Traffic lights are natural accident hotspots despite the fact they’re there to prevent accidents and keep the flow of traffic moving as easily as possible. But most people in the UK live such busy lives that we’re constantly rushing around, and we’re all too tempted to ‘amber gamble’ or jump a just turned red light when driving; or cross a crossing when the lights are not in our favour. Traffic suddenly slowing is also a huge cause of accidents too.
If you are injured in an accident at traffic lights, can you make a claim for personal injury compensation?
As a Driver
As a driver, if you correctly followed the instructions for the lights, you shouldn’t be at fault. If another driver has jumped a red light, they should be 100% to blame. In situations where there is still traffic crossing each other, perhaps if you’re going straight on but the lights allow other drivers from the opposite direction to turn across your path, they must wait and give way if they need to cross your path. Generally speaking it’s the driver who needs to turn in to the path of another who must wait. If you’re going straight on, you should have the right of way.
If it’s a filter light situation, it could be their right of way if your lights have gone to red – which they should have done really if the filter light is allowing other traffic to have the freedom to move across you.
There’s no excuse for traffic suddenly slowing when a light changes. If you need to stop as the light changes and another driver hits you in the back, they should be 100% at fault for the accident. In rear end collisions, that’s normally the case anyway – the driver that hits the back of another vehicle is normally at fault.
As a Pedestrian
As a pedestrian at a crossing, you should only cross when the lights are in your favour. If you don’t, the lights could be in the favour of the driver. But as a pedestrian, the law is generally on your side when it comes to making a claim as there is a much higher duty of care on the drivers on the road.
One classic example is when a pedestrian crosses a crossing when the lights are on red for them, and green for the driver; but the vehicle moves out of a side road or from the exit of a roundabout and hits you. In theory when you started crossing, even though the lights were not in your favour, the road was clear. There is a specific duty of care on drivers in general to take extra care at crossings, even when they are on green – and there are specific duties when it comes to merging on to a new road from a side road or a roundabout.
In that scenario, even though the lights weren’t in your favour, we would certainly investigate a claim on a No Win, No Fee basis for you. Depending on the circumstances you may be found partially at fault, known as contributory negligence, but you are likely still in a position to make a successful claim.
Even if the lights were on green for the driver but you crossed and were halfway across, we can argue that the driver had reasonable time to slow down for you. As I said earlier, the duty of care is much higher for the driver. Normally it’s only extremely difficult to claim if you literally stepped or ran out in front of a driver leaving them no sufficient time to react. Drivers have a duty of care to always look out for pedestrians on crossings irrelevant of who has the right of way when it comes to lights.
Amber Lights
Sometimes this can be somewhat of a quandary. Lights are on yellow, so a driver speeds up to get through in time, and at the same time a pedestrian sees the lights change to amber and decides to cross.
Amber lights mean caution for the road user – it’s not a sign to speed up – and if the light is on red for the pedestrian (which it should be) then they also need to take care. You could end up with a split liability where both parties are perhaps equally at fault. So as a pedestrian, you can often still make a claim so it’s always worth speaking to a lawyer.
If a pedestrian is found to be fully at fault, it’s difficult as a driver to sue them as they likely won’t have any insurance or money to settle a claim.
What if lights fail / are broken?
If lights are broken then everyone needs to take extra care because it may end up being a fight to get through! Rules when it comes to drivers crossing your path if you only need to go straight on can apply, although if the driver crossing your path is also heading straight forward as it’s a cross roads, the right of way is really no one’s unless road marking say otherwise. Everyone needs to take care; but if you are the victim of careless driving, you may be able to make a claim. Witnesses can therefore be key.
