14 responses to “Who is at fault in a left-turn collision?”

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  cory March 20th, 2009 at 18:17

  what if you made left turn when light turns red and other driver run through red light?

  –ed note: If the left turner is already in the intersection (i.e. they entered the intersection legally, on the green) — then the opposing traffic runs the red and collides, they would be at fault.

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  Jim April 13th, 2009 at 09:27

  I just went to traffic school, where I was taught that even if you have a green arrow to make a left turn, and opposing traffic runs a red light and hits you, then you would be at fault. When you are making a left turn, you must be sure it is safe to do so. Basically, anyone turning left get be at fault in this state.

  – ed note: perhaps your instructor is speaking from a practicality sense, that is to say, the left turner is always going to be presumed negligent. At a traffic signal, the usual case is that the left turner is probably going to think/say the signal was red, the opposing driver is going to think/say he had the green…. obviously both can’t be right. And eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable.
  I get to speak in hypotheticals and certainties: the driver running the red is at fault. Red-light cameras do provide (near) certainty; see e.g. the Shugrue / Ruiz incident. Ruiz (the left turner) believed the light was red…Shugure (the opposing traffic) claimed he had a green, the camera supported Shugrue.

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  John Brooks June 15th, 2009 at 00:07

  If someone is making a left hand turn. And seems deemed that the traffic on the oncoming is way back and safe to do so, and a driver comes on at 109, miles per hour, and hits the driver making the left turn, on the bed of his pick up, whos fault is it then. Is it the driver driving at an excessive speed in a 45 mpr zone our the left turn driver, judging the oncoming at a normal speed of 45. The driver making the left turn judged the oncoming so far back, that he did not think one of the oncoming was Going 109 and hit him. John reply would be great.. Thanks

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  KIM ODEN September 11th, 2009 at 13:46

  In May or 2008 I was in an accident which I had the green arrow making a left hand turn. The young man that hit me was cited and my car was totalled. I did not see this young man coming and midway thru my turn is when I got hit. I called several lawyers regarding the injuries I received during this accident. No lawyer would take my case. I was told that in the state of AZ it is hard to win a case with a left and turn with a green arrow. Even when I explained that my witness was an off duty officer and that the young man was cited no lawyer would take my case. The reason I was told was because of AZ law that because I had the green arrow it was still my responsibility to make sure it was clear to take the left hand turn. I was so upset because I knew for a fact I was not at fault that there was no way for me to see after being half way into the turn an on coming car. There was a paralegal that listen to me and he promised me that he would call me back in a few days. This young man went to the board regarding my case over his bosses head. After the review of the police report they decided to take my case and I won. If I didn’t have an officer of the law that witnessed the accident that I was in I would be up to my neck in medical bills. Red means stop I was taught as a child and green means go. I’m sure if one can avoid being hit that person would. Why would anyone put themselves in harms way even if they had the green. Many times it too late to avoid a collision yet the person that had the green can be considered at fault in the state of AZ.

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  Ben October 5th, 2009 at 21:30

  I was there before the first responders. I had to pick my bicycle up to avoid all the debris. The car was completely under the bus. People said he was doing 90 mph. How can you judge someone doing 90mph on a left turn with a bus? Who knows.

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  Lynn April 30th, 2010 at 06:13

  I was making a left turn on a green light with no arrows I was doing less than 20mph I looked and no one was coming I proceeded to make the turn and I was hit by a speeding car. Witness told the police there was no way I could have possibly seen her (teenager) she came out of nowhere. My SUV was totaled although she claims she was only doing 35 miles per hour. The two towing places that handled my CRV said there is no way she could have done the damage she did doing 35 mph. I was cited and I am at a loss, I am 55 never had a ticket in all my years of driving, I am so cautious, still can’t sort it out. Am I fighting a losing battle here? I called an attorney and he told me any time you are making a left it is your fault even if that vehicle hits you, this just does not seem right. Thank you Lynn

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  Milt July 15th, 2010 at 14:03

  If a driver is on the right side of another driver at a 4 way stop, and is on the right side (has the right of way), does the fact that they are turning left negate their right of way? It seems to me that if I have the right of way, I may still go left. Everything I have read only addresses ONCOMING traffic. I am asking about if the car is to my left.

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  azbikelaw November 30th, 2010 at 12:41

  This is pretty interesting; it only applies directly to Massachusetts, something called the Safe Driver Insurance Plan (SDIP), but has some good general guidelines.
  
  211 CMR 74.00: Standards of Fault to be Used by the Board of Appeal on Motor Vehicle Liability

  (15) Collision While Making a Left Turn or U-Turn Across the Travel Path of a Vehicle Traveling in the Same or Opposite Direction. The operator of a vehicle subject to the Safe Driver Insurance Plan shall be presumed to be more than 50% at fault when operating a vehicle making a left turn or U-turn across the path of travel of another vehicle moving: 1. in the same direction, or 2. in the opposite direction, and whose vehicle is in a collision with such vehicle.

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  justina October 11th, 2011 at 16:50

  Robert is my dad and i belive he dident cause it because my dad hit the passenger side and when travis hit him secondly thats who made him flip.

