Driver 'confused' by tram told there'd be no crash if she obeyed green light

The Tribunal focused on the competing breach of the road rules rather than who was negligent in the circumstances. The finding of the Tribunal that the Respondents “had a legitimate expectation that Ms Spurek would obey the green light and continue through the intersection without stopping” is interesting in light of ‘Sibley’. In Sibley v Kais [1967] HCA 43 at [5] the High Court stated: “The failure to take reasonable care in given circumstances is not necessarily answered by reliance upon the expected performance by the driver of the give way vehicle of his obligations under the regulations ; for there is no general rule that in all circumstances a driver can rely upon the performance by others of their duties, whether derived from statutory sources or from the common law.”

There can be many reasons a vehicle may be stationary at a green light – a pedestrian, cyclist or animal might be on the road which cannot be seen by drivers behind.

In terms of a breach of the road rules vis-a-vis civil liability the Court said: “These regulations in nominating the vehicle which has another vehicle on its right as the give way vehicle are undoubtedly salutary and their breach is deservedly marked with criminal penalties. But they are not definitive of the respective duties of the drivers of such vehicles to each other or in respect of themselves : nor is the breach of such regulations conclusive as to the performance of the duty owed to one another or in respect of themselves. The common-law duty to act reasonably in all the circumstances is paramount.”

Contrast Kenny v Ritter [2009] SASC where the Court of Appeal found 50/50 where the defendant was parked on a curve of the road chatting to another person when dark and wet

Agree with you, Ken. Canberra roads are confusing with too many signs, inconsistent lanes, bike and bus lanes which appear and disappear, sections of road where three or more sets of lights are directly in your line of sight, poor road markings etc etc. And in answer to Finegan_Freeman – well surprise, surprise not everyone encounters trams on a daily basis and I don’t know of many cities where a tram on your left is crosses right across in front of you.

As someone who doesn’t encounter the tram often, I can understand this lady’s confusion.

One night I was in a very similar situation. I was turning right across the tram line and had a green light. As soon as I saw it to my left, I had a momentary panic and exclaimed “Oh, “expletive”, train!”. My wife told me I had a green light and we continued.

Part of the problem is we are bombarded with Government advertising telling us to be careful of Light Rail, because it is fast moving and silent and we’ve all seen footage of near misses.
Personally, I think the thing is dangerous. In some jurisdictions there would be boom gates to protect people.

In air safety they’d probably be talking about startle responses and subtle incapacitation rather than laying blame.

The sooner we can get humans out of the driver seat the better off we will all be.

Maybe she doesn’t get out much and hadn’t seen a team before. Wish there was a dash cam to show what she saw .