Give-way rule under spotlight

Following the Road Code led a conscientious young driver into the path of another car. Motoring editor ALASTAIR SLOANE explains.

Let's call him Fred. He is a 16-year-old student and has a restricted driver's licence. That means he can't take passengers.

He was on an Auckland street the other day preparing to turn right. The only oncoming car slowed and indicated it was turning left.

The traffic rule was fresh in Fred's mind: when turning, give way to all traffic crossing or coming from the right. Fred had right of way. The road code said so. He turned right.

But the driver of the oncoming car didn't go left. He went straight ahead and T-boned Fred's car. He got out and asked Fred what the hell he thought he was doing turning across traffic like that.

Fred said, "But you were turning left. I had right of way." The other driver said, yes, he did have his left indicator going but he wasn't turning left at that street, he was turning left into a service station further down the road.

Fred's car suffered about $5000 damage. Neither driver was injured. The police didn't become involved. It's an insurance matter that may end up at the small claims tribunal.

Who's at fault? Police Inspector Ian James, of the traffic operations and support unit in Wellington, said in an injury accident police "would be looking at the driver turning left".

"His actions were below the level of those of a reasonable and prudent driver. He wrongly indicated his intention of turning left and would be guilty of careless driving."

But the Land Transport Safety Authority would say that the onus was on Fred, that turning across traffic is a hazardous manouevre and that Fred should have made sure the oncoming driver was indeed going to turn left. It's found in Brooker's Law of Transportation, the guide book for LTSA policymakers. Regulation 9 of the give-way rule says in part: "The driver who has a rule in his or her favour must exercise reasonable caution ... "

Messy, huh? The Road Code is no help. It is there only to help people to sit their driving test and explain the basics of transport law.

And what about insurance? Who pays for what? If there is a dispute, a small claims tribunal might find that both drivers were at fault. The tribunal must have regard for the law, but it isn't strictly bound by it.

Researchers say that courts tend to recommend against a driver taking an oncoming car's indicator at face value.

Fred's accident was described by a traffic researcher as an "inevitable consequence of that particular give-way rule".

"Ultimately the blame lies with the rule, because it invites a right-turning vehicle to take a priority that invites a level of judgment that is less than cautious."

Researchers say the give-way rule lures right-turners into danger, especially when oncoming straight-ahead traffic veers out from behind left-turners.

It is one of the arguments for getting rid of the rule, which was among proposed changes to traffic laws in a LTSA discussion paper last year.

The LTSA is proposing that right-turners go last. "That would promote more cautious decision making," said a researcher.

It has already received submissions on the proposal. "But there's no breakdown for and against yet," said LTSA spokesman Andy Knackstedt. "We haven't presented the information to the minister [Mark Gosche] yet and until we do we can't give an indication one way or the other to the media.

"Opinion is widely divided. Generally, those who support the change do so on the grounds that it will make life easier for drivers turning right. They won't be required to judge the intentions of approaching traffic.

"Those who oppose the change are concerned with the possible difficulties of managing the risk to drivers during the change-over period."

Typical of such submissions, said Knackstedt, was the fear of confusion, that people would find it difficult to change.

"It's too early to say what the new give-way rule will be. There will be another full round of public consultations once the result of the submissions are known.

"It might be that the long-term safety gains of changing might not be justified if the short-term risk results in increased chaos."

Sweden weighed up such risks in the 1960s when it switched from driving on one side of the road to the other almost overnight. These days it has the second-lowest road toll in the world, after Britain.