Laws for use of car indicators?

Hintza

samwich1979 wrote: »

If you are at a 4 road junction like i was on Thursday and as you are half way across an empty road some lunatic flies round the corner with no indicators on and you presume they are driving straight ahead what do you do?

If you are having problems crossing the road then move away from the junction before crossing and that way you will only have 2 way traffic to deal with and not 4 way traffic.

Or join the Tufty Club

Joe_Horner

samwich1979 wrote: »

So everyone who cant be a***d to indicate has non-working indicators? I think not! Biggest load of tosh ive ever heard.

On the incident i talked about in a previous post the driver looked like he was driving straight ahead but actually flew round the corner at me as i was crossing and ALSO didnt not indicate either. So i had NO chance at all of pre-empting what he was going to do even by just looking at his position on the road.

I dont rely on indicators, what im saying is it would be good practice to use them and use them CORRECTLY to aid driver and pedestrians alike.

No, but some of those "apparently" not being a***d to indicate might have faulty indicators. The effect of either hitting you is the same to you or your son in the push-chair.

Once upon a time they taught children the Green Cross Code. It saved a lot of them from getting run over and did NOT go like this:

Stop at the kerb
Look right
Look left
Look right again
If the car isn't indicating assume it's going past

Courtesy has nothing to do with it, although I do always indicate correctly because it's not exactly difficult. I never assume anyone else will pay attention to the indication though.

Simple common sense says you do NOT put yourself into the possible path of a ton of metal until you know with absolute certainty where it's going, especially when you have a push-chair which will slow you down if you get it wrong!


eta: regardless of how he "flew" round the corner, you were aware he was there and he hadn't actually gone past - in fact, hje will have slowed even if it was less than you thought he should. because he was there, slowing, and hadn't actually passed the turning, you could easily see that he MIGHT turn. So you wait just like the Green Cross Code tells you to

interstellaflyer

Hintza wrote: »

If you are having problems crossing the road then move away from the junction before crossing and that way you will only have 2 way traffic to deal with and not 4 way traffic.

Or join the Tufty Club

Agreed and where as failing to indicate is very annoying, I can't see how the OP has nearly been run over because a motorist has failed to indicate, sounds like the OP is not choosing very good places to cross, walk down the road a bit so you are only dealing with 2 way traffic, or do something completely radical like using a pedestrian crossing, the amount of people that will run the gauntlet by crossing a busy main road, kids in tow when they could do it in complete safety if they used the pedestrian crossing 20 meters away is shocking.

Wig

samwich1979 wrote: »

So everyone who cant be a***d to indicate has non-working indicators? I think not! Biggest load of tosh ive ever heard.

If you read again what he wrote it actually makes perfect sense. Yes, anyone who has not got their indicators flashing....Has obviously got indicators on their car in a non-working condition, in the sense that they only "work" when you switch them on. So they are either "non-working" because they have not been switched on or because they are broken. Which is what he said and it makes perfect sense.

I dont rely on indicators, what im saying is it would be good practice to use them and use them CORRECTLY to aid driver and pedestrians alike.

As far as pedestrians are concerned, I don't disagree and I don't think anyone here would disagree. I will always indicate in the presence of pedestrians, however, in the presence of just other drivers, there is not always a need to indicate. Drivers should be able to tell by my speed and direction where I am going and if they can pull out before or after me. That's not to say I always don't indicate. I do indicate a lot of time but I don't rely on other cars indicators and have no problem with cars doing manouvers without indicating as long as they do those manouvers safely.

prowla

The laws for using indicators depends upon where you live in the country.

In our town the rules at a roundabout are:

1. If turning left (1st exit), don't indicate.
2. If going straight on (2nd exit), indicate right and continue to indicate right whilst you take the exit.
3. If turning right (3rd exit, etc.), don't indicate when approaching or joining the roundabout, and then indicate left as you are taking the exit.

There are so many people doing that that they must have been taught to.

prowla

As far as pedestrians go, the highway code used to state that when you make a turn you must be prepared to give way to pedestrians who are crossing the road. (And so by logic, the only way that you can show that you were prepared to do that is to actually give way, as if you don't then you obviously weren't prepared to...)

Now it says:

Honeydog

In my experience you can't actually trust that even if someone IS indicating that they are actually going to do what it suggests. People are hopeless.

esmerobbo

I have a BMW do these have indicators?

SailorSam

I know around here taxi drivers are exempt, they don't have to indicate.

DaveF327

Although there is no law that specifically creates an offence of failing to use indicators, such a failure could fall foul of section 3 of the Road Traffic Act: driving without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration of other persons.

The other way to avoid the potential for conflicts is to cross the road in a safe place, ideally on a stretch of single road with only two directions to consider, or - if it's necessary to cross at a crossroads - to use the crossing facility at lights.