At the national Green Party conference in Liverpool last week, Camden Green Party chair Natalie Bennett moved an addition to Green Party policy that sees the Party backing the campaign for the introduction of "proportional liability" (also known as "stricter liability") for road users. The campaign is supported by Road Peace, the Environmental Law Foundation, the London Cycling Campaign and many others.
This legal change would acknowledge that the duty of care for one’s actions when using the road should be proportional to the degree of danger that you impose on other road users. (1)
Natalie Bennett, also a London Assembly candidate for the Green Party, said: "As a pedestrian and cyclist, I see many road users failing to take the kind of civilised care that they should: drivers who speed up on approaching a pedestrian crossing in an attempt to stop walkers going on to the road, drivers who squeeze past a cyclist when there’s inadequate space, just so they can get to the red light just in front of them a bit faster."
"In cases of civil compensation, the legal change would reverse the burden of proof in collisions between motor vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists. The onus would be on the driver’s insurance company to prove that the casualty caused the collision.
"Additionally, particularly vulnerable road users, including children, older people and those with disabilities, would receive full compensation for their injuries."
Alexis Rowell, who seconded the motion, along with Islington Green Party member and London Assembly candidate Caroline Russell, said: "This legal change would bring us into line with most other countries in Europe, countries where far more people cycle, enjoying the health benefits themselves, and helping ensure cleaner air and less congestion for everybody."
"Just this week there are three major cycle campaigns on London’s roads. There’s a real push to help more people get on their bicycles, and this legal change would help to make everyone feel safer when they do so."
Caroline Russell added "Londoners are increasingly aware that the death toll on our roads is unacceptable. As a community we owe it to the sixteen cyclists and 77 pedestrians killed on London’s roads in 2011 to make a real shift in driving culture to reduce the numbers killed and seriously injured on our streets and to move to a more humane post – collision experience for grieving families."
(1) Lord Denning said in 1982: "In the present state of motor traffic,
I am persuaded that any civilised system of law should require, as a
matter of principle, that the person who uses this dangerous
instrument on the roads—dealing death and destruction all round –
should be liable to make compensation to anyone who is killed or
injured in consequence of the use of it. There should be liability
without proof of fault. To require an injured person to prove fault
results in the gravest injustice to many innocent persons who have not
the wherewithal to prove it."