Two issues

First one. whos at fault in this pic.



Second one, Responding officer is high school friends with one of the people in the wreck and alters the report to make it not that persons fault and doesnt ticket the person for not having any insurance.


Discuss

Lacking any signage in the center of the intersection, I would have to say that the bottom driver is at fault, but this isn't going from any driver's manual and especially not going from your home state laws.

As far as I know, left turn always yields. If that person turning left is doing a U-turn, he also must yield to crossing traffic and actually, shouldn't be all the way over to the left (his right). Like Matt says, it's hard to say without signage. My father was in a similar situation a few years ago when he was blinded by the sun and turned left into an oncoming car. He never got cited but his insurance paid for the damage to the other vehicles involved.

In your case, does not each person with insurance have under/non-insured coverage? I know we do here and it covers damage caused by a wreck where another person is at fault, even if they aren't cited. In that case you should be fine unless you feel like the other person is getting away with something and not getting the "punishment" he deserves. Maybe your insurance company would sue them for damages and that would put the hurt on more than a trafic ticket.

__________________
-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

Typically, all other traffic must yield to anyone already in the intersection.

Yeah, assuming there's a stop sign there on the triangular area, the left turn guy is already half way through the intersection so the other guy must stop, then allow the intersection to clear before moving ahead. we need more info, signage, who was where and when.

I go through an intersection like this every day but they've solved this problem by only allowing one direction on the inferior roadway to go at a time.

__________________
-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

I THINK if you hit someone with the front of your car it is considered wreckless driving and your charged.

__________________
1985 300TD Turbo Euro-wagon
1979 280CE 225,200 miles
1985 300D Turbo 264,000 miles
1976 240D 190,000 miles
1979 300TD 220,000

GONE but not forgotten
1976 300D 195,300 miles
1983 300D Turbo 175,000 miles

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...e485-1-2-1.jpg

Updated the pic. I was already halfway across when the other car tried for the same break in traffic. I do not care about "punishing" anyone or making an undue claim. I just wanted to see opinions of who was at fault based on the info. Also why it was written up as an improper lane change and lack of insurance was ignored.


Kind of irks me

If as you say, you were already moving, he failed to yield as I see it. However if he didn't have to stop then that might qualify them for already part of traffic. But with no turn signal while making a turn, that reverses the traffic thing and exactly what caused the accident becomes an illegal or unsafe turn. If the cops are being fresh, just start filing complaints and whatever else the courts do about it, grand juries? Don't tell them just start doing it then see what happens. Or tell your insurance to do it? I imagine it's already in their best interest to go after someone else. It seems that there's a procedure to dispute a cop's claim, at least around here.

something very similar happened to my sister this last fall.she was in the left turn lane of a busy 4 lane divided road.after the left lane green they all go green so she was setting there wiating for traffic to clear to turn,well lights go yellow,and cars either run thru it or stop,light goes red and shes still setting in the intersection so procedes to turn left.when she gets braodsided by a 16 yr old girl late for school.numerous witnesses said the light was red for a good couple seconds.as for my opinion 16 yr old ran the red,but as of yet(2 1/2 months) she has not heard a thing as to if she got a ticket or not.16 yr old supposedly had her license for 2 weeks.

In that situation I'd say whoever gets to the stopped position first has the right of way, kind of like at a 4-way stop sign. Sounds to me like the other person is at fault, but your state's laws may be different. Certainly altering a police report is illegal and you can challenge that in court. Under/uninsured coverage may or may not cover property damage, depends on the state. You never want to file a claim with your own insurance company unless you really have to because they will probably raise your rates. You always want to go after the guilty party or their insurance.

__________________
2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

Guy on the bottom has right of way to me. Turning left means you have to not hit those on your left, or get in the way of those.

So considering that you both moved, I presume the traffic moving from left to right at the bottom two lanes (cross traffic from you both) had cleared.

You have the stop sign. They don't. They are allowed to proceed and to be safe you must wait for them to clear. Commonly people will signal their intention to either go straight through or turn left (to give the other side the chance to move forward) but you can't depend on that.

This is one situation I warn my wife about all the time. Do not trust your life (as in at high speeds) on someone else using their turn signal properly.

It also gets sticky when the car at the stop sign wants to turn right to proceed on the 4-lane highway. Most of the cars in the intersection (who came from the upper right) usually plan to proceed straight across - but they don't have to. They can use the median for a U-turn, and sometimes the U-turn into the lane where you want to go. Since you were at the stop sign in that situation, it's your fault.

Just an opinion.

__________________
--------------------------
1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

qft

__________________
1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Traffic laws vary a bit from state to state, but I expect the above pretty much nails it. In addition to the stop sign, the top car was already on the "major" road, the bottom car was entering that road; ergo the top car has right of way over traffic entering the road it is already on. The presence of a stop sign where the "minor" road reinforces this.

Agree with this....