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You thoughts on the legality of minor in charge of a car
Before I start..the Police say they have no powers because I live in an un-adopted private road.
A neighbour’s 13 year old son and his 4-5 other mates were in our carpark starting & attempting to engage reverse (from the sound of the gears crunching) of his mother’s corsa. Another neighbour & I challenged them to be told "my mum said to start it to warm it up to make sure it started in the morning" (this at 21:30). Not entirely convinced I asked him to hand over the keys & "I’ll give them back to your mum"…refused and his ‘ned’ mates started kicking off (all 12-14).
Went inside & called plod…they turn up & ask what happened (as above) to inform me that as it’s ‘private land’ they can’t do anything.
Now, not being one to open my mouth before I’m at least FAIRLY sure of all of the facts I respond that "surely the road traffic act would apply"…apparently not. So it their eyes it’s 100% LEGAL for kids to drive / be in charge of a motor vehicle in a public place (deemed as private land to which the public have access) or for me to do 100mph in my part of the estate, operate without tax, licence or MOT.
His mum even told them "yes, I get him to start it for me and there is no way he’d drive it off" …huh! Admission of letting your kids operate a motor vehicle and sod-all happens.Now in ALL of the online references including .gov I see that even on my ‘private land’ I have to adhere to the law as it is publicly accessible. Tayside Police…c’mon…at what point CAN you guys (& girls) do something.
So now she’s all in the huff and out for revenge no doubt…she’d only just got over my complaint about her kids letting her dogs piss all over the shared (internal) stairs…which again fell flat as ‘it’s not of concern to environmental health’. Threatened me via her landlord for defamation as I couldn’t PROVE it was her dogs.
So now waiting for my car to be damaged by bottles / nails under the wheels or random projectiles…
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5 Replies
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hi David,
If the car park is accessible by the public then all laws apply that would apply on the road 100%. Try getting p1ssed put your key in the ignition, bet you would get nicked immediately. You most certainly would if it was a pub carpark, private but for use by the public!
Nigel
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Thats police for you!
As stated above if its accessible to the public then the laws of the road apply there. It might be unadopted by the Council but does not mean the law doesn’t apply. Sounds like the police just couldn’t be bothered as the mother gave her consent to it.
If he was to hit anything in it then as long as the car is covered by insurance, they have to pay out under RTA Act 1988 regardless of who is driving (including if it is nicked!) as long as the driver is identified.
And yes that does mean if your car is nicked and thief hits something, and gets arrested for it, your insurance has to pay out!!!
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From what I know….
I had a lot of land with a previous house I owned. I tort my then partners son to drive my 4×4 on it. As I owned this land it was legal for him to drive all day on it. The minute he was off that land I was liable and breaking the law. He certainly wasn’t insured on the land or off it.
There is also talk that the M6 toll (Birmingham) is a private road and you can’t be done for speeding on it. Anyone got done for speeding?
Matt
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Matty
the toll road is a public highway, so rta laws apply,
same as in a supermarket car park, if the public has access, it is different on private land, where access is restricred to the general public.Ben I am not convinced you are correct that a thief is insured to drive your car, otherwise any car would be covered for any driver! What the insurance companies do have though, is a fund that third parties can claim from when the driver is uninsured.
Peter
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Peter – Yes I used to work for them! In short the scenario I painted is correct. Insurer will pay out under RTA insurer scheme. They won’t recover it from the policyholder but they are bound to settle the claim.
Motor Insurers Bureau is fund of last resort ie – they will exploit everything to get out of paying and are backed by Gov’t so get away with it.
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