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Terry2002

I was driving on the motorway, a car to my right swerved into my lane and I swerved to the left to avoid hitting it. A van to my left then swerved to miss me and hit the barrier causing a small amount of damage, none of our cars collided. I do not have the details of the car/driver that I initially swerved for but I stopped to make sure the van driver was OK and gave him my details. I do not have insurance, now his Insurance Company are seeking over 20k worth of repairs from me. Am I legally liable for this?

Anon

Hi there,
Unfortunately yes in this case you are.
The role of a driver is to drive in their lane at all times, the NZ Land transport Road User rule states: A driver, when driving on a road marked in lanes,—
(a) must drive as far as practicable entirely within a lane except when complying with subclause 2.1 (2) or when changing lanes; and
(b) must not move from a lane until he or she has first ascertained that the manoeuvre may be made safely.
So the lane changes of both vehicles would be worthy of a traffic infringement and one resulted in an accident- of which unfortunately you are now liable.