Car accident what is your opinion?

Question

There are 2 vehicles one car is driving a little over the speed limit going south the other is in the turning lane leading in to the lane on a green light the light turns yellow one lane going south stops at the light the car turning proceeds to turn. The car going south hits the car totaling it resulting in the driver jumping from the driver seat through the passenger window

Who is at fault?

Answer 1

One of the rules of making a turn is - don't do it until its safe to proceed...It is virtually impossible to gage the speed of an approaching vehicle from a nearly head-on position, let alone what the driver's intentions are (proceed or stop)...The only way to determine if a vehicle coming at you is going to slow down is to see if the front of their vehicle gets lower from the force of the braking action...So the only prudent thing to do is to assume that the oncoming vehicle is proceeding through the intersection, even if the light has changed to yellow, until I am convinced that the vehicle is slowing down...This may result in me being honked at from behind or from cross traffic waiting for me to clear the intersection.

Without knowing the speed limit or how fast the southbound vehicle was traveling. it would seem that the vehicle making the turn is at fault for failure to yield right-of-way..

Answer 2

1.   Car going south is not required to stop for yellow light if it can clear the intersection  COMPLETELY  before the light goes red.   Did the drive admit to the speeding?

2.   Turning car failed to yield right of way to car continuing straight.    Left turns across traffic always yield unless  protected by a turn lane light.

3.   "...the driver juming from the driver seat....."      OOPS!     Looks like a seat belt violation here too.

Driver turning left is at fault,   failed to yield and may not have had a clear view of oncoming traffic.    Chose to take a chance and got caught.

Answer 3

There is a shared responsibility here. Obviously a car speeding toward a "stale" green light without being prepared to stop when the light turns yellow is not driving carefully nor defensively(two things you need to do to stay alive). However, the last person who can reasonably avoid an accident must take action to do so. This means you must always be aware of what's happening in all directions and be prepared to relinquish right-of-way for your own safety. Being "right" doesn't help if you're dead. A cop would probably cite the driver who sped through the yellow light if witnesses corroborate your story, but a civil court judge might say you were as much as 50% responsible

Answer 4

The car that proceeded through the yellow light would be a fault......