Have you ever wondered whether a learner driver would be responsible for the damage to a supervisor’s vehicle, or vice versa?
A learner’s duty of care
In Imbree v McNeilly [2008] HCA 40, an inexperienced driver caused an accident that severely injured the supervisor. The key question was surrounding the standard of care owed by a learner driver to other parties, including the supervisor.
The learner argued that the standard of care owed to the supervisor should be less than what a normal driver should owe because the supervisor was aware of the learner’s inexperience. The High Court of Australia found in favour of the supervisor stating that the standard of care that the learner owed to the supervisor was that of a ‘reasonable driver’, and not attenuated despite the supervisor being aware of the learner’s inexperience.
A supervisor’s duty to their learner
But do supervisors owe a duty of care to a learner driver? All States have different legislation regarding the requirement of learner drivers and what is expected of supervisors. The language used can vary the standard of care expected of supervisors, and could ultimately determine whether a duty of care was breached.
For example, the Road Traffic Act 1974 (WA) makes several references to ‘providing driving instruction[s]’ to learner drivers; the Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Regulation 2000 (ACT) makes it illegal for learners to drive without a ‘supervisor’; and the Road Safety Act 1986 (Vic) states that a ‘supervising driver’ is a person sitting next to a learner to enable them to drive. Discerning what duties a supervisor owes to a learner can be rather confusing. Thornton v Sweeney [2011] NSWCA 244 attempted to tackle this question.
The New South Wales Court of Appeal stated that supervisors, at a minimum have a duty to ‘supervise’ the learner driver. The standard of care, to be differentiated with professional instructors, were that of a ‘voluntary supervisor’ which is a relatively low standard, considering that a ‘voluntary supervisor’ does not have professional experience in supervising new drivers, and do not have much control over the vehicle, such as dual control pedals.
So, what does this tell us?
When analysing this rather niche set of circumstances, bear in mind:
- Learner drivers owe everyone on the road a duty to be a ‘reasonable driver’, no matter their inexperience;
- Supervisors, most likely, do owe a duty to take care of the learner, however, if it was a sudden collision or one that could not have been reasonably prevented by the supervisor, then it likely may not constitute a breach of the duty of care.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specific advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
