Dashcam driver hits BMW X5 — who’s liable?
A side-impact occurs as a BMW goes straight from a left-turn lane amid a lane shift.
In the «Gruppa razbora» (crash-review column) today is a situation common on city streets: at an intersection the travel lanes shift their path, and drivers get confused about who must yield to whom. In our case, the BMW driver decided to go straight from the wrong lane and collided with a car in the adjacent lane.
An ordinary intersection; we see two lanes in one direction; the traffic light turns green. The cars set off, and the white BMW X5 on the left overtakes the driver with the dashcam. A moment more and they would have passed each other, but the dashcam driver shifts left — a collision occurs; watch the video.
Traffic flows start on green before the dashcam car moves left into the BMW.
Note that the BMW driver is traveling straight and does not change course, while the dashcam car moves left. But it’s not that simple: there are intersections where the traffic lanes are physically «curved», yet their designated direction of travel remains straight ahead.
View of the intersection where the right through lane bends toward the curb.
Look at the Yandex Panoramas photos to see this intersection. The left lane, where the BMW was traveling, is intended only for a left turn. And the right lane is for going straight (and right), even though it runs into the curb and then bends.
It follows that the BMW driver was not in the proper lane, while the dashcam driver changed lanes to the left. The only question is how abruptly he changed lanes, and whether it was too early, since the cars had not yet reached the middle of the intersection.
— «According to clarifications by the Verkhovny Sud (Supreme Court of Russia), the one at fault is the driver who is violating the traffic rules. In this case, that is the BMW driver. He should be found liable. If the matter goes to judicial proceedings, then, as I’ve said, courts are guided by the Supreme Court’s clarifications and should take the side of the driver who was moving straight in his own lane without violating the traffic rules», — says auto lawyer Lev Voropaev.
— «The BMW driver violated the sign’s instruction. The fact that the ‘course of the road’ changes a bit is the bane of our cities. You drive in the outermost lane, and it suddenly disappears. If you keep moving straight, you end up on a safety island or in a crash. It’s a problem in our cities that one of the lanes suddenly disappears so sharply. In this crash, the driver who was in the far-left lane is at fault; the sign directed him left, but he drove straight», — says Oksana Kositskaya, head of sluzhba avariynykh komissarov ‘Alliance’ (accident adjusters service).
Indeed, in many cities the street network can sometimes «delight» drivers with odd decisions: sudden bends in the roadway, dead ends within a lane, and inefficient traffic signs.
You just need to be more attentive and keep in mind that even if you are formally moving in your lane, which bends, another driver may not realize this and keep going «straight» in their own. The result — a collision. So simply don’t rush and maintain side clearance.
Also read about a dashcam driver crashing into an SUV in a mall parking lot: who must yield in such lots.
