Am I at fault?? *Verdict: NOPE (technically)*
 

Had a shitty fender bender this morning. Some jackass in his mom's soccer van cut me off at a yellow light and I had to brake hard and steer away to dodge him, but ended up contacting his driver-side door. Damages have been appraised at just over $5k.

Excuse the language; couldn't stand the sound of my baby scraping against that oaf of a car:
[ame]http://youtu.be/96R5fk7U54k[/ame]

I've already submitted the DashCam video to insurance, hopefully it does more good than harm. I feel like an argument could be made that I was trying to "run the yellow light", but I was kind of on the borderline of being able to stop safely and being able to just drive through it. Also, the other car clearly cut me off without signalling or checking his blind spot, aka unsafe lane change.

1. What do you guys think, am I in the clear?
2. Will it buff out? I don't feel like the impact was enough to mess up the alignment/structural integrity of the car... but it still pisses me off that I have to get bodywork done on the car already, at barely over 9k miles. I really hope it's just the body panels that are messed up T__T
3. How's that FT86SF Catted UEL Header sounding???

*CONCLUSION*: An official decision has been reached; check the end of the thread for details. Removing the video now because I don't need any more retrospective, online driving advice regarding this incident. Thanks all for the support and the critical insights, but it's time to move on. I hope everyone at least learned a little something from this; I know I did.

To me it looks like you were driving in the blindspot of the other driver, the other drive didn't check and changed lanes and boom.

Yellow light does not mean slow down. It does not speed up either. It means to proceed with caution.

I feel like you should be in the clear.

As a dude - I would say that's his fault. As an insurance co - you were accelerating to a red light - right?

What if you were a ma'am? What would you say? LOLOL

Door repaint, new fender.

Possibly no fault accident.

Judging from the engine sound, I don't think I can deny that I got on the gas a little bit when it turned yellow. Just not sure if it's a valid reason to pin any fault on me in this case... yes, I'm just fishing for confirmations here

I would say as little as possible and then say something like "oh, the car got a little scratch today"

To me, the other drive dove into your lane. I didn't see a signal either. Unsafe lane change.

I guess it will all depend on the companies, their relationship and the adjusters. That truck next to you doesn't help your case because he is braking well in advance. Well, riding his brake most of the way down the hill.

Main thing - that sucks. Hate to see a nice car damaged by a knucklehead. Make sure they check his phone records if possible. If he was texting or anything - it will help!

I believe it is the other drivers fault. I do think you were driving a bit aggressively towards that yellow light. Just my opinion.

Hey - maybe both adjusters will own twins. Could happen.

Check the video again the other driver did turn on his left turn signal.

I think you would have been fine to not submit the footage. I don't see what he could say to put the blame on you. I can't tell really but from the video it looks like you could have reacted a bit faster?

I had a fender bender where me and someone else change into same lane. My insurance charged me 50% deductible and my rate stayed the same.

Hope it works out for you OP

Nah, he definitely didn't. Confirmed on the HQ raw video file. You're probably seeing his brake lights.

It's just sheet metal damage, but...

You're not 100% not at fault. Approaching an intersection with a light changing and STOPPED traffic in the adjacent lane, you should already be slowing down. So what if they clearly moved over without a signal? The car in front of the van was already stopped.

In any case, good luck. But the evidence won't help you much, and may hurt you since vehicle speeds can be clearly determined from the video.

-alex

I only see brake lights? All 3 go on at the same time with no blinking?

Sorry to see this. Probably will be other drivers fault... Based on them coming into your lane. As most people have said, probably would've been better not to submit the video.

Accelerating towards a yellow light like that (yellow can be seen at 2:25) is a bit too aggressive in my opinion. You can clearly see that the light turned red about 25 feet before you even reached the intersection. This may have even saved you from a bigger ensuing accident, had you ran the red.

Their fault? Probably, yeah. Could you have avoided it by not driving so aggressive? Yes.

Thanks for the wisdom, all... I was worried that it would somehow get pinned on me for whatever reason, so I sent in the video in haste. In hindsight, it probably was unnecessary, if not detrimental. In any case, I don't mind justice being served, so we'll see. If they put some fault on me after reviewing the footage, then so be it. Better that than just my word vs. his.

Good attitude.

Cross your fingers, I think you'll be fine.

Good luck man!

without a doubt, it's 100% the other driver's fault.
Don't worry about it.

1.Straight is always right of way
-next time, don't try to dodge it unless you are 100% sure you can, because it would have been your fault if you damaged the other car in the left lane.

2.Lane Changing
-No signal, no wait, no look, no nothing whatsoever from the white car. It is always the fault of driver, who is having any movement other than going straight, unless it was the turning signal.

3.Lane Type
-I can't see what type of lane it is, because the white car is blocking the view, but 99% of the time, there is a solid white line right before the complete stop, which prohibits drivers to change lane at the last moment to prevent accidents like this. (The only lane line you can pass through is the dotted lines, anything solid, you cannot freely pass through.)


I don't think your speed is really relevant in this situation, because even if you drove slowly this would've happened if you were close to that car. I am sure you would have had enough distance and time to brake if you were going slow though.

