YOU report that police will assiduously enforce the law against drivers who overtake cyclists too close, and that every week in Scotland at least three cyclists suffer serious, life-changing injuries, usually from a collision with a vehicle (“Drivers warned: Give space to cyclists or risk criminal conviction”, The Herald, July 7). Yet no politician, government agency, or local authority while hailing the recent huge increase in cycling (and walking) has yet acceded to the demands of safety campaigners to replace the current fault-based compensation system with strict liability.
Many drivers claim that they always do drive with due consideration for vulnerable road users and are outraged by the suggestion that they should be automatically liable for the consequences of any lapses. Such assertions of innocence are less convincing when one thinks of the young mother doing the school run before racing off for a nine o'clock start at her workplace, or the middle-aged businessman late for a meeting at which he hopes to conclude a profitable contract. And how many “careful” drivers comply with the 20mph speed limit which is specifically intended to protect vulnerable road users?
The effect strict liability has on driver behaviour may be debatable, but it provides many more unarguable advantages. Under the present fault-based system months, sometimes years are spent while claimant's lawyers and insurance staff wrangle over where liability lies (for example, did the cyclist swerve round a pothole, or was the overtaking driver too close?). In the meantime, there is no mitigation of the economic consequences borne by the victim, a serious consideration in our long-standing hostile environment for welfare benefits. And where a lone cyclist has been hit, where is the evidence of fault to come from? If a motor vehicle is involved any passengers will almost certainly support “our driver”. Likewise with lone pedestrians: witnesses may become aware of the incident only when they hear the thump and be unable to say whether the pedestrian carelessly stepped off the pavement without looking or how fast the driver was travelling.
Under strict liability the legal wrangling (and lawyers and extra insurance staff) can be dispensed with as fault is established automatically at the point of impact. With that done the lawyers and medics can then be called in to assess the value of the injury suffered by the victim. That may take some time, but even under the present fault-based system instalments can be paid out by the insurance companies as soon as liability is established.
When we drivers exercise the privilege of introducing a couple of tons of potentially death-dealing metal on to public roads we should in fairness accept that we are automatically liable for the consequences regardless of fault. And we should remember that every day we ourselves and our families are likely to be vulnerable road users even if we do no more than step out of our cars to cross the street.
William Neilson, Edinburgh EH16.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel