KAMARIAH BINTI ALI v 1. ) MASLIZA BINTI MOHAMED 2. ) MOHD SAHABUDDIN BIN MOHAMED 3. ) TOKIO MARINE INSURANS (M) BERHAD

Case Significance

Illustrates the duty of a driver emerging from a junction onto a major road: the obligation is not merely to stop at the Halt line but to wait until it is safe, and a driver who crosses into the path of oncoming traffic bears full liability for the collision.

This High Court decision at Kota Bharu concerns an appeal on liability from a Sessions Court judgment in a road-accident claim, and the apportionment of fault at a junction. The appellant had sued the first respondent (said to be the other driver), a second respondent and the motor insurer; the Sessions Court dismissed the claim, and the appeal, confined to liability, followed. Because the individual parties are natural persons named only as litigants, this analysis refers to them by role, while the insurer is named.

The court's reasoning focused on the conduct of the first respondent at the junction where the accident occurred. It found that the first respondent had emerged from the junction and entered the major road in an unsafe manner. Even accepting the first respondent's own account that he had stopped at the Halt line, he remained to blame: having a duty to give way to traffic on the major road, he should have waited long enough to allow an approaching bus, travelling on the major road and coming from his right, to pass before attempting to cross; instead he took a risk and crossed in the face of the oncoming vehicle. On that basis the first respondent, who had entered the main carriageway unsafely, was held 100% liable for the accident, and the claim against him ought to have been allowed regardless of which motorcycle was involved.

The court therefore allowed the appeal in part, holding the first respondent wholly liable, while upholding the Sessions Court's dismissal of the claim against the second and third respondents. The judgment is a useful illustration of the duty owed by a driver emerging from a minor road or junction onto a major road: the obligation is not merely to stop at the Halt line but to wait until it is genuinely safe to proceed, and a driver who crosses into the path of oncoming traffic on the major road bears full responsibility for the resulting collision.