advise plz rta driving without due care and attention

anewman

cajef wrote: »

You have a duty of care to make sure the junction is clear before you pull out, even when traffic light controlled, by your own admission you did not see the other car, the police are obviously putting some of the blame for the accident down to negligence on your part.

But if you look and see a car coming, you have a green light, and theirs are red - you expect them to have a duty of care with a much higher priority to stop before the white line at the lights.

Are we all going to stop at green lights now because we think another car might not stop and may go through a red light? :rolleyes:

cajef

anewman wrote: »

But if you look and see a car coming, you have a green light, and theirs are red - you expect them to have a duty of care with a much higher priority to stop before the white line at the lights.

Agreed, but as we know all cases are different and we are only getting one side of the story here, the OP asked for advise and any input, as already stated the police have taken independent witness statements, what they told the police and what they told him may not be quite the same, so one can only presume as he has been threatened with prosecution for driving 'without due care and attention' that after considering all the evidence the police are apportioning some of the blame on him, whether that is correct, who knows, only they can say.

gizmoses

i am just wondering was the woman who hit me a cop or some how linked to them needless to say my solicitor will have recieved a copy of the letter tommorro so hopefully she can shead some light

also i requested copys of the witness statments and there details a few months ago in writing.
how long should i have to wait??

Incisor

cheesy.mike wrote: »

What an arrogant, offensive and condescending reply. What not restrict your posting in these forums to times when you have something helpful to contribute?

While I might agree, it's a bit harsh on the OP, from his write up of the events it was difficult to work out what happened, so I read it but didn't reply. And I wonder how many others moved on and left it. So often the penalty for poor writing skills is to be ignored - and nobody can be identified as ignoring a poorly written post. At least by making a comment, the OP comes a little closer to realising their writing style might be causing a problem.

Altarf

The OP's actions are one of the reasons why a lot of new traffic light controlled junctions do not have lights on the far left corner of the junction. Just because the lights in your direction have changed red, does mean that you know what has happened in the other direction, because you cannot see their lights. So the OP has just assumed that the other lights had gone red.

And before anyone says, 'well what about the two cars that stopped', there is at least one junction near me with multiple lanes, where the left turn, straight on and right turn are controlled by green filters (with different timings for each) and can be giving a red light to some lanes and green lights to others. So if you assumed that all the lights had changed red because one car had stopped, then you could be very mistaken.

At the end of the day, if you are turning right, you are crossing the flow of traffic and you have a duty of care to make sure the way is clear before doing so.

tomstickland

From the OP's thread is appears that they were turning right across 3 lanes of traffic and because 2 cars had stopped they assumed that all traffic coming from that direction was going to stop.
A car came from the 3rd lane and hit the OP.

Either that car jumped a red light or the OP made an incorrect assumption.

The action of the police would suggest the latter, though it might just be an automated system, and an error on their part.

gizmoses

the lights on the other side had no feeders and if you look and there are cars stopped and the car that hit me wasnt in sight,
arnt i suposed to look in the direction i am going and not out the passenger window
as for witnesses if i wasnt in the back of the ambulance then i would have asked for their details myself
if the police are threatening to prosecute do i not get a more detailed explaination
and dont they have to disclose evidence to me or my solicitor
having no experience of this sort of situation i thought ai may get some help in here although some have helped others seem to be in here for a laugh

Keith

OP have you read the letter carefully?

When I had an accident a few years back I got the same letter but it was worded in a way, I thought I had to do the course but it turned out I didn't.

If they are offering the course instead of prosecution take the course. You'll get no evidence until they charge you.

hewhoisnotintheknow

go on the course anyway, might be interesting

McAzrael

Yes you are meant to be looking out of your passenger window, and the driver's side window, and in your mirrors, and down the road.