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UK Motorcyclist wins filtering court case

Ever since a case back in 1966, Powell vs Moody, judges and jurors have put up to 80% of the blame on motorcyclist who have been involved in accidents with cars whilst filtering.

But now, thanks to a Cheltenham rider who has become the first to be totally cleared of blame, other bikers can now, hopefully, win their cases more easily.

An appeal court ruling in 2006, Davis v Shrogin, means that if a rider filtering through crawling or stationary traffic cannot be to blame if the rider had no chance to take avoiding action

Until February 2006, if you were riding a motorcycle and were involved in an accident whilst filtering, you were instantly accused of going too fast even though you don't have to be going fast to have an accident whilst filtering or you would have been accused of making your own lane and so therefore in the wrong, or both.

At the moment there is nothing in the Highway Code about Filtering, all you can do is read all of the rules on Overtaking and this isn't very helpful for bikers who tend to filter on a regular basis since one of the attractions of having a motorbike is to get through the traffic, quickly but safely.

If every bike rider out there was lining up at traffic lights one behind the other, and riding along the road in a single line then there would be far more traffic jams due to all the bikers sitting one behind the other in queues. Most bikers are sensible and queue up side by side or three at a time if there is room

If you are on a motorbike and you come up to queueing traffic waiting at traffic light or a road junction, surely it is better to carefully filter past and keep the queues as short as possible? However this is not how jurors and Judges have been ruling on when this sort of case comes to court.

The reason for this, as stated above, is that there is no specific guidence on filtering in the Highway code so the only things jurors and judges had to go on were the Highway Code page 38 Rule 143 which states "Do not overtake where you might come into conflict with other road users. For example approaching or at a road junction on either side of the road" and the Powell vs Moody case.

Following this ruling The Highway code needs to be amended to take into consideration motorcyclists and filtering, since filtering is taught as a fundamental skill when taking motorcycle tests.

Though this is a victory for motorcyclists as a whole, this is not a green light to filter recklessly, it is still a potentially dangerous activity if not done correctly and safely.

If you are involved in an accident when filtering (or any other time) make sure you get as many details of wittnesses as possible and write down, as soon after the incident as possible, details of the road layout, weather conditions, speed travelling, any signals (or lack of) given by vehicles involved, registration numbers, descriptions of the drivers, and insurance details of all parties involved. Generally the police will not attend a road traffic incident unless there are injuries.

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