Veyt v Stevenson & Anor [2015] QDC 084 Jones DCJ 21/04/2015
A bicycle, a tip truck, a utility and a motorcycle were proceeding in line, south along a flat straight stretch of Jacobs Well-Stapylton Road in April 2011.
The ute was the first to overtake the tipper.
Gilbert Veyt moved his motorbike across the centre line to get a view of what was ahead.
Judging the way in front clear, he accelerated to overtake but once alongside, the truck also moved sharply across in the same direction, for reasons unknown to the rider, to provide a safe distance between it and the bicycle on the left verge that the tipper was then overtaking.
Smith v Moore & Anor [2014] QDC 273 Ryrie DCJ 03/12/2014
In May 2011, a bicycle rider who was sprung from his cleats and thrown over his handlebars to bounce once before landing on his back in Boundary Street West End was fortunate not to have been struck by other vehicles while writhing on the roadway.
Andrew Moore had pulled into a parking space and a moment earlier opened his driver’s door into which triathlete Aaron Smith collided. He was ambulanced to the Mater hospital for surgery to his left hand where he remained for four days.
Smith was a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer engaged in the modification of an Airbus A330 into a RAAF air-to-air refueller.
Curtis v Harden Shire Council [2014] NSWCA 314
Bathurst CJ Beazley P Basten JA 10/09/2014
The husband of a driver killed in an August 2004 country road single vehicle accident has sued the local council for failing to erect signage warning of the loose gravel associated with road works.
Debbie Paterson died from head injuries received when her out of control Commodore slid off the road and hit a tree in August 2004 near Kingsvale, south of Young in southern New South Wales.
Nominal Defendant v Bacon [2014] NSWCA 275
McColl JA Macfarlan JA Ward JA 21/08/2014
Corrugations formed by frequent traffic on unsealed roads are a part of daily life in rural Australia.
The agriculturally rich Liverpool Plains between Tamworth and Gunnedah is crisscrossed by such roads on which locals accommodate the corrugations – where safety permits – by driving in the centre on what is colloquially known as the “beaten track”.
In the late afternoon of an August 2008 Friday, Natalie Bacon was driving west from her parents’ home in Breeza in her Ford Fiesta, towards Gunnedah, along The Old Dip Road.