First off, I’d like to say to any lawyers gracious enough to answer that these questions are for curiosity only. I’m not looking for legal advise as the situation doesn’t involve me in any way.
Recently, I saw an accident happen in my rear view mirror. At about 75mph ,Two cars ,about even with each other, tried to get in the same lane at the same time (one was in the fast lane trying to get into the middle lane, the other was in the slow lane trying to get in the middle lane). Neither driver was using blinkers and at no time did the two cars make contact. They both swerved back into their respective lanes and the fast lane driver lost control and flipped several times. By the time he completely lost control, the slow lane driver was well past him. To my knowledge, he never stopped ( I was busy dialing 911, so I’m not sure).
Now for my questions:
As the cars never made contact and the accident was the result of faulty corrective measures by fast lane driver, would slow lane driver be at fault too?
If he didn’t stop, would slow lane driver be guilty of anything (besides MAYBE leaving the scene of an accident)
Slow lane driver’s (SLD) only contribution to the accident, AFAICS, was to change lanes at the same time that fast lane driver (FLD) did. He is well within his rights to do so, since FLD did not signal, but SLD is at fault for not signalling himself. In a typical vehicle code, there would be two moving violations: speeding and illegal lane change (failure to signal).
In a civil suit (FLD or his descendants suing), FLD would most likely be found to be mostly responsible for the accident. In the old days, this would be a complete bar to recovery – does anybody follow that rule any more? In most jurisdictions, a plaintiff may receive damages for events that were partly their own fault, but most would not award damages to a plaintiff who is mostly at fault. Even the most generous courts would reduce the award by the degree to which FLD is at fault, resulting in a pittance.
SLD might be guilty of leaving the scene of an accident, but I think he’d have to have known there was an accident (not easy to prove), and a judge or jury would have to decide that his degree of fault was such that he was involved in the accident even though he never collided with FLD.
Nametag, did you notice that both cars were going about the same speed? There was a driver in the slow lane, but don’t make the mistake of thinking he was going a normal speed. They were both going about 75 mph. Does that change your view at all?
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the speed limit on this part of the freeway is 70mph. While not legal, the usual speed limit is 75 - 80mph
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Actually, I was wondering if the slow lane driver was legally at fault at all. Apologies if that wasn’t clear.
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Just a clarification. the speed limit is the same across all three lanes, but the “slow lane” is mainly for big rigs and vehicles with trailers (speed limit for those two class is 55mph). As neither were around, the “slow lane” traffic was keeping up with the other two lanes. Not unusual around where it happened.
Of course they’re going at the same speed. So? Does anything in my analysis make ANY reliance on a difference in speed? If you’re going somewhere with this, try a simple declarative sentence instead of this “leading question” BS.
Keeve, IMO, the accident was primarily the fault of the fast lane driver. The two avoided hitting each other and the crash was a result of his errors in correction. After they spotted each other, the slow lane driver quickly moved back to his own lane. The fast lane driver swerved back into his lane and never fully regained control.
As IANAL, I’m wondering if, legally speaking, the near miss was a contributing factoy or the primary factor and if that changes depending on if the other driver stopped or not.
Although one should signal a lane change, such a signal would have been useless since it would not have been visible to a car running parallel. Actually, this is a situation I have sometimes wondered about and this thread has not enlightened me particularly. When I learned to drive there were no three lane highways, at least in the east, and it was just not contemplated that a car in the right and one in the left might decide to move to the middle at the same time.
TaxGuy is right. In most jurisdictions the jury will be asked to apportion negligence between the two drivers, if they find both to have been negligent.
Since FLD committed not only the same act that SLD did (moving into the center lane without looking hard enough), plus took faulty evasive action, I think that most juries will find SLD not negligent at all, and those that do find SLD negligent will put about 25% on SLD and 75% on FLD. In most jurisdictions, since FLD had greater than 50% of the negligence, he recovers zero.
JohnW77707, Esq.
Board-Certified, Personal Injury Trial Law and Appellate Law
Texas Board of Legal Specialization
My apologies everyone. It was very obvious to me that they were equally responsible for almost colliding. Somehow, I totally missed the point that after they saw each other, the car in the fast lane overcompensated or otherwise lost control, and that’s something that is more his own fault than the other guy’s, and quite possibly entirely his own fault.