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  Left on Red December 7th, 2011 at 14:34

  I was recently in an accident with a city bus in Arizona. There is video evidence that shows the bus about 20 feet back from the intersection when the light turns yellow (moving approximately 25 mph), it proceeds into the intersection on the yellow and begins to make a turn when the light turns red. I am coming from the opposite side of the intersection, going straight. I do no quite cross the intersection line when the light turns red (going about 35 mph) and as I enter the intersection the front right side of the bus collides with the front left side of my car. The police report puts the bus at fault, but the bus’s insurance company sees it differently. Who is at fault here?

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  azbikelaw February 3rd, 2012 at 20:05

  ON THE TOPIC OF RED-LIGHT RUNNERS colliding with left-turners

  Smith v. Johnson involves a left turn at a NON-SIGNALIZED intersection, there was some “waving on” and also other vehicles that blocked the left-turner’s line-of-sight. In other words, he was negligent.

  In Smith, “it was impossible for him (the left-turner) to determine whether his path was clear. In other words, he admitted making a blind turn across traffic”…

  “It is the prevailing rule, recognized in Arizona, that a breach of a statute intended as a safety regulation is not merely evidence of negligence but is negligence per se. Orlando v. Northcutt, 103 Ariz. 298, 300, 441 P.2d 58, 60 (1968); W. Prosser, Handbook of the Law of Torts ? 36 at 197-200 (4th ed. 1971)” Brannigan v. Raybuck,136 Ariz. 513, 517, 667 P.2d 213, 217 (1983).

  So any red-light runner would also be in breach of a statute. So the negligence would be shared between the runner and the turner.

  In the Arizona Attorney General’s Opinion No. 58-82, the question of what constitutes an immediate hazard are supposedly answered. The issue of signalized intersections isn’t mentioned there, either. They point out, rather unhelpfully that “the instruction to the jury on this question would in every case differ according to the facts of that case”

  Interesting historical footnote, the version of 28-772 from the time of that opinion (1958) used to be longer, the last 40 or 50 words have since been lopped off.

  —

  here’s some more possibly juicy stuff from Smith though this relates more to “failure to control” 28-701 cases:
  “In similar situations, courts have held that an unsighted driver cannot proceed while exercising due care. See Coe v. Hough, 42 Ariz. 293, 303-04, 25 P.2d 547, 550 (1933) (‘If an autoist cannot see where he is going he should stop. If his vision is limited he should have such control of his car as to be able to stop within the radius of his vision. If he violates these reasonable and sane rules and runs into someone who is at the time exercising reasonable care, he is, we think, guilty of legal negligence.’);”

  In which they refer to this as the rule laid down in Dennis v. Stukey, 37 Ariz. 299, 294 P. 276; that is a driver must be able to stop within the radius of his vision.

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  azbikelaw February 3rd, 2012 at 20:33

  Some of this, of course, may only be applicable in Canada or Ontario even…

  ERIC LAI SPECIAL TO THE STAR
  Eric Lai answers your automotive questions every week for Wheels.

  Q: My car was hit by an oncoming motor vehicle that broke a red light, while I was turning left. That was three years ago. Can you guide me in the right direction to resolve my dispute with the insurance company?

  A: To oversimplify a complex issue, when a left-turn vehicle and straight-ahead vehicle collide, police can lay a charge against the turning driver who always has the onus to ensure the movement is done in safety.

  If a straight-ahead driver runs a red light, they may also face charges. The difficulty here is that police require independent witnesses to establish that the light was red (as both drivers will likely differ on this point), whereas the relative position of the vehicles alone is sufficient to determine that the left-turn driver made a turn and, since a collision resulted, it was therefore not done in safety.

  Police will often charge just one party as they’ll likely need the other to appear as a witness to prove the case. However, Toronto Police Sgt. Tim Burrows advises he’d charge both drivers in a serious collision, or at least consult with the crown prosecutor before making this determination.

  Toronto insurance litigation lawyer Gregory Chang (www.bcbarristers.com) adds:… Usually, both drivers are held to be partially responsible and what differs from case to case is the degree of culpability assigned to each driver.

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  Left On Yellow turning Red February 15th, 2012 at 00:25

  I was making a left turn on a yellow light and a car decided it can make the yellow light. I stopped with my nose slightly in the middle of the lane. The oncoming car slammed her brakes, swerved and hit me. Who is at fault here? Would it go 50/50 on our insurance?

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  Markeya March 12th, 2012 at 22:26

  i was making a left turn within my apartment complex( i had the right-a-way in this case… the way my apartments are set up), while in the process i was hit by another driver that was making a right turn and drove up to far into his turn. insurance company claims i’m at fault. Do the same rules apply inside an apartment complex(private property) as they do on the street? i was told by a police officers that they don’t come out to private property accidents because the same law don’t apply… but the insurance claims are saying the law applies on private property as well.

2 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

• 

  Update on Van Brakel’s manslaughter sentance @ Arizona Bike Law Blog July 27th, 2011 at 10:51

  [...] is an update to the who-is-at-fault-in-a-left-turn-collision story from 2007 where former state representative Cal Holman was killed while making a left turn [...]

• 

  Update on Van Brakel’s manslaughter sentence @ Arizona Bike Law Blog July 27th, 2011 at 11:17

  [...] is an update to the who-is-at-fault-in-a-left-turn-collision story from 2007 where former state representative Cal Holman was killed while making a left turn [...]