About two years ago I was riding to work on my Yamaha FJR1300 in heavy traffic. It was stop/start all the way up to a roundabout, so I filtered past. Up ahead I could see a Renault Trafic van start to indicate and do a U-turn, so I flashed her a few times and beeped my horn, and thought she had seen me as she stopped for a split second. However, she then just carried on and pulled out into my path. I managed to brake but couldn’t avoid hitting the side of the van. At the point of the collision, I was overtaking using an area of white diagonal stripes bordered by a broken white line. It was a 50mph limit and I was doing 40-45mph.
Last week the matter went to trial and, while I won overall, the judge said I was 15% to blame. She said this was due to my speed, because she said I had time to see and react to the van and c) because she said I was overtaking on the white diagonal striped areas.
I am not happy and have threatened to sue the judge because my trial was cancelled twice and she clearly got it wrong as I was overtaking legally. What do you think?
Answer
I agree that it is legal to filter and overtake. However, when it comes to a court case, every case turns on its own facts, and the judge has made a decision after hearing all of the evidence. After all, it is her job to ‘judge’.
You cannot ‘sue’ her, but you could try to appeal the decision. However, before you plough on with that, bear in mind that Rule 130 of the Highway Code says: “If the area is bordered by a broken white line, you should not enter the area unless it is necessary and you can see that it is safe to do so.”
While I have done the same thing over the past 30 years or so of riding, it is arguable that it wasn’t ‘necessary’ for you to be overtaking using the white diagonal striped area. In addition, the judge may well have been entitled to find you were riding “too fast in the circumstances” and that you failed to react in time to a hazard you had seen (as you had time to see the van, sound your horn and flash your lights etc).
While it may be hard to accept, 85/15 in your favour sounds like a good result to me, and appealing could just cost you a lot of money. If you do want to appeal, you should get legal advice quickly, as you only have 21 days from the trial date to lodge your appeal. Lastly, the judge has found some contributory negligence on your part, don’t forget that she clearly found the van driver was far more culpable in light of the evidence.
Andrew Prendergast
RiDE – April 2026