Luckily not something I need to be considering right now, but I just narrowly avoided something that could have been messy.
I was driving down my (residential) road, this has a long sweeping curve to the right (from the direction I was heading). It has a 30mph speed limit, I was going 25 and could see far ahead in front of me, including a pedestrian (let's call her Daffy Bint). Daffy Bint and her dog decided to step into the road and cross it without looking (diagonally!). I was able to brake in time to avoid hitting her, but because of the wet, curved road, had I braked much harder the front wheels would have locked and I would have carried on in a straight line into the kerb, hitting it with some force.
From a previous similar encounter on ice, I found this causes approximately £700 of damage!
Has anyone heard of any incidents where a driver has successfully sued a pedestrian or dog owner when damage has been caused to the car when avoiding running them over? As I see it, had I been about 10-15 feet nearer to her when she stepped out, I would have had the choice of a) mounting the kerb or b) running her over. I just want to know what my options are next time, I don't want to stump up £700 because someone can't be bothered to look both ways!
I was driving down my (residential) road, this has a long sweeping curve to the right (from the direction I was heading). It has a 30mph speed limit, I was going 25 and could see far ahead in front of me, including a pedestrian (let's call her Daffy Bint). Daffy Bint and her dog decided to step into the road and cross it without looking (diagonally!). I was able to brake in time to avoid hitting her, but because of the wet, curved road, had I braked much harder the front wheels would have locked and I would have carried on in a straight line into the kerb, hitting it with some force.
From a previous similar encounter on ice, I found this causes approximately £700 of damage!
Has anyone heard of any incidents where a driver has successfully sued a pedestrian or dog owner when damage has been caused to the car when avoiding running them over? As I see it, had I been about 10-15 feet nearer to her when she stepped out, I would have had the choice of a) mounting the kerb or b) running her over. I just want to know what my options are next time, I don't want to stump up £700 because someone can't be bothered to look both ways!