Facts
On 13 December 1991, H. was driving his vehicle on the Zoug road, coming from the highway, with the intention of turning left towards Küssnacht am Rigi. At the same time, X. was driving his vehicle on the Zoug road in the direction of Risch. The two vehicles were involved in a serious collision on the Küssnacht-Risch road.
The single judge of the Küssnacht district court convicted H. for failure to yield under Article 36, paragraphs 2 and 4, in relation to Article 90, paragraph 1, of the Road Traffic Act (RTA) and fined him 350 Swiss francs. The cantonal court of the canton of Schwyz dismissed the appeal against this decision.
H. filed a nullity appeal with the Federal Court, requesting the annulment of the contested decision and the referral of the case to the lower authority to order a technical expert opinion on the speed at which X. was driving his vehicle and to acquit H. of any fault and penalty.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined the nullity appeal and considered that the principle of trust in road traffic allows each road user to assume that other users will behave in accordance with the law, unless particular circumstances prevent this.
The Federal Court also considered that the debtor of the priority can invoke the principle of trust if the beneficiary of the priority violates the traffic rules in an unpredictable manner for him. In this case, the Federal Court estimated that the cantonal court had committed a vicious circle by refusing H. the benefit of the principle of trust on the grounds that he had not respected the traffic rules, whereas the question of whether H. had violated the traffic rules depended precisely on the possibility…