Problem Question - Tort

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Joe took his 5 year old car in for its MOT test, and it passed. The tester failed to notice that the steering mechanism was defective. Two days after the test, Joe was driving along a country lane when the steering failed and he crashed into a tree just past the crest of a long hill. The local authority had previously considered placing a SLOW marking near the crest of the hill because of previous accidents at that spot, but no action was taken due to other priorities. Joe was shaken up and his left arm was broken. He exited the vehicle, which was still occupying about half of the left side of the road. Five minutes later Fred, who was driving a lorry at excessive speed, failed to see Joe’s car as he came over the hill until just before he came upon it, and when he swerved to avoid it he lost control of his lorry and crashed into the oncoming car being driven by Sam, who was killed instantly. Discuss the liability of all parties. MOT Centre The MOT centre’s responsibilities are to check the car for defects and roadworthiness. In this scenario, existence of duty has been established whereby the MOT centre has a duty towards Joe to check his vehicle for any defects and ensure that the vehicle is roadworthy. This duty was breached by the tester at the MOT centre as he failed to identify the defect in the steering mechanism; the tester had not worked in accordance with what the ‘reasonable man’ would do. Had the tester performed his duty, thoroughly examined the car and identified the defect, the problem could have been either fixed. According to the MOT guide 6th Edition, if the car has unsolvable serious defects, it should be prohibited from being on the road until fixed. If the defects are not critical but its road worthiness is slightly risky, the driver should be notified of this and given a notice explaining the risks of driving with the car’s condition.

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