On 19/11/2018 14:29, Simon Jester wrote:

On Monday, November 19, 2018 at 2:14:26 PM UTC, JNugent wrote:
On 15/11/2018 17:15, Mr Pounder Esquire wrote:
JNugent wrote:
On 15/11/2018 13:19, Simon Jester wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hw8Kzw60rE

Who was at fault and who should pay the bill?

A genuinely amusing video for a change.
There's little doubt that the insurer of the pirate car is going to
have to pick up the tab for the damage to the car and probably a good
few hundreds of pounds to the operator of the bus for repairs.

Agreed. Finally Jester has posted something worth clicking on.
In a different life I used to own taxis, the punters were always opening
doors without looking.
Note that in the video the passenger is a violent import who scarpered.

The driver of the pirate car did himself no favours in allowing a
situation where the only option available to the passenger was opening
the front passenger door into the moving traffic lane because the car
was stopped against the right hand kerb (even in a one-way street).

Go ahead, tell us why you call it a pirate car.

Because that's what it is.

He ought to have either sought out a spare bit of clear kerb on the left
OR pulled up near parked cars on the left, such that no vehicle could
reasonably try to pass along the passenger side of the car. Well, no
vehicle except a bicycle. And as we know, it's impossible for a bike to
do any damage to anything or anybody else (except for the occasions when
it does).

Would it be the cyclist's fault if the passenger opened the door into the cyclist's path?

That depends on the positions of the vehicles concerned. Occupants of a
vehicle pulling into the kerb in order to allow passengers to alight
onto the nearside footway (that's the left in this country) can
reasonably expect that the vehicle will not be undertaken in whatever
narrow gap there may be between the car and the kerb. The same applies
to bus passengers getting off at a bus stop.

Go on - tell us how cyclists are allowed to undertake a stationary bus
at a bus stop by riding along the gutter.

Passengers who try to emerge into a moving traffic lane without looking
are asking for trouble, which is why the driver ought not to get into
such a position that it becomes the only option for the LHS passenger,
many of whom will unaware of the care and caution to be exercised. After
all, you don't need a driving licence to be a passenger.

You have already stated the bus driver was not at fault.

And do you know why I stated that the car's insurer would have to pay up
(which is what I actually said)?

Because the bus driver was not at fault.

The pirate car driver was not without responsibility there (he ought not
to have left the passenger with only that single option of alighting
into a moving traffic lane), but neither was the passenger, who might
have been no better trained or qualified in road craft than a cyclist.