If a driver in a left hand side roundabout lane goes too far around a roundabout and causes a crash, who’s to blame?
Roundabouts with dual carriageway entrances and exits may cause confusion when it comes to the correct exit lanes
It’s a scenario many of us will have seen and possibly had to take immediate action to avoid. Picture the scene: you’re driving around the right-side lane of a two-lane roundabout and preparing to turn left on to the outside (or right-hand) lane of a dual carriageway. But just as you look to turn, there’s a car in the other roundabout lane on your left. Hopefully, the car turns left on to the same road as you as expected, allowing you to both continue your journeys uninterrupted.
But what if it doesn’t take the turn, instead continuing around the roundabout, causing you to take evasive action or, in the worst case scenario, crash into them? What does the law say about who is to blame in this case? You might think it’s a cut-and-dry case of the driver in the left hand lane being fully liable. After all, you were in the correct lane for the turn-off and they were not. But it’s not that simple.
Here we see two cars navigating a roundabout exit with two lanes — one car is in the left-hand lane and the other is in the right-hand lane. They have just passed the roundabout’s first exit.
At this point you would hope that either both cars are going to take the next exit which is straight ahead of them, or that the blue car is going to take that exit while the white car continues round to a third exit. However, the blue car continues around the roundabout while the white car turns off, resulting in a crash.
So who is at fault for the crash and liable when it comes to insurance?
What does the Highway Code say about roundabout exits?
Highway Code rules 184-190 cover roundabouts. Rule 186 specifically covers signalling and positioning. It says that when taking the first exit to the left, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise, you should:
- signal left and approach in the left-hand lane
- keep to the left on the roundabout and continue signalling left to leave.
When taking an exit to the right or going full circle:
- signal right and approach in the right-hand lane
- keep to the right on the roundabout until you need to change lanes to exit the roundabout
- signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want.
When taking any intermediate exit:
- select the appropriate lane on approach to the roundabout
- you should not normally need to signal on approach
- stay in this lane until you need to alter course to exit the roundabout
- signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want.
As you can see, while this guidance and the graphic above do show which lane corresponds to which exit, it does not account for a driver in a right hand lane continuing in that lane through the roundabout and into an intermediate (or 12 o’clock) exit.
The court case: Grace v Tanner
There is an important court case that covers this scenario. In Grace v Tanner, two drivers were travelling through a roundabout on the A23 dual carriageway from London to Crawley. Mrs Grace was on a motorcycle in the right hand lane, while Mrs Tanner was in a car on the left hand lane. Mrs Grace went to leave the roundabout in the right hand lane to continue on to the right-hand lane of the A23 dual carriageway, assuming that Mrs Tanner would do the same in the left hand lane. But she did not — instead, she continued around the roundabout and the two collided.
In a first court case, the judge held the car driver, Mrs Tanner, wholly free of blame but Mrs Grace appealed, “saying that this is a 50/50 case where each party was to blame for this very unfortunate accident”. Mrs Grace’s lawyers did not argue that she was wholly innocent and admitted there was negligence on her part in turning into the car. But they said Mrs Tanner was “equally negligent”.
The appeal judges agreed. Lord Justice Schiemann said Mrs Tanner had not been negligent in missing her turn. The judge said that was merely an accident, but said that “in those circumstances you should be aware that there may well be somebody on the outside lane who will be wanting to go down that dual carriageway”. The judge said Mrs Tanner “forgot to bear that possibility in mind” and that that was, in fact, “negligent”, meaning that a 50/50 division of responsibility was the appropriate way to resolve the case.
Different case, different outcome
In a different case, the Financial Ombudsman Service was asked to decide on a case between a driver, Miss A, and Admiral Insurance. Miss A was in a similar situation to Mrs Grace in the above court case, in that another driver was in the incorrect lane for her exit and she continued around the roundabout, crashing into Miss A as Miss A left the roundabout. Admiral said it was a case of 50/50 liability situation, as in Grace v Tanner. But Miss A appealed to the financial ombudsman, who agreed with her that she was not at fault. The ombudsman said the circumstances were slightly different to Grace v Tanner in that Miss A was further ahead than the other driver and that because the other driver hit the rear of Miss A’s vehicle, she was at fault.
What has each driver done wrong?
Popular TikTok user Big Jobber gives regular and detailed advice on road rules, including on whether it’s ever acceptable to overtake another car on their left hand side (also known as “undertaking”). Referring to the incident between the blue and white cars above, he says: “It’s accepted that sometimes people will be in the wrong lane, people get lost and they make mistakes, especially on roundabouts. In continuing around the outer edge of the roundabout incorrectly, the blue car driver has not taken into consideration how their decision would affect other road users, namely those looking to exit the roundabout to go straight ahead at the second exit.
“And as for the driver of the white car, they haven’t taken into consideration what effect them exiting from the inner lane would have on a vehicle using the outer lane, either correctly or incorrectly. Ultimately the driver of the blue car, when realising that they were in the wrong lane for their intended exit, should have been checking that it was safe and OK to proceed around the roundabout to where they wanted to exit and be ready to take evasive action to avoid a collision. And as for the driver of the white car, they should be checking that it’s safe and clear to exit from the inner lane and also be ready to avoid a collision.
“What could each driver do differently to avoid a collision? Well, the driver of the blue car could take the exit they didn’t intend on taking and then turn around and come back and use the roundabout again correctly. The driver of the white car could remain staggered on the roundabout and not look to overtake a vehicle on the roundabout, thereby keeping a pocket of safe space around their vehicle. And when it was obviously unsafe to exit they could have just gone round the roundabout again and then exited when it was safe to do so.”
He agreed that, as in Grace v Tanner, this situation would also likely be settled on a 50-50 split liability basis.
