VALENTINE (NEE HUMPHRIES) v GOVERNMENT INSURANCE OFFICE OF NEW SOUTH WALES [1991] NSWCA 273

VALENTINE (NEE HUMPHRIES) v GOVERNMENT INSURANCE OFFICE OF NEW SOUTH WALES

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

PRIESTLEY, CLARKE JJA and Hope AJA 17 July 1991, 17 July 1991 [1991] NSWCA 273

NEGLIGENCE — liability — car has green light at T-junction pedestrian steps off median strip next to pedestrian crossing at lights in front of car — evidence considered as to whether plaintiff stationary on median strip before stepping off — no demonstrable error by judge in findings of fact.

Priestley JA A pedestrian who was struck and injured by a car brought proceedings for damages against the Government Insurance Office in the District Court. Judge Davidson dismissed her claim. She has appealed to this court.

There were four witnesses in the case; the plaintiff pedestrian, the driver, an eyewitness to the accident, and the attendant policeman. There is very little disagreement about most of the facts. I will first mention those not in dispute.

The accident happened in September 1984.

The plaintiff and her sister wanted to cross Hunter Street, Newcastle, which runs east and west, from its north to its south side, on the east side of the T junction made with it by Auckland Street at its south alignment. Traffic lights were operating at the intersection. There was a marked pedestrian crossing running north and south across Hunter Street immediately to the east of the intersection. A median strip, shown in a photograph in evidence, ran along the middle of Hunter Street approaching the T junction from the east. It came to an end about a metre before the marked pedestrian crossing.

The plaintiff said she and her sister crossed the part of Hunter Street along which the eastbound traffic travelled, against a "Don't Walk" sign which the traffic lights were showing. She said in cross-examination another woman was also crossing the road, just to the side of the plaintiff and her sister and a little bit to the front. The plaintiff and her sister crossed the middle of Hunter Street into the northernmost lane of traffic travelling west. In that lane they were hit by a car, travelling west towards the traffic lights on the eastern side of the T junction. Those lights were showing green to the driver. The lights facing the plaintiff and her sister as they stepped into the lane in which the accident happened were showing "Don't Walk".