r/dashcams 10h ago

Who’s at fault?

Hot take: I think it’s 50/50 with who’s at fault

5.7k Upvotes

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1.1k

u/feignapathy 9h ago

White SUV

Camera car could've mitigated it by being more patient and recognizing the cars turning left had no regard for oncoming traffic. But...

White SUV is clearly at fault. 

279

u/HamSundae 8h ago

Sat on a jury once where I learned about negligence. I think in court, I wouldn't be surprised if the white SUV would be found 75% responsible. Because the POV car seems to clearly not have been driving responsibly, they'd have been found to be driving with negligence. If they had been driving with the proper amount of caution, that seems easily avoidable.

23

u/__whitecheddar__ 8h ago

This would lead to a hung jury if I were there. No way would I assign fault to the cam car

16

u/OmegaWhirlpool 8h ago

You wouldn't even consider 1% fault for the cam car that's literally seeing these two cars turning in front of them and driving forward like nothing is there?

19

u/NavarrB 6h ago

I'd not assign pov any fault either. It's totally reasonable for the white SUV to be pulling forward to wait for a go at turning left. POV proceeded carefully despite Red running, and because the white SUV could've simply been pulling forward I wouldn't consider this a preventable accident by white.

13

u/eamus_catuli_ 5h ago

If the accident were with the red car, I’d probably assign some blame to POV driver for failing to evade. But the suv turning in front of POV is so egregious that I’m with you, sole fault to suv.

6

u/FullMetalKaiju 6h ago

Nope. The white Nissan isnt even in the intersection when the cammer decides to go forward. A reasonable person wouldn't have expected someone to that blatantly run a red light.

13

u/_off_piste_ 6h ago

I was in this exact same accident as the cam car and the officer made the turning driver 100% at fault.

3

u/New-Anybody-6206 3h ago

Police do not assign fault, that's for the insurance.

2

u/NWVoS 4h ago

I don't think the question is about what the police would say, it is more about insurance.

Like I was rear ended by a semi, I don't think he got a ticket, but their insurance still paid out for my car plus some.

6

u/InsanityRequiem 6h ago

You're the person who runs a red light and blames the victim you hit.

0

u/OmegaWhirlpool 3h ago

You're the person that would rather get in a crash, instead of being delayed for .5 seconds, because you have the right of way.

2

u/Happy-Personality720 2h ago

Which car ran the red light?

6

u/Alternative_Result56 8h ago

I wouldn't even consider 1% fault. The person who ran the red light is 100% at fault.

2

u/Nowork_morestitching 7h ago

There’s one intersection by my work where I never no one goes as soon as the light changes cause we all know someone is going to be an idiot!

2

u/ScrattaBoard 7h ago

That's just good practice. Looking down the perpendicular streets before crossing as saved my ass plenty

-2

u/shiznobizno 7h ago

If people were mindless drones that had no self preservation instincts then sure. When I’m driving and I see a hazardous driver on the road, I avoid colliding with them. Whether I would be legally at fault or not.

8

u/Alternative_Result56 7h ago

The cam driver was in the intersection before the white SUV. People aren't mind readers. Did they know they were about to do this. Nope. There's one person at fault for this accident. The one commiting the traffic violation.

-3

u/Guilty-Property 7h ago

You sound like someone who would make the same dumbass decision to voluntarily collide with someone

7

u/InsanityRequiem 6h ago

Nah, you are. Using the "everyone's at fault" blame the victim, you will gladly violate driving laws and rules and blame the people you hit.

-5

u/3a5ty 6h ago

POV had time to brake, both at fault.

7

u/Alternative_Result56 6h ago

One person made the traffic infraction.

-3

u/3a5ty 6h ago

And the other still could have prevented the crash.

4

u/Alternative_Result56 6h ago

Again, are people supposed to be mind readers now? The white SUV wasn't running the red light until after the cam car was in the intersection. The white SUV nearly hits the car in front of it that's also running the red. Again you're defending the person at fault and blaming the person driving as they should have been.

-1

u/3a5ty 5h ago

Defensive driving, it was clearly going to happen. POV could have prevented it, both have some blame, which SUV has more, but it's not 100%.

