Say a person was involved in a mild road traffic accident, with no notable injuries ..."
August is National Motorway MonthDo try to contain your excitement...... "More than a quarter of motorists (26 per cent) are 'an accident waiting to happen' because they drive too close to the vehicle in front on motorways, according...
Were there any injuries at all? If there were did they exchange insurance details at the time. Failure to do so would mean that the accident needed to be reported to the police as soon as practicable and in any within 24 hours. If there were no injuries the drivers still need to exchange the names and addresses of the driver and the owner of the vehicle as well as the registration mark.
"In essence, the provisional driver was turning right at a traffic-light controlled junction, after checking the oncoming traffic lane was clear to allow time for her to complete the manoeuvre, he-she was then struck by an oncoming vehicle as he-she almost completed the turn out of the lane. At no time did he-she stall while driving, and sight distance for the oncoming vehicle was approx 50m in a 30mph zone. Although the junction was wide enough for any oncoming vehicles to swerve past, unfortunately this was not the case. It is not apparent if the oncoming vehicle was travelling in excess of the speed limit, or had moved from another lane of oncoming traffic (turning right rather than straight on), but the struck vehicle clearly did not intend to 'cut up' as could have stayed in the turning right lane until the lane was clear."
The provisional driver is likely to be held to blame in the above circumstances
"1) Fault apart, is the provisional driver covered by insurance despite effectively having broken the law by driving unsupervised (apparently there are mitigating circumstances for this to have happened)"
Driving whilst not in accordance with a licence is an absolute offence in that there is no defence in law. Mitigating factors may be taken into account for sentencing. Every insurance certificate I have ever seen states 'providing the driver-policyholder holds a licence for driving such a vehicle and is not disqualified from driving' or similar. He-She is not insured.
"3) Do the specifics of the accident, and likely judgement-outcome, have any fault-settlement-blame affect the provisional driver's right to cover? That is, if the other driver was obviously at fault, would it be a different case than one that seems to be a shared liability?"
No
"4) Has the provisional driver effectively foregone any legal right to compensation or insurance claim by driving unsupervised? After all, there were mitigating circumstances and this was not some 17 year old tearaway driving with no licence, no insurance, no ownership of the car. Facts are it was they own the car, have insurance, they are one week away from a test, have had excellent driving lessons, many hours of supervised practice driving and it's more of case of ill fortune than obvious negligence."
They will probably struggle with any claim in a civil court.
"5) What course of action should the provisional driver take regarding the police (would it be prudent to advise the police and effectively open up to prosecution?) and although insurance company has been notified, haven't yet decided to lodge a claim until they seek legal advice & representation."
If there were injuries and insurance details as well as name and address of driver, name and address of the owner of the vehicle and the vehicles registration mark were not exchanged at the time then the accident needed to be reported to the police (in person) as soon as practicable and in any case within 24 hours. Even though attending a police station to report this after the 24 hours have elapsed would result in the driver being reported for failing to report an accident (and of course the other offences) there is still a legal requirement to report this accident.
