OHTA.ca

Hello,

I hope this is in the right subsection, but anyway, I was just curious if something that just occurred to me while driving is an offense.

So, today I was on my way home from school, and as I neared my house, I was driving on a residential road with a speed limit of 50km/h. I was driving behind some lady, and I was going a safe speed (not speeding,) nor was I following too closely. The lady neared a stop sign intersection (with the stop signs for the perpendicular direction, with none for us) and turned on her right signal. As she entered the intersection, she went about half way through it (going straight, not turning) when she just stopped. There were no other cars nearby, nor were there any pedestrians. I was not expecting her to stop, so I had to break hard so that I didn't hit her. Thankfully I succeeded and avoided an accident, and had to actually drive around the lady stopped in the intersection to get through. It turns out that she had stopped in the intersection because she lives in the house on the corner, and wanted to back in...

Now, I'm just curious... Is it an offense to do something like this? If I had hit her would I have been at fault? (I'm assuming I probably would be because I was behind her, and I should have stopped sooner.) Also, what is the proper procedure to back into a driveway on the corner? I'd like to think it's not what she did, but to be honest, I really don't know...

Thank you in advance for any replies

If I follow your description of events correctly, it sounds like what the other driver was doing is lawful. If youd driven into the back of their car you most likely would have been found at fault and charged. I do understand however that you wouldnt typically expect someone to stop mid intersection.

Fault Determination Rules covers this very specific situation.

(3) If automobile "A" is turning, either to the right or to the left, in order to enter a side road, private road or driveway, the driver of automobile "A" is not at fault and the driver of automobile "B" is 100 per cent at fault for the incident.

It has to be a huge chore for people who live on busy collector and arterial roads to actually get in and out of their home. Backing into her driveway is probably the most safe for her because she's protected by the fault determination rules.

If she was backing out of her driveway and got into a collision, then she would be at-fault. I have a feeling, her practice of backing-in might be related a past collision or close-call.

Along the same lines , I live on a very busy street and everyone in the family backs into the driveways. This allows you to pull into traffic and not have to back into traffic. My question is if I stop with my right signal on and starts to back into the driveway and the person behind me hits me who is at fault Me for backing up or them for being too close .I look at it as the same as a person that is trying to parallel park .Drivers behind should give the person a break

lfr101 wrote:My question is if I stop with my right signal on and starts to back into the driveway and the person behind me hits me who is at fault Me for backing up or them for being too close .I look at it as the same as a person that is trying to parallel park

You are at fault. Signalling is of no relevance, nor is the distance of the driver behind you.

lfr101 wrote:Drivers behind should give the person a break

Driver in front should pull over to the side, let those behind pass, and complete the maneuver when it is safe to do so.

lfr101 wrote:My question is if I stop with my right signal on and starts to back into the driveway and the person behind me hits me who is at fault Me for backing up or them for being too close .I look at it as the same as a person that is trying to parallel park

You are at fault. Signalling is of no relevance, nor is the distance of the driver behind you.