Who is at fault for this car accident?

by Chris

I was on inside lane of 2 lane (each direction) road, traveling at a speed of 30 mph. It was afternoon and raining.

I was between intersections,traveling in the inside lane. The road at this juncture has a double yellow line (no passing and no turns) and 30mph zone.

The other car is oncoming and without any notice, suddenly veers out from his lane of traffic, crossing the double yellow lines and into my lane. At this point he is approximately 50 feet in front of me. He was making a U-turn from his lane because traffic in his lane was stalled.

To avoid a collision with his vehicle, I took evasive action and steered to my right but impacted the curb and sustained some damage to my vehicle.

I called the police but the other party did not want to wait for the police to arrive, gave me his personal info and departed the scene.

His insurance company has so far not accepted liability. I am using my collision coverage but I have a $1,000. deductible and out of pockets for a rental.

I will appreciate hearing your comments and thank you in advance.


Answer:

Hi Chris,

I am sorry to hear about your accident. Every one driving a vehicle has several duties. They have a duty to obey the speed laws, duty lookout, and a duty to avoid an accident.

You were in full compliance of the above duties. As a driver you tried to avoid the collision by going to your side. The damages caused are responsibility of the person that made you take this action. "But for" this driver making this illegal U turn, you would not have to go to your side.

Insurance companies take sometime to determine liability if there are disputed facts. This happens often, as you can imagine. They also take sometime when they believe there might be some liability or fault in someone more than one driver.

In a situation like yours, the insurance adjuster will probably want to see that you evasive action was not "excessive."

In other words, your improper reaction was another "cause" of the accident. You can always look up the terms "sudden emergency doctrine" to defend some accusation like that.

also visit http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com/Fault-for-the-Accident.html for more info about fault and liability.

Good Luck