Who is to Blame?

Cr8or

A person walks out from in front of a parked bus and gets hit by another vehicle.. by law who is to blame the driver of the other vehicle or the person who walked out?

Anyone know the answer to this question?

X-Dawg

By Law, the driver is always to blame - but that's not to say they'll go to jail or anything if it was an accident. Pedestrians always have the right of way - no matter how dumb they are.

But IMO, (in your situation) the dumbass pedestrian is to blame. Most of those accidents actually occur within 100yards of a pelican crossing.

Cr8or

Funny that you say that.. There was one less than 50m away

Sleipnir

I guess if it came down to an actual procescution you would also have to factor in the speed of the car proximity to a pedestrian crossing etc.
Usually that would be considered just a plain old accident.

Redshift

If Jay Walking is supposed to be illegal, then surely the pedestrian who broke the law is a fault...

Cr8or

I dont think there is such a law in place in ireland. Am i wrong?

X-Dawg

Redshift wrote:

If Jay Walking is supposed to be illegal, then surely the pedestrian who broke the law is a fault...

Correct to a degree, but unfortunately the driver usually gets blamed.

tbh

Apologise to that man at once sir!

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/motoring/2004/0811/3290042836MOT11EMISSIONS.html

It is, believe it or not, illegal to jaywalk in Ireland. You can be done for wilfully disregarding the wee red fella, making a break for it within 50 feet of a designated pedestrian crossing, ignoring Garda signals or just dispensing with the footpath altogether and using the road. Not that you'd know.

Cr8or

What if a bus lane is also involved? Is it still classed as jaywalking if the jaywalker is in the edge of a bus lane?

Chimaera

I'm assuming that said pedestrian was after diesmbarking fro the bus. In this case, it is advised that the pedestrian wait until the bus has pulled away again before crossing the road, or else use a pedestrian crossing. It is impossible for a driver approaching from behind the bus to see a pedestrian in front of the bus until they're out on the road.

Pedestrians have right of way on the road as soon as they step off the pavement.

In this case, I'd like to think the pedestrian would get cautioned about the stupidity of walking out onto the road from in front of a bus.

Interceptor

Get a solicitor if you are in any doubt.

From my experience, your speed, weather conditions, light conditions, your experience, the age of the injured party and their ability to assess danger, injuries caused and the opinions of any witnesses will all be taken into account. It is never clear-cut and the responsibility will be split with the bulk of the burden on the driver.

You must always be able to stop safely if there is a risk of an accident - even if this means passing parked buses at 12mph.

'c

X-Dawg

Cr80r - want to tell us what happened?

Cr8or

Well ... As you can see in the above posts .. i was on a scooter going 15 mph on the edge of a bus lane when someone walked out from in front of a parked bus .. I crashed into them then hit another car. The person in question was under 18 but only had some cuts (i did go over a toe or two). They did have to go to hostipal ( but only after being picked up by a parent & going to the garda station )

woosaysdan

X-Dawg wrote:

Cr80r - want to tell us what happened?

yeah you would probably get a lot more help and better advise if we knew what exactly happened!

X-Dawg

Cr8or wrote:

next question is would anyone know a good solicitor that deals in this kind of thing?

My 2 years no claims bonus is gona be down the drain because of this

If I were you, I'd sue them for damage to your bike and distress. Need a witness (PM me)? IMO, you shouldn't have to suffer any loss because someone else is too stupid to cross a road properly.
I fooking hate dumb pedestrians - especially those knacker bitches that push their buggy out on the road first while they wait to cross.
When did this happen?

Cr8or

Yesterday at 8:00 am on the way to work

mike65

X-Dawg wrote:

If I were you, I'd sue them for damage to your bike and distress. Need a witness (PM me)?

Whoa! Were you there? Are you going to lie in court? Sounds like "knacker" behaviour to me.

Mike.

Cr8or

X-Dawg wrote:

Need a witness (PM me)?

No thanks I have 2 real ones

D!ve^Bomb!

in all fairness if you were driving in the 'edge' of the bus lane... or in fact 'IN' the bus lane then you might be liable.. ok the pedestrian was pretty dumb, but i guess they didn't just walk out in the middle of the road.. if you weren't so close to or in the bus lane they probably would have stoped to see if any cars etc were coming, but the fact you were where you were means someone got a few broken toes!

Cr8or

I guess i have to look on the bright side.. it could have been much worse if the traffic was moving more freely .. Thank god I didnt end up under a car or worse

FX Meister

A dude I worked with was driving through town on his CB300, while driving past trinity towards Grafton street a dumbass pedo walked out in front of him and when they colided the steering was turned, the bike went down and was badly dented and scratched. An off duty motorbike cop saw the whole thing, the pedo had to cough up to repair the dudes bike. So how good are your witnesses?

OfflerCrocGod

Chimaera wrote:

In this case, I'd like to think the pedestrian would get cautioned about the stupidity of walking out onto the road from in front of a bus.

After they get scraped up and poured into a glass jar for easy portability by the grieving family.

X-Dawg

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

After they get scraped up and poured into a glass jar for easy portability by the grieving family.

Eh, the guy didn't die, you prat. Did you not read the thread?

beer enigma

Cr8or wrote:

A person walks out from in front of a parked bus and gets hit by another vehicle.. by law who is to blame the driver of the other vehicle or the person who walked out?

Speaking from personal experience, a lot depends on whether you were:

a) within the speed limit for the road
b) driving according to the road conditions (ie lights on during rain etc)
&
c) Not undertaking stationary cars by going down the edge of the bus lane.

OfflerCrocGod

X-Dawg wrote:

Eh, the guy didn't die, you prat. Did you not read the thread?

Yes I did :rolleyes: I was joking; maybe I should just have long lines of smilies in my posts so that people with humour-deficiency can figure out that I'm not serious

<edit>X-Dawg no need for the hostility I was genuinely being light-hearted in my post and did not mean to anger you. I don't see what my sig has to do with this by the way. Don't take everything posted here on Boards seriously. Really. Don't.