Due Care And Attention – Considering A U Turn In Traffic Jam

Question:

The question is for my father who has been charged. He was in stationary traffic in the middle of the day (good light, no rain). There was some sort of obstruction in the road ahead and traffic had been stationary for some time. Several cars ahead had already pulled U turns to get out of the queue.

As the road was approaching a sharp turn and a roundabout, there was a solid white line to his right. He turned the nose of the car to the right to A) see if he could look along the side of the queue to see what the obstruction was / make a decision as to whether it was likely to move soon and B) if it wasn’t he planned to do a U turn as well.

At the same moment a motorcycle was coming up on the right from the rear and must have been outside the solid white line. He must have been driving quite slowly. The bike pulled around the nose of the car but the box on the rear of it clipped the wing.

The bike slid across the road and was damaged, as was the car. The rider was fine. Paramedics attended and left him quickly as he was completely unhurt. Several police cars attended as the cars were stationary and several people called the police as they were sitting doing nothing and had seen the accident happen.

At the moment of collision my father was either completely stationary or moving at one or two miles an hour. The bike was going faster but it must have been slow. Maybe 10 – 15. The police have now charged my father with Driving Without Due Care and Attention.

In the summary of the charge it says that he failed to take account of traffic coming from behind and in doing so caused injury and damage. My father has never been in an accident before.

My question is, should he plead guilty and if so, should he mention that there was no injury caused?

 Emma Says:

It’s a difficult one. If the court accepts that the bike rider was driving without due care or the bike rider was contravening the double white lines – then your father maybe able to defend himself. The court may feel that the bike rider was going too fast.

If the court take the view that the accident happened purely because your father failed to appreciate the bike riders presence and failed to carry out proper observations and that the bike rider was behaving reasonably then your father will probably be convicted.

Would you like me to try and get the proceedings withdrawn by getting your father on the driver improvement course as an alternative to prosecution? If I get the proceedings withdrawn your father would avoid points and fines and would get his reasonable legal costs back.

I assume your father hasn’t got any points already? If he has can you tell me how many?

Come back to me if I can assist further.