It's quite forseeable to Mr O having surveyed the road in front of him properly that Mr T (rightly or wrongly) might pull out and occupy the oncoming lane very suddenly, so he would be partially to blame.

It is quite possible that Mr T might have looked right anyway and seen it to be clear, just before Mr O pops out for his overtake.

Should be academic in any case, as Mr O is also at risk of the car in front of him suddenly going for the right turn without prior warning so ought not to be overtaking in close proximity to the junction anyway.

 

Good point, I hadn't considered that at all.

 

We are assuming a level road and clear view.
What if the Turner was over the brow of a hill, or a curve, then its a different scenario entirely.

A few years back there was a fatality on route to my place of work.
Rather than pulling out from a junction, a car left a layby in exactly the same manner.
He died instantly. Not sure who got the blame though, it was on the Wick Moor Drove in Somerset.

 

In those cases I'd hope there were solid lines in the middle of the road or that Mr Overtaker didn't overtake as he didn't have a clear view of the road ahead.


Here’s another on thought that Euans post reminded me of.

Mr House is driving along a 60 limit A road, he needs to turn right into his driveway.
He has a 2 cars behind him, he indicates, he slows down he starts to turn and the second car back has decided to overtake the two slow movers and takes his front wing off.

Is Mr House at fault for not checking both sides of the road as he pulled across?
Or is Mr Overtaker at fault?

This almost happened to my neighbour, luckily he saw the overtaking car and was able to avoid.

 

In the first instance, and assuming clear roads, dotted white lines, good visibility etc. etc., then Mr Turner should check both ways, and Mr Overtaker shouldn't be overtaking there. Personally I think the blame should lay primarily with Mr Turner, but Mr Overtaker could have avoided it.

In the second scenario it's tricky - Mr House should check behind before moving to the right, and Mr Overtaker should have seen the driveway and been anticipating a maneouvre if the traffic has slowed. Not sure how I'd morally apportion blame, possibly 50/50?

I have been in the second scenario, and I was Miss Overtaker. It wasn't a driveway, it was just a field but a car at the front of 2-3 car queue was going stupidly slowly, and I pulled out to overtake. Because I pull out, have a look, then go (square shaped), not accelerate while pulling out, I saw that the car was indicating right and the body language (which I couldn't see from the queue) showed the car was looking to move out, before I committed and I had time to abort the o/t, which I did.