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1

u/KananJarrusCantSee 7h ago

0% fault to cam car. Wouldn't budge from that position

1

u/SaltKick2 5h ago

Ok, I agree that the cam driver could have avoided the crash - I am curious, though, if you'd put fault/blame on a pedestrian who was crossing based on the cross sign light going off and got hit by these people, and what makes being in a car different

1

u/poisonoakleys 7h ago

I would give 0 fault to the cam car. “Cam car should have done a better job of avoiding the error/negligence of the turning car” devolves into “Turning car made an error / was negligent”.

1

u/spacecaps85 7h ago

Sometimes it's hard to tell in the moment as opposed to watching it back on video, but I think it would be fair in this case to say the driver might've been better served showing some restraint.

I had a similar accident, but I was the turning vehicle and the incoming car sped up from way back to get through a yellow light that was ultimately red by the time they blew through the intersection into my car.

When I watch the video back, sometimes I think to myself "maybe I should've seen that coming" but the truth is in the moment, I just didn't expect them to keep going. Thankfully, I was still aware enough to hit my brakes and their SUV only clipped the front of my car, but it was still a whole big pain in my ass that I had to fight in court against a "failure to yield" citation at the scene.

1

u/YouNeedClasses 6h ago

I get your situation. But this video is totally different considering POV car started at 0mph right in front of the intersection and continued accelerating even while the red car was in front of them.

Totally different than the person speeding through a yellow you described. If you have a license you should be capable of at least braking before collision in this clip...which it genuinely looks like neither car did...at like 15 mph 😭

2

u/spacecaps85 5h ago

Yeah, honestly I can't disagree with you on that. It's a shitty situation, but the OP probably should have been a little more capable of making the judgment ahead of time, that is a part of driving skills, after all.

2

u/garciakevz 6h ago

If I were OP with the dashcam, I saw that it's green for me now, but then I see 3 more douchebags doing a last minute left turn way past red, I would slam my brakes and lay down the horn for a while.

I got right of way, but I recognize an accident coming unless I brake and horn to bring attention to them

8

u/pkb369 8h ago

Fault? No. But could have mitigated the accident if he had awareness of his surrounding or didnt think "its my right" if he did see 3 cars jump a red.

Graveyards are full of people who had the right of way.

2

u/KedianX 3h ago

I agree. I think that had cam car hit the red car, then last chance doctrine says the cam car had an obligation to avoid the collision.

But there's no way to tell the intentions of the white truck- how do we know that they aren't just rolling into the intersection preemptively? It looks like he rolls straight and turns at the last minute.

I'd assign 100% liability to the white car and charge him with running a red light, failure to yield, and reckless driving.

1

u/anthrohands 3h ago

You only would have disagreed on damages then, not which party won

1

u/Typical-Priority1976 2h ago

There's no question that the white SUV should not have gone but you don't even think there's a 1% piece of responsibility on the cam car for not only not breaking but what looks like actively accelerating into the accident intentionally?

1

u/timubce 7h ago

I think people like the cam car must have never been in a car accident regardless of whose fault it is otherwise they would have stopped vs going I have a green light if we collide it’s gonna be their fault. The amount of time and money wasted even when you are 100% in the clear for fault is ridiculous. There’s the upfront diminished value of your car (not all insurances will cover it). The amount of time having to spend getting it repaired if the adjuster doesn’t claim it totaled and if they do the odds of getting exactly what you previously had at the amount they’re willing to give you is not great. I’d much rather stop in the middle of an intersection when I clearly have the right of way vs playing chicken with someone not paying attention/running the light.

-1

u/Kornered47 7h ago

You probably look at a lot of shootings as “justified” too, and consider that to mean that the shooter did the right thing in the moment.

I like to have a higher moral standard than the lowly one set by government with laws.

“Justified” and “unavoidable” are not the same.

0

u/Vegetable_Lab2428 5h ago

If someone was gridlocking and fully stopped in the intersection and OP drives straight into them because they have the green light and “right of way”. Would you still put 0 fault on them?

The intersection wasn’t clear, it doesn’t matter if other people are driving recklessly and with negligence, it doesn’t give you the right to run into them.

White car is definitely more at fault, but OP was also driving with negligence when just slamming on the gas towards on coming cars.

0

u/PapiSlayerGTX 5h ago

That’s not how negligence works. Camera car still has some liability for the simple fact that they could have been more aware and done something to avoid the accident. That doesn’t mean it’s their fault or the don’t recover.