What is the duty of a left turning driver to ensure the way is clear prior to executing a left turn?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Krist v Bock, 2018 BCSC 433 (CanLII):

There is a primary duty on the servient driver, the left turning driver, to ensure the way is clear prior to executing a left turn. Where an approaching vehicle is an immediate hazard the servient driver must yield in favour of that vehicle. The onus placed on the left-turning driver is not absolute however. In Brucks v. Caslavsky, 1994 CanLII 3116 (BC CA), [1994] B.C.J. No. 996, (19 April 1994) Vancouver CA016390 (C.A.) the court stated (p.8, B.C.J.): [A] driver is entitled...to assume that others will obey the rules of the road, and until the contrary becomes apparent to rely on that assumption in deciding whether or not an oncoming vehicle constitutes an "immediate hazard".

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