This just happened, it was 10pm and thus super dark. Was pulling out of a fast food restaurant parking lot to get to the street. Had to cross 2 lanes of traffic going right to get to the 2 lanes of traffic going left where I was going. This area is poorly lit because it’s only has a dirt field opposite of the parking lot I just left. I checked my left and checked my right and saw absolutely no headlights coming at me so I started to move across.
The moment I was about to cross the second lane I heard a car laying down the horn and saw a car with absolutely no lights on coming at me, I’m able to cross safely to my lane when he passes behind me but if I had been 2 seconds slower he definitely would have crashed into my driver side at a high rate of speed. As I drove away I looked back at him and he literally had no lights at all not even brake lights for some reason, and I could only see him due to some parking lot lights bouncing off his rear reflectors.
If he had hit me, would he have been 100% at fault? I looked up online but am getting a bunch of lawyer speak thats basically “You are 100% responsible for all accidents if the other driver has right of way” which TECHNICALLY he did but I literally couldn’t see him in the dead of night with no headlights.
The other driver is certainly partially at fault. Driving at night w/o lights is definitely negligent, and there is the “last chance to avoid accident” concept. Outcome might depend on whether your jurisdiction applies comparative fault or contributory negligence.
IANAL. IMHO the fault would be determined by a combination of how the cop on the scene writes the tickets and how the judge decides in court. Although the other driver was in violation for no lights, someone would have to determine if this was a significant contribution to the accident. Did you see it? No. Should you have seen it? I dunno. For situations like this there is rarely a black and white answer to a hypothetical. I think the “any given Sunday” principle applies.
Just to give an example: A friend was on a side street waiting to turn right onto the main road. The lane nearest her was a right-turn only lane to turn into the street she was coming from. A car was approaching in that lane. She pulled out and that car broadsided her. She was found to be at fault because she failed to yield to oncoming traffic, even though the other car disregarded traffic signals by going straight in a right-turn-only lane. On another day, I suspect the other driver could have been found to be at fault.
In these types of “who’s at fault?” questions this is the only practical answer. I’ve been involved in two accidents that were basically identical, in the same state, with very different outcomes:
In the first accident I was driving; I was making a left turn on a yellow light turning to red. There was a large van turning in front of me so I assumed it was clear and followed the van through the turn. I didn’t see a car coming from the opposite direction racing to beat the yellow light (which had turned to red by the time he went through). It almost clipped the van, and hit me head-on. The cop gave him a ticket for running a red light and I did not get a ticket, just a smashed-in grill.
In the second accident I was a passenger; we were going to dinner with my sister and brother-in-law and BIL was driving. We were running late and he tried to beat a yellow light; it was red when he went through the intersection and he hit a driver making a left turn. In this case when the cops showed up, the woman making the left turn was very belligerent, yelling and swearing and demanding that the cop arrest my BIL, saying “I smell alcohol on his breath!”, whereas my BIL was being calm and cooperative. He even blew a .01 or .02, having had one drink before we headed out. The woman making the left turn got a ticket for failing to make sure the lane was clear, and BIL got off ticket-free.
My son’s experience which I posted here. Other driver illegally used an unmarked turning lane pass everyone else to drive through an intersection. Illegal and certainly unsafe given the circumstances. But the police said none of that mattered because it was my son’s duty to yield right-of-way and it doesn’t matter what the other car does (even if illegal).
The evidence the officer presents to the court will be considered hearsay unless the officer witnessed the accident. It will end up as a he said/she said situation, the judge will decide who is more credible. A friend hit a car that was stopped in a lane of traffic, it was stopped with no lights on. The responding officer gave him a ticket for follow to closely resulting in an accident even though the car was not moving. He challenged the ticket, the judge dismissed it. the officer did not see the accident and there were no witnesses present to state the car that was hit was being operated in a lawful manner. He was then sued by the insurance company of the other driver. The judge in this civil case determined fault as 50/50, each insurance company will handle the claim for their insured. The judge said there was no credible witnesses to the accident, that included testimony from the responding officer.
I can tell you from my experience in traffic court after the officer testified and it did not prove the elements, the judge
Testified to what the officer probably saw to fill in the missing elements.
Invalidated the whole right to a trial / innocent til proven guilty standard by saying the officer would not have issued me the ticket if I weren’t guilty.
I’ve noticed that traffic and family court are two places where many times rules and the Constitution do not exist.
Cop handles criminal law (statutes, right of way) and will write tickets based on the available evidence. If they can’t side with one driver or the other, you may BOTH get tickets or neither of you may get tickets.
Insurance will handle civil law (negligence), and determine fault based on preponderance of evidence, typically “what would a reasonable person have done”. To this point, if you can’t prove the other driver didn’t have his lights on, you’re hosed for pulling into traffic from a place of safety. And even if you can prove that, you still left a position of safety so you’d have to prove that it mattered that the other guy had no lights. Who got a ticket is not generally admissible in civil court as it stems from a different body of law. However, the cop’s testimony can be used in a civil case, as that is considered an expert witness.
ETA : Some of the above may vary from state to state, etc.
This is the sort of situation where a dash camera really comes into play. Both for insurance reasons and in court. They are not expensive and settle most of the I said-they said stuff. I have had a good dash camera for several years and I intend to make them standard equipment on any vehicle I own and drive.