Road Accidents: Legal Starting Points

The liability of car owners and car drivers for road accidents built on the law that had been created to deal with railway accidents. But there was a major difference. Cars were not restricted to tracks and could cause injuries to a wider part of the community. The starting point was liability for fault, but this changed in most countries. There are a number of different victims of road accidents:

• The driver, who may suffer personal injury
• The owner, whose car may be damaged
• The passenger, who sometimes will be paying the driver for the ride, and sometimes will be a friend or member of the family
• Third parties − people in other cars and passers-by, such as a pedestrian who fails to get out of the way of the car.

The law did not treat these groups in the same way. The law was most concerned to compensate third parties, but fault remained important in deciding whether other people got compensation.