My Turn at The Wheel Driver’s Early Arrival at the Scene Caused Accident?

Erik Carlsson

This is a short story, with no pictures or illustrations, but I believe it is nevertheless offering very interesting reading for anyone who works with attorneys or insurance companies with the purpose of determining the cause of traffic accidents.

A car driver on his way to an assignment traveled westbound on Interstate 80 in New Jersey. He turned off the highway onto an exit ramp on his right that led up to a two-way north/south local street that passed over the highway. There was no traffic approaching from the left at the end of the ramp, so the driver made a right turn and continued north. About 200 yards north of the intersection is a restaurant on the eastern side of the street. Just as the driver passed the entrance driveway to the restaurant, the driver of a southbound car who was on his way to the restaurant started his left turn, and his car collided with the northbound car.

The left-turning driver stated at the police investigation that followed that he didn’t see the oncoming car because he was looking to his left, focusing on the driveway that led into the restaurant’s parking lot. The northbound driver stated that he was merely traveling down the straight road when the driver of the oncoming car suddenly started to turn left, causing the cars to collide.

The northbound driver naturally was rather upset, and subsequently sued the turning driver, claiming injuries, lost wages, reduced value of his new car, etc. The defendant, or rather his attorney, retained an accident reconstruction firm that I believe had been recommended by the defendant’s car insurance company.

The accident reconstruction firm presented a detailed report of the accident and the damage to the vehicles, and posited that the plaintiff was the sole cause of the accident. Had he passed the restaurant’s driveway a few seconds later, the defendant’s car would have entered the driveway before the plaintiff’s car reached the scene!

What I said above may sound like bad joke, but it is the opinion presented by the accident reconstruction firm in its report. As expected, the writer of the report explained his reason for his opinion. The defendant was meeting a friend of his at the restaurant when the accident happened. The friend arrived a few minutes before the defendant and had stepped out of his car. He was looking on the road, expecting to see his friend arriving, and saw the collision. But he had also been looking the other way and had seen the plaintiff’s car coming up the exit ramp from the highway. He saw, he testified, that the plaintiff had a red light at the end of the exit ramp, and he saw that the plaintiff made his turn to the right without stopping. In its report, the accident reconstruction firm considered that statement by the defendant’s friend as evidence that the plaintiff violated a New Jersey regulation that states that a driver may not make a right turn on red without first stopping the vehicle. Thus, the expert opined, had the plaintiff not violated that regulation, but made a full stop before entering the street, he would have arrived at the scene a few seconds later, and this would have been enough for the defendant to complete his left turn onto the restaurant’s driveway ahead of the approaching car. Therefore, the plaintiff was the sole cause of the accident.

Some thoughts: Not surprisingly, the case did not go to court, but the parties settled the case. One may wonder, though, would the attorney for the defendant really have been prepared to try the case in court? Would the defense expert have been prepared to tell a jury or a judge that the plaintiff caused the collision because he arrived at the scene a few seconds “too early”, while the defendant, who made a left turn on a two-way road without even looking forward, was not the one who caused the accident, but merely an innocent victim?

After all, it is very common that drivers make a right turn on red without stopping completely. Furthermore, could the defendant’s friend really have seen that the plaintiff had a red light some 200 yards away considering that the traffic signal was at about 90 degrees angle from the witness’ position? (The plaintiff claimed that the light turned green just as he began his right turn, which of course is what he could be expected to say.)

One can make more “what if” questions. What if the plaintiff had arrived at the intersection a few seconds earlier and made a full stop and then started? He may then have arrived at the scene of the accident at the very same moment as he now did? Or what if a northbound car had passed the intersection with the exit ramp just before the plaintiff made his right turn? That car may have arrived at the accident scene at the moment the defendant began his left turn and could have been the car that collided with the defendant’s car.

Anyone who has some thought about this case is welcome to contact me at erikcarlsson@live.com.