Dashcam footage shows car turning across motorcyclist's path

On the morning of 28th May 2021, Martin was riding his Suzuki DL650 north on the A82 from his home in Glasgow to the Isle of Mull for an overnight camping trip. Joining him on the trip, travelling on her on bike behind him, was his friend, Annie.

At a point on the journey with a long straight section of road in front and vehicles ahead travelling at 40mph, Martin pulled out for a perfectly reasonable overtake as the national speed limit applied.

Martin checked his mirrors, signalled, performed a life-saver and pulled out onto the opposing carriageway.

Maintaining a speed of approximately 45mph, Martin successfully overtook two vehicles and was about to overtake a third when that car suddenly applied its right-hand indicator and immediately swung to the right.

Although not signposted, there was an entrance into a lay-by on the right-hand side of the road. Martin had no opportunity to take evasive action and the car hit his motorcycle causing him to fall to his left.

Emergency services were called to the scene and Martin was taken to Forth Valley Hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken left arm. The fracture was so severe, he needed surgery.

Whilst recovering and worried about being able to resume work as a lorry driver, Martin decided to get in touch with us. We immediately took action and intimated a claim for damages to the car driver’s insurance company.

We centred our claim around the fact that the driver of the car had failed in his duty to adhere to the Highway Code. In particular, he had failed to use his mirrors and give a right hand-turn signal before turning right (Rule 179).

The insurance company initially refused to accept that their client, the driver of the car, had been to blame for the incident. Rather, they claimed that their client had been indicating for a sufficient amount of time, had performed multiple mirror checks, and that Martin then appeared ‘out of nowhere’ and hit the rear side of their client's car.

Undeterred by any of the above, we pushed on.


As part of our liability investigations, we spoke with Annie and tracked down two other independent individuals who had witnessed the incident. All three witnesses confirmed that there was nothing that Martin could have done to avoid colliding with the car due to the speed at which the driver pulled to the right.

Better still, one of the individuals we spoke to, who was in the line of traffic behind where the incident took place, informed us that he had an operating dash-cam in his vehicle at the time of the incident. After receiving the footage, we were clearly able to see the car make an abrupt right-hand turn and, in doing so, drove straight into the path of Martin.

Even with this footage and the evidence shown to them from our witnesses, the insurance company still refused to budge on their liability stance. However, on the deadline of three months, the insurer offered a sum representing full value of the claim. Martin was happy to accept the offer.

Delighted with the outcome, Martin had this to say about Motorcycle Law Scotland:-



“I’m highly recommending MLS. I have received professional service with quality communication."

We never understand why insurers raise spurious arguments against motorcyclists, in particular. We are not deterred by such arguments and will always stand firm. The Highway Code rules are clear, as drivers must use their mirrors to make sure they know the position and movement of vehicles behind before turning right. This driver was oblivious to what was behind him and caused Martin's injury.