys.

[XP@]

Not your fault:
He should have read your road position and indicators (in that order).
He was going too fast to stop safely, therefore he did it to himself.

However did you indicate well before turning? That may have given him more time...

[Sparrowhawk]

If I'm on a one laned road, I won't 'split' between the traffic & the parked cars, that's asking for trouble. I tend to try & overtake between the cars & the centreline, watching for gaps & u-turning cars, but where possible I try to avoid busy one lane roads.

What I'm trying to say is if the rider was passing other vehicles, he has a responsibility to look for oncoming vehicles.

[MSTRS:Me]

If I'm on a one laned road, I won't 'split' between the traffic & the parked cars, that's asking for trouble.

Of course it is. And of the Infringement type as well. That practice is known as under-taking, and is illegal. UNLESS the cars in the lane are stopped as well.
And in that case, although the law MAY be on your side, because of your practically invisible nature, the onus should be on you to ensure that some poor bastard turning across your bows won't take you out. 40kph is too fast.

[Skyryder]

Hmmm, you could very well argue that if you are turning across the on-coming lane you have to give way to any and all oncoming traffic. The fact he was splitting wouldn't matter from a legal stand-point. Just because someone opens up a gap for you to turn through doesn't mean you don't have to look for people who doesn't stop...

My partner witnessed a somewhat similar situation a couple of days ago. One driver is coming out from a carpark to turn right. The lane she has to turn across is chocker with traffic but someone gives her a gap. In the meantime a guy further back down the line of traffic decides to head down the lane of oncoming traffic (empty ofc) to enter the right-hand turn lane at the lights about a 100 m further down. As she comes out between the stationary cars he clips her front - who's a fault? She has to give way to all traffic. Even if he was doing a rather impatient overtake... after all the road ahead of him was clear. It's not clear cut.

Something simular to this came up in a discussion with some bus drivers I worked with a few years back. The general consensus on this is that it becomes the responsibility of the person who gives the 'all clear' for the other driver. I'm not too sure that I agree with that. However an example was given by one of the drivers who was once engaged in deliverys to the the Lyttelton Port. One of his collegues was flagged on by a railway worker and the truck was hit by a shunted wagon. No serious injuries but the fault was found to be with the railway worker who signalled the all clear.

Perhaps one of our boys in blue may have the definitive answer to this.

Skyryder

[jrandom]

His speed differential is too high. 40km/hr differential over any traffic, stationary or otherwise, is too quick.

Ah, the things you learn from filtering the mean streets of Edgecumbe in rush hour.

[Freeatlast]

If the cop on the scene has no issues with either party... why should we. Let the insurance companys sort it.

[jaymzw]

Interesting situation tonight.

I was driving a van along a major single-land road in Melbourne. The oncoming traffic was stationary so I began turning across the road to enter a driveway on my right side.

Okay, wel someone needs to teach me how to put a youtube video into my post BUT, i thought this was kinda similar to what your talking about

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU3SzpLfEpw

[Trumpess]

I shall share my view too

The motorcyclist shouldnt of been there, frankly you are asking for trouble overtaking on the left. Especially stationary traffic.
The driver of the car should have looked! Because the left of any road is where you will find push-pedal cyclists. Well in NZ anyways.
I hope the motorcylist has speedy recovery.

[FROSTY:Me]

Sorry dude I can't offer my opinion because Im not familiar with the road rules in that state of Australia.
I'd guess its same as NZ in which case I'd say the biker stufffed up.

[Laxi]

we have road in wellington where there is almost a whole lane on the left of the peak hour cue, I use it all the time because it shaves 20-25 minutes of the ride home but I constantly look for cars crossing, in a case like this it really is too easy for a car not to see you, and I know that if I get hit doing this I have no one to blame but myself

[R6_kid:Me]

Sounds like a pretty stupid place to be lane splitting. I'd assume their rules are similar to ours in that you can only 'split' stationary traffic (legally) and that it must be done at such a speed so as not to be considered dangerous.

From your position you had allowances to safely pull into the driveway based on what you could see, and had were not doing anything out of the ordinary in pulling in to the driveway so you should be free of liability.

[danchop]

if passing on the left is illegal,whats with bus or t3,t2 lanes as thier main purpose is passing stationary vehicles on the left,and the same situation often happens so whose in the wrong there?still in a single lane situation i agree the bike should suffer the consequences

[gegvasco]

I was witness to exactly this type of accident. Rider was splitting down the left side of stopped traffic on a one-lane road. Approaching a shopping centre, the traffic(a 2 ton van) left a gap to allow cars to turn across. Being a one lane road and traffic stopped, the car rightly crossed the road and managed to poleaxe the rider who split out from behind the van at about 30kph. I was on the bike at the time but had chosen not to split as there was no way to legally do it safely in that circumstance. Rider ended up with a broken leg and his bike was trashed as he and the bike got thrown into a power pole. Not pretty to see!

Cops took my witness statement and I was called by the rider's solicitor thinking I would back him up somehow - they were trying to claim "failure to give way" against the car driver. Sorry but the rider was riding illegally and the driver was driving within the law and showing all reasonable caution. I would have done exactly the same as the driver in that situation. I believe the rider was charged and driver was cleared -it seemed that was the way it was heading anyway.

[=cJ=]

**shrug** no ticket = no fault AFAIK...