Two Car Collision When Both Were Changing Lanes

[chrmjenkins]

My question involves a traffic accident in the State of: California.

First of all, Car A (me) just moved to california and has california insurance, but not plates and registration yet.

Car A was stuck in a traffic lane behind an illegally parked car. Signal was on, lane appeared to be clear, and collision with Car B then occurred, which was apparently changing into the same lane.

Car B was traveling normal road speed if not more, and Car A was just pulling away. It is not clear if Car B's signal was on or not. Car B suffered damage to passenger's side door and rear quarter panel. Car A suffered damage to left front quarter-panel and scraping on bumper.

I cannot say the exact position of car B in said lane because it was not there when I looked in the rear view mirror. From what I can tell, we collided mid-lane, meaning neither had completed their merge into the lane. Car A had to make a sharp turn to get into lane to get out from behind parked car, and did not strike Car B as it was just entering lane, and thus sustaining primarily fender damage. Majority of Car A damage is to quarter-panel.

I have already filed claim with my insurance, and the other party has called my insurance but not contacted their own. It appears as if they want to assume no fault in the manner and avoid filing a claim with their own insurance. Car B had no passengers, while Car A had two. Neither saw the car in the lane Car A was passing into (although neither were looking).

No injuries were sustained, and the cops were called but said they would not come because no injuries were involved (is that what they are supposed to do?).

Need to know if Car A will be found completely at fault, and if not, what must be done in order to ensure Car B's insurer is involved and Car A does not receive accusation of full fault.

Thank you.

[cdwjava]

No injuries were sustained, and the cops were called but said they would not come because no injuries were involved (is that what they are supposed to do?).

In CA law enforcement is only required to respond on injury or fatal collisions. Agencies are free to decide for themselves if they want to respond to "property damage only" collisions. With declining budgets and resources, more agencies are refusing to respond to non-injury collisions.

At this point, leave it to your insurance company - it is in their hands, now. Chances are good that there will be some measure of shared liability for the collision if the facts are as you say ... but, very often the party striking to the rearward of another vehicle is going to get the lion's share. So, if I had to guess, I'd say either 50-50, or 75-25 with you getting blame for the 75.

But, I'm just guessing.

- Carl

[chrmjenkins]

Luckily, I checked again, and did indeed find some driver side door damage. This tipped the balance for my insurance, and they are considering it 50/50 fault, which means nothing on the record for me, plus no premium hike.

Thank you for answering quickly and honestly!

BTW I love your sig. Such a great and quotable man.

[cdwjava]

Luckily, I checked again, and did indeed find some driver side door damage. This tipped the balance for my insurance, and they are considering it 50/50 fault, which means nothing on the record for me, plus no premium hike.

You might be thankful for no police report, because they might have found otherwise, and that would have applied a point to your license thus raising your insurance. In CA law enforcement can only assign fault to one party ... though an insurance company is not obligated to adhere to that assignation of fault.

BTW I love your sig. Such a great and quotable man.

Yes he is. Thanks!

- Carl