Whose at fault car accident?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Whose at fault in a car accident if one car is turning left at a street light and the oncoming car is going straight? The damage is on the passenger front hood and above tire on the left turning car. And the damage is on the front of the car going straight?

When liability is assessed whose at fault?

[disneysteve]

I would think the person turning is at fault. The person going straight has the right of way as long as they didn't run the light, weren't speeding, weren't texting, etc. The car turning has the responsibility of making sure the path is clear before moving into oncoming traffic lanes.

[HappySaver]

I was in that exact same situation about 15 years ago. I was a passenger in the car going straight. The other driver (turning left) was considered at fault. Although I wasn't too thrilled with the driver in my car speeding up to try to beat the light.

Unless the driver going straight was egregiously not paying attention/going too fast/etc, it should be the fault of the left turning car.

[rennigade]

Car turning left for sure.

[bjl584]

An insurance company may say that both cars are at fault. It won't be 50/50, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that they determine that the car turning left is 80% at fault and that the car going straight is 20% at fault.

My mom used to work for an insurance company and they do this sort of thing all the time. It's basically a way of getting out of being 100% responsible for payment. They will justify it by saying that the car going straight was going to fast or that the driver should have been more alert.

[JoeP]

I've seen the same scenario "almost" cause this kind of accident numerous times. Usually, the left turning vehicle is poised in the middle of the intersection waiting for an opening to turn, sees the light turn yellow, assumes the oncoming vehicle sees it and will stop short (when in fact he is trying to get through before the red), and tries to make it.

Other times, the left turn is getting a yellow, while oncoming still has green and possibly a protected left.

OP: What is the context of the collision?

[ua_guy]

An insurance company may say that both cars are at fault. It won't be 50/50, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that they determine that the car turning left is 80% at fault and that the car going straight is 20% at fault.

My mom used to work for an insurance company and they do this sort of thing all the time. It's basically a way of getting out of being 100% responsible for payment. They will justify it by saying that the car going straight was going to fast or that the driver should have been more alert.

The concept is Comparative Negligence, meaning both drivers could have potentially contributed to the accident and share fault. The "at-fault" laws vary by state.

LAL stated that the damage was to the front of the vehicle going straight, and to the front right corner of the vehicle turning left. This suggests a "darting" moment where the driver of the vehicle going straight had very little time to react to the driver who likely didn't see, or wasn't' paying attention to oncoming traffic when turning left.

If the damage had been on the door, the quarter panel, or right rear corner of the vehicle turning left, I'd say there's some comparative negligence there. It's indicative that the driver going straight likely saw the car, the car was stale-in, or had nearly cleared the path of travel before it was hit.

If the traffic controls favored the driver going straight, and the statements from each driver match, and the damage on both vehicles match the statements, this should be an easy claim. We'd have to know more about the facts of loss, but my gut reaction is the left-turner is 100% at fault.

The situation could be tricky if the driver going straight had her foot buried into the carpet, trying to clear a yellow light. Or, if the left-turning driver was clearing the intersection after the light turned red. Or, what if the driver going straight had a red light and the person turning left had a green arrow? Or, if the person turning left had to stop in the intersection because a cross-walker darted into their lane of travel (now the left-turner was there to be seen, and the oncoming driver should have slowed/stopped).

[humandraydel]

Car turning left for sure.

This, probably 98% of the time.