Facts
On October 1, 1984, a traffic accident occurred in Chur between Mrs. S., who was driving her passenger car towards the Ringstrasse through the Wiesentalstrasse, and Mrs. [K.], who was turning from an unnamed dead-end street leading to two houses into the Wiesentalstrasse. This resulted in a violent collision, in which both drivers were injured and the vehicles sustained significant damage.
The District Court of Chur convicted Mrs. [K.] of violating Art. 15 para. 3 of the Road Traffic Regulations (VRV) and imposed a fine of 120 Swiss francs. Her appeal against this was dismissed by the Cantonal Court of Graubünden. Mrs. [K.] then filed a nullity appeal with the Federal Supreme Court, requesting that the judgment be overturned and that she be acquitted.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. It stated that at road junctions, the vehicle coming from the right has the right of way (Art. 36 para. 2 of the Swiss Road Traffic Act (SVG)). Junctions are intersections, forks, or mergers of carriageways, but not the meeting of bicycle or field paths, garage, parking lot, factory, or yard exits with the carriageway (Art. 1 para. 8 VRV).
For cases where there is no signage of an exception to the rule of Art. 36 para. 2 SVG and a classification of the road under one of the examples mentioned in Art. 1 para. 8 VRV is not clearly given, the Federal Supreme Court has based its decision on the traffic significance. It decided that small streets that are only open to certain persons or serve as dead-end streets for a few houses have such a subordinate significance when…