I also got in an accident before and totaled my car, so I know how it feels..
I was breaking down (man losing his car is more than good enough excuse to cry)
I mean this isn't going to help you in anyway about your damaged car, but don't worry about it. wish you the best man

I think both you and other driver are at fault.... his fault for lane changing without signal, and your fault for accelerating towards a yellow light when the flow of traffic have already basically stopped for nearly half sec. You did nothing wrong if the intersection isn't filled up like that, but you were really just pushing your luck when you try to squeeze through like that.

In city driving, you want to stay a bit faster at a constant speed then other morons to be safe. Just remember to always go with the flow of traffic, most accident occur because they are different from the flow of traffic.

Just my 2cent.

Insurance might go 50/50 on this, it just sucks dude that your driving and some stupid young kid has to mess it up for you. No one wants to have body damage, real shit though I would've kicked his ass.

Here in PA, anytime you change lanes right before, or going through an intersection, that is an illegal lane change. Even if he used a signal, it's still an illegal lane change.

I'm sure someone already mentioned it(didn't read all replies), but it is clear that the other driver made a lane change without a blinker.

That's all you should need to say about it, illegal lane change. The question of right of way comes second, the illegal lane change precludes it.
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I did read the reply right above me, he's right with a third reason that driver is at fault, changing lanes within a certain distance before or after an intersection. It's so people can make right turns at stoplights when the right lane is open without morons taking the open right lane before you can pull out.

Strike 3 for idiot SUV driver.

Fistpoint said it all. There are 3 strikes on that genius SUV driver. To whomever said you were in the driver's blind spot: there is no way you were unless that was a 5'1 little lady with her mirrors adjusted to watch her kids instead of the road. Properly adjusted mirrors on an SUV have an extremely small blind spot even wrt small cars like ours.

As stated, the only issue with this is. You 100% had time to, and should have, stopped on yellow. It appears the light is red before you even get to the intersection. I am assuming the other driver saw you but also saw the light changing and fully expected you to stop.

My final verdict: You are not at fault (at most partially at fault), however, a little more defensive driving and fender benders like this can be avoided.

I would say it should be a no fault.

We all know you held out and tried to make the yellow light, we all do it. However had you not tried to do so, and had already started to slow down you could have probably avoided this. Had you not hit the car, you would have clearly run a red light at that point, it was red well before you even hit the car. While that wouldn't matter overall, if I can see it it means the insurance company will see it.

Really the fact that the other driver did not put on his blinker is probably the only thing thats going to keep it from being your fault.

And be jailed for assault and battery over a fender bender? Not worth it.

Yeah the rule for my state was you're not supposed to change lanes within 100 ft of an intersection.

OP if your state is similar, the other driver should automatically be at fault.

That said, I probably wouldn't have submitted that video to your insurance unless the other driver denied changing lanes right before the intersection. That video makes it look like you were about to run that red.

There are only two applicable vehicle codes.

So only two strikes against the other car. There are no law against changing in an intersection, though 21658a still applies.

At the same time, that was pretty bonehead to try to beat the yellow light that. 45 mph road has a yellow light for 5.0 seconds (the minimum yellow is 3 second for a slower speed road). You weren't anywhere close.

You blind CJ?? No blinker

:w00t:

You will be fine... but my feelings in regards to accidents like this one is it takes two people two crash. You are both at fault ( I think you slightly more than him though) He was at fault for the lane change for sure... but you clearly sped up at the yellow and wouldn't have made it anyways.... His lane change wouldn't have made a difference if you were driving more defensively. Everyone around you was braking (one of these things is not like the others)

I think he is at fault. I think it can be argued that he made an illegal lane change at an intersection without checking his mirrors with no signal.

Maybe I am missing something, but did the police give you a ticket?

And yes, I do agree with many here that you had no business trying to make this light...

A few things:
1 - He was at fault for: No turn signal, failure to signal lane change for at least 100 feet before lane change (so even if he HAD signaled, then he was still guilty of not doing it far enough in advance)

2 - What were you on Valium? Yor response time was WAY too slow, and you didnt even engage the ABS! It barely looks like you even applied the brakes

3 - Yes you are a jackass for trying to make that light. If someone had been trying to clear the intersection during the yellow from the oncoming left turn lane, it would have been worse.

4 - Why was your first reaction to NOT turn off the music? That is just an automatic response for most humans when something out of the ordinary happens.

You will be fine. and the damage looks purely cosmetic.

Technically the car didn't cut you off on a yellow. It was red when it started going into the lane.

Before I watched the DashCam footage, I didn't even recall trying to make the yellow light. It was probably habitual and I'd barely started to speed up before I saw the other driver pulling into my lane. I felt like I braked pretty hard, but maybe I was expecting him to stop after I laid the horn on him? Happened too fast...

As for response time... I don't usually go to work that early, so that's what I get for doing morning commute on not enough sleep. I thought I was driving pretty mellow up until that point, so mellow that I wasn't ready to react to a stunt like this.

But who's to say I wasn't planning to stop at the last second on the red? :D Maybe I had planned to stop right at the line but him cutting me off made that impossible. That's how I would rebut anyway, but you're right my intent at the yellow/red light was questionable

Yeah reaction time above all was pretty bad ;)

While the other driver is definitely at fault, you should probably thank him/her for keeping you from running a red light in your half-asleep haze.