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Accident After Turning Left on an Intersection

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  • 02-11-2010, 01:32 AM
    dezide
    Accident After Turning Left on an Intersection
    My question involves a traffic accident in the State of: New Jersey

    It is already dark, no rain/snow. I am approaching an intersection. I am planning to take a left turn. I have my blinkers on already while waiting for the left turn signal. The traffic is heavy and is moving at around 20 mph. I was on the 2nd lane to the left, there is 1 lane on my left that will also do a left turn. The other car is on that lane (left most lane) slightly ahead of me. There is some 15 to 20 cars in front of me.

    The left turn signal turned green, the vehicles from the first two lanes from the left already started to make the left turn. As I approached the intersection, the left turn signal turned yellow and based on my estimates, I will be blocking the traffic flow from other directions if I stopped right there, so I continued making the left turn. The yellow line on the intersection is not clear and this intersection is like a distorted 4 way intersection so it is hard to determine.

    Traffic is also present on the other corner after making a left turn. The other end of the left turn is a two lane only. I was taking the right lane, the other car was taking the left lane.

    When I came to the corner after the left turn, that car from my left suddenly changed lane to my lane hitting my car and giving it a scratch starting from my driver's door down to the next door. It just missed about 1 inch from my front left quarter panel. No dents and most of the scratch were removed by just rubbing. But a very small portion needs to be repainted.

    We had a few discussion. She said that she thought she was the last one to cross the intersection so she decided to make the lane change. Her van was also scratched near the passenger side/headlight section. She was driving a relatively higher vehicle than mine. And it is possible that she might not have noticed my car on her right side. No injuries happened, just scratches on each car. Our vehicles were moving slow I am really surprised she had hit me.

    One of the traffic police came immediately at the scene, I thought that he was onto the accident. But he issued me a ticket for disregarding traffic signals. He said that I should have stopped at the intersection. The other driver keeps on insisting that it was not her fault that because I made a traffic violation and she thought that she was the last one and made a lane change because she "thought" that no one was there and assumed that it is safe to swerve to the right. Probably, she was swerving to the right because the traffic there moves faster. I was at that lane and my car was already ahead of her car when she hit me.

    Now, is it my fault that the other car hit my car? I am aware that upon entering the intersection, the light might have turned red and it may appear to the police officer that I indeed beat the red light.

    I think these two incidents are separate. She cannot just safely conclude that it is my fault. We already reached the other end of the turn when she had hit me.

    We just exchanged contact numbers and no police report.

    I just want to learn more about this case that happened to me a few months ago. Any technical points that you guys can provide is very appreciated.

    Thank you for reading.
  • 02-12-2010, 03:02 PM
    Sentinel
    Re: Accident After Turning Left on an Intersection
    You can't just assume things when driving, you have to check, so her excuse that she "thought" no one was there is not valid. Whenever you change lanes you need to verify that no one is there, end of story. It's just like rear ending someone, they're breaking a traffic law doesn't excuse you from being responsible. Unless you have the right-away (such as having a green light), hitting someone is your fault regardless of what traffic laws they may have broken, with only rare exceptions.

    As to whether or not you can get out of the ticket for failure to obey a traffic signal, I think your only chance would be to maintain that you had reasonable cause to believe you could exit the intersection in a timely manner. If you entered the intersection before the light turned yellow, and were able to clear the intersection within a second or two of it turning red, you should be able to fight it. If you weren't able to exit the intersection in a timely manner because cars were in front of you, then it's going to be your fault. You shouldn't enter an intersection when the street your attempting to turn onto is full.
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