The bus has stopped, giving way to pedestrians. Does the driver of the car violate the traffic rules in this situation?

Explanation

Yes, the passenger car's driver is breaking the rules.

In the picture the bus has stopped before the pedestrian crossing — the markings on the carriageway with the crossing sign on the right — to give way to pedestrians, and the red car is passing beside it and approaching the crossing.

Two rules are broken at once. First: when a vehicle in the adjacent lane has stopped before a crossing, other drivers may continue only after making sure there is no pedestrian; in practice that means you must stop and look. Second: overtaking and passing on a pedestrian crossing is prohibited.

The safety reason speaks more clearly than the rule itself: the bus's tall body acts as a wall. The pedestrian crossing in front of the bus does not see the red car, and the red driver does not see him; they discover each other at a moment when the distance is a few metres and the car's speed has not changed. This pattern is one of the deadliest urban crashes.

Worth memorising: read every vehicle stopped before a crossing as a warning, not as an obstacle. Its message is: "someone is crossing whom you cannot see".

• The temptation is that the red driver sees no pedestrian himself and the way ahead looks clear; but that very "not seeing" is the reason for the prohibition, because his view is blocked by the bus's body.

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