The driver of the bus has made a stop to board passengers. A passenger car is moving at a speed of 70 km/h. Which vehicle driver violated the traffic rules?

Explanation

Neither; the bus's stop is not an offence and neither is the passenger car's speed of 70 km/h.

Two pieces of behaviour must be judged separately. A bus stopping to pick up passengers, when done at a permitted place and without blocking others' path of travel, is not in itself an offence; a brief halt to pick up and set down passengers is part of a bus's normal work. And a speed of 70 km/h is not an offence in itself, because whether a speed figure is an offence is always relative and depends on the limit for that stretch of road. The general limit for a passenger car outside built-up areas is 90 km/h and inside built-up areas 60 km/h. So 70 becomes an offence only if the road is inside a built-up area or a speed-restriction sign has declared a lower figure; otherwise it is entirely permitted.

The test in this class of question: ask of each driver separately, "which express prohibition has he broken?". If you find no specific prohibition for either, the answer is "neither", even if the scene looks tense. The common trap is to take the presence of a stopped bus as automatically requiring a reduction in speed.

• A bus stopping to pick up passengers at a permitted place is not prohibited; as long as it has not blocked the path of travel and has not stopped at a prohibited point, no offence is attributed to it. • 70 km/h is below the 90 km/h limit for a passenger car outside a built-up area; passing a stopped bus does not by itself lower the speed limit. • When neither piece of behaviour is prohibited on its own, their occurring together does not create an offence either.

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