I know that nearly always in the event of a rear end shunt it's the driver behind who's to blame as they should have been able to stop in time, but is this still the case if the brake lights of the car in front are defective? I was shunted from behind at a give way onto a roundabout where the driver behind thought I had joined the roundabout but I had in fact only moved forward in the queue to the give way line and there is a possibility that the rear brake lights did not work (I find they are not working now 3 weeks later but whether they were defective at the time, I'm unsure). Is this one case where I could be to blame assuming my lights were defective, or should the driver behind always legally be able to stop despite my car not giving a brake light signal at the give way line to say I was coming to a stop not continuing onto the roundabout. Many thanks in anticipation.
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This is a common accident at roundabouts where the first vehicle waiting to move out is hit from behind.
The reason is normally because the second driver is watching for a gap in the roundabout traffic and forgets that there is still a vehicle in front of him/her - the gap is spotted and the chance taken until realisation dawns...:-)
In any case you were hit from behind and whether your stop lights were working or not is no excuse on the part of the second driver involved; he/she should have been aware that you were stationary.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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A parked car does not show brake lights, or tail lights.
If a driver hits it, or a car at a roundabout, junction etc. then its the fault of the hitting car driver! This also applies if the car has no working brake lights and is hit when making a sudden harsh braking manouevre. Doesn't matter if the car has faults, its the responsibility of the following driver to drive according to the conditions and maintain a safe distance between the cars.
Driving standards again !
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I see more and more vehicles driving around with no working brake lights these days. There also seem to be a lot that only have the high level brake light working and nothing else. I was behind a van coming home from work last week and he stopped suddenly without any brake lights showing, I nearly filled my pants but managed to stop in time (managed to stop the car and the pants filling).
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Just as bad as non-working defective brake lights are the ones that are on all the time. I've seen two in the past couple of months, both late model FIAT Puntos, both on the motorway, and both given a wide berth!
S6 1SW
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Equally there is a scam whereby people, intent on mischief, disconnect their brake lights and get rear ended so that they can claim for 'whiplash' and other quite easily faked injuries.
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Comes back to what I was taught on Defensive driving.
When you come up behind another vehicle leave a more than suffiicent gap until you are certain that brake lights work on it and that the driver isn't asleep/shaving/doing a crossword. This was long before the days of mobile phones.
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This is a common accident at roundabouts where the first vehicle waiting to move out is hit from behind.
I had a similar bump to this at a junction. The guy in front of me started to pull out, so I concentrated on traffic to my right assuming he had when in fact he had changed his mind ! Not too much damage though and no insurance was needed.
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I have done this also and got egg on my face!
Whilst in a moving traffic queue without junctions I think the car a without brake lights should be liable, especially if there is heavy traffic, at a roundabout or other junction, there is no excuse for not watching the car in front if it was stationary.
There are so many vehicles without brake lights or only one light working either at the front and rear these days.
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Slight diversion here.
I was following a Merc Sprinter van last week in fairly heavy traffic, and it had no brake lights at all. I couldn't get along side to tell the driver about this, so what do we think is the best way to tell a driver about his non working lights? Flashing? Waving from side window?
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Good question - I have faced this dilemma many times and frequently have been unable to resolve it. The only alternative is to ring the police and report a dangerous car on the road.
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I was following a Merc Sprinter van last week in fairly heavy traffic, and it had no brake lights at all.
I have come to the conclusion that Merc Sprinters have some sort of inherent weakness in their brake/rear light set-up. So many of them seem to be duff.
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Cannot comment on current bulb quality, but certainly the case in the 70s that a violent mechanical shock to a car would cause stop light bulbs that were illuminated to fail. Happened to me twice.
So if it is your bulbs that have failed it is possible that the shunt caused it.
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Indeed. Part of police accident investigation is to have dead bulbs examined to see if they were lit at the time of an accident. Its not 100% foolproof tho.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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You can check visually. When the filament is illuminated it is white hot. When the car is hit it stretches the filament before it snaps. Can sometimes be seen with the naked eye but its better under magnification.
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Fullchat
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"A parked car does not show brake lights, or tail lights."
Unless parked in a 30 mph area with street lights it should show lights at night.
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You see many that have lights on when parked? Anywhere?
I dont! Whether its right or not is another question !
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No, never! But if someone slammed straight into an unlit parked car on a dark night, how would the blame be apportioned?
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Driving without due care and attention I would think.
You should always be able to stop in the distance that you can see regardless of other conditions/problems etc. Thats why I see the need for speed limits (but ideally they need to be different at different times/conditions etc) even though I disagree strongly with scameras!
I have no problem with anybody driving at speed; if they are of good enough driving ability to do it. Most are not as good as they think ! the best drivers (imo) are not always the fastest even on a race/rally. the old adage of going slow enough to win becomes relevant!
it could easily be a broken down car etc with no electric power/flat battery.
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>>Is this one case where I could be to blame assuming my lights were defective
To all intents and purposes - no.
>>should the driver behind always legally be able to stop
Yes. The driver behind should be able to stop without hitting you even if you hit a brick wall and stopped dead with no warning.
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