Who is at Fault in a Changing Lanes Car Accident?
Car accidents occur frequently in and around our area. Regardless of how safely you operate your vehicle, you cannot control the actions of other drivers around you. Lane change accidents are relatively common. Often, these incidents result from a brief distraction by one or more drivers. Regardless of how a lane change accident occurs, the immediate issue is ensuring that everybody is safe. However, in the aftermath of a crash, it will need to be determined who was at fault. As with most car accident cases, the fault in a lane change crash depends on various factors.
How is fault determined in these incidents?
As with almost every other car accident, police will investigate a lane change accident and often cite one or both drivers for the crash. Depending on how the fault is assigned, insurance claims can become very confusing. When a driver needs to make a lane change, they must activate their turn signals in the direction they intend to go. If a driver does not have turn signals, they will need to give the appropriate hand signals to signal that they want to change lanes. These turn signals or hand signs let drivers around them know what their intentions are. However, that does not give a driver the right to change lanes when they feel like it. A driver who wishes to change lanes must check their mirrors and blind spots to ensure that it is safe for them to make a shift. Drivers should never change lanes until it is safe for them to do so. A lane-changing driver could be at fault in the following circumstances:
They failed to activate their turn signals before changing lanes and collided with a vehicle in another lane.
They did not check their blind spot or mirrors before they changed lanes and collided with a vehicle beside them.
The driver crosses multiple lanes of traffic at once without stopping in each lane to signal their intention to change lanes.
A driver is recklessly operating and weaving in and out of traffic.
You will find that, in most cases, a driver is at fault for an incident in a car or tructruck accidentt results from their entering another lane. However, the following scenarios could result in both drivers being cited for a lane-changing accident:
Two vehicles attempt to change lanes simultaneously, resulting in a sideswipe or side-impact collision.
A driver shows reckless behavior or road rage and refuses to allow another driver to change lanes.
A vehicle in the lane in which the other driver wants to change to has brake lights or headlights that are not working properly at the time of the incident.
A driver rear-ends someone who has recently changed lanes, possibly indicating that they were operating too fast for conditions.
Merging into traffic
There are other times when a driver needs to merge from one lane to another, such as from a city street onto a highway or vice versa. Drivers need to realize that vehicles already on the roadway that they wish to get to have the right-of-way. Drivers wanting to merge into traffic need to activate their turn signals and wait until there is an opening in the traffic before they begin to merge. This may require the driver who wants to merge to stop and wait until they can get into traffic. Drivers who are already in the other lane of moving traffic are not required to slow down or move over to allow drivers to merge.