Unprotected towbars

I understand that if a towbar is removeable then it is illegal to have it attached when not in use so I imagine if someone were injured by it you would be on shakey groung legally.

OBT

Legally I reckon your goooooone. I know of a lady who tripped in a car park and fell dead smack on the towbar and smashed her face up extremely bad requiring plastic surgery. broken eye socket etc. She could have sued I reckon on two grounds. firstly the ground in the car park has broken away causing her to trip in the first place, then she could have sued the owner of the wagon as she hit her head/eye on the tow ball. I reckon they were extremely lucky as she is an elderly lady and from the old school so not into suing everybody for things. I doubt the woman or bloke who owned the wagon even new of what happened. She was helped up by passer bys and an ambulance called and taken away to hospital, no one even thought of getting number plate of wagon etc, her kids were telling her to sue the car park owner but she never bothered. I reckon the owner of the wagon was extremely lucky. The prado is not so bad as my spare wheel on the back door is level with the tow ball so you would have to bang your self on the rear wheel cover first. If it was protruding too much then I would remove it but its not so its stop people who cant drive from tapping the rear bar of my prado, and has been tapped a couple of times. But where do you draw the line ?? What about bullbars ?? side steps, rear step bars like on the hiluxs incorperating the towbar ?? Regards Steve M

I have walked into both towbars and those horribly dangerour pushbike carriers. The tow bars have been mainly my fault as they dont stick out much. But the bike carrier was whwn I was talking to my grand son and just didn't look up. I suppose you could say its my fault also. So be it.

Wouldn't it be nice if the owners considered others and removed or folded them down. I think so. Our hitch is always removed and stashed in the car. A 5 second job.

Or isn't courtesy in peoples vocabulary. Who cares about the legality of it. Take it off.

Regarding the legality issue I would call the RTA and ask them. But then we wouldn't have anything on this forum to chat about would we.

Phil

There is probably a market for slip over soft covers ( in safety orange ) for towbars.

I doubt if a successful case could be mounted for injuries as here in Australia the legal system is not yet totally insane.

I know its not "Phriday" or even "Friday"... but here goes...

Q. Whats the difference between a rotweiler and a lawyer?






A. The rotweiler eventually lets go......


regards

Hmm, Thats what your shin is for, to let you know you are to close to the vehicle.
Another hazard is tradies utes/vans that have ladders, timber, piping and other over size objects on their roof racks. that protrude more than 1.2M. Got no idea how many times I've hit my melon on timber poking out the front of a ute that is nose in parked while walking along the foot path.
Being a chippie, I still get caught with one of the buggers, guess thats why I've got a head like a busted crab :)

In NSW their is an act called Civil Liabilities act which states that you cannot sue for an obviuos risk.
ie is a normal person called have seen the pot hole but you didn't than it is your fault.
In my opinion if everyone leaves their tall ball on their car than it could be expected that you do not walk within a foot of that vehicle.
A duty of care may not be as high for an individual than say a corporation.

it would be different if the injury was a workers compensation claim

Regards

Honky

If you have the time to read this post

it covers most of the assumptions



http://www.caravanersforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9608

Anybody close enough to the vehicle to injure themselves on a towbar, deserves what they get .....

The problem is simply solved by keeping a reasonable distance from other peoples property.

Hopefully some of the injured ones were foiled by the injury and didnt pinch the spare tyre cover ..... LOL

Isnt all this covered by the ADR's relating to towbar manufacturers and fitment to vehicles?

I found that by having the huge Trigg hitch on my cruiser on a tongue that was long enough to clear the rear wheel carrier then no one hit me whilst parking anymore.
While the vehicle was having it's 6 monthly pit inspection (public passenger vehicle NSW) the inspector hit his knee on it, looked at me and said nothing. I normally used to take it off for the HVIS inspection but forgot.

So I doubt that there is a reg in NSW for it. They did try to fail me once because the rear mudflaps were half and inch too short....they were factory...I won that arguement too eventually.

Cheers
Dave

If your quick enough, reverse over them before they get to complain. Its probably cheaper and easier to get out of!

Hey all,

I guess we could all just try and look where we are walking?

Cheers.

I have always wondered if someone walked into my towbar and broke it???? I will now consult a solicitor. Also I don't believe that we have lawyers in Australia only solicitors (that don't solicit), barristers and Queens Councils.
Also how would you get on if you were hit by one of those "Goffers"? Was almost wiped off by one. The old chap in it got rather upset when I threatened to turn his goffer over with him in it.
Nice bloke ain't I?

Warren .
are you saying you don,t have a duty of care for your own safety .
next time you might be a bit more vigilant .
what happens when you bump into something around you own place
who are you going to sue .
mechpete