Got into an accident driving on the direction without stop signs and T-boned someone who came from a side with a stop sign. Is the other side entirely at fault? Or will my insurance find some way to make me partially at fault?
Dashcam footage: https://imgur.com/a/Z7Jqmw6
Four way intersection with two stop signs, who is at fault?
byu/lolyeesy inInsurance
Posted by lolyeesy
8 Comments
Seems like at the very least, the person who ran the stop sign will be mostly at fault.
Looks like shared responsibility. Is that footage sped up because it looks like you are driving quickly, and took 0 evasive action.
I’m no expert, but based on the dashcam footage I’d estimate you were going about 50mph. If that is significantly over the speed limit on that road, I imagine you could be deemed partially at fault.
Couldn’t make out when the school zone speed limit applies. What’s the speed limit outside school zone hours?
Your own insurance company should not be going out of their way to find fault on you. The insurance for the blue car – now that’s another story. It’s their job to try to mitigate the fault for their own driver.
From what it looks like to me, the blue car was stopped as you approached them? If that’s the case, then you had no reason to expect them to then move forward and enter the intersection since they didn’t have the right of way.
Didn’t look like to me that you had much time to react as they waited until you were almost upon the intersection before pulling out. Your insurer will likely find you very little at fault, if any at all.
I don’t see you having any fault at all. The other driver didn’t even stop for the stop sign, just came right through.
But if you are getting grief from his insurance, use your collision coverage and let your company people deal with getting your deductible back.
Maybe you’ll get lucky and your carrier won’t find any on you. But once I sort out it’s 25 mph zone and there’s no slowing or evasive action taken, even as your adjuster, I’m asking more questions. If I’m the other carrier? I’m putting comparative negligence on you. You’re not proximate, but this is a crash that’s a great example of last chance doctrine.
I had a loss like this years ago. I did hours of research into 25 mph zones – the entire reason they exist and why civil engineers in heavily residential areas use 25 versus 30 mph is that it greatly decreases pedestrian fatalities and serious accidents. Why? Because it’s easy to slow, stop, and/or maneuver any car at that speed if you’re paying attention.
I’ll bet the other driver is gonna say “they came out of no where! They had to be speeding!” And I don’t think the video disproves that.
ETA: OP admits to be going at least 28 mph before the crash, in a 25 mph zone. That added at least 12 more feet of stopping and up to another full second to come to a complete stop. Video shows just over 2 seconds from view of other car until impact. What’s worse is the angle is inaccurate – OP likely had a view much closer to 4 seconds out. But in any event, hard braking at 25 mph means you can stop a car completely in 2.5 seconds and at 28 mph 2.8 seconds. I still say that if there’s hard braking at that 2 second mark, OP is going too slow for an impact (barring the other car making a counterintuitive move of also stopping – which does happen).