Hit from behind while starting a right turn

Attorney Answer

Usually the driver behind — but not automatically, and in Alabama the exception matters more than it would elsewhere, because being partly at fault here does not reduce a claim, it ends it.

Ala. Code § 32-5A-89(a) sets the standard, and Alabama puts a number on it where most states do not:

The driver of a motor vehicle shall not follow another more closely than is reasonable and prudent, having due regard for the speed of such vehicles and the traffic upon and the condition of the highway. Except when overtaking and passing another vehicle, the driver of a vehicle shall leave a distance of at least 20 feet for each 10 miles per hour of speed between the vehicle that he or she is driving and the vehicle that he or she is following.

Twenty feet for every ten miles per hour is 120 feet at 60 mph. It is a concrete duty — but a breach of it is evidence of negligence, not an automatic answer, and being struck from behind does not by itself decide fault.

So the law gives the driver behind a concrete duty and a number attached to it. A driver who could not stop when the car ahead slowed to turn was, on the face of it, either too close or not paying attention. That is the ordinary analysis of a rear-end collision and it usually favors you.

What the other side will look for. Because a breach of the distance rule is evidence rather than an automatic answer, the driver behind will point at whatever you did that made the turn harder to anticipate: whether you signalled and when, whether you braked unusually hard or unusually early, whether you had begun to turn and then stopped, whether you were slowing in a place a turn was not expected. Those are the standard arguments and it is worth knowing they are coming.

Alabama is one of a handful of states that still applies contributory negligence, and it changes everything about a claim here. If the person claiming is found to have been negligent themselves, and that negligence helped cause the injury, they recover nothing — not a reduced amount, nothing. There is no apportionment and no percentage.

Two things soften that, and both matter.

It is a defense the other side has to prove. Contributory negligence is an affirmative defense, so the burden is on the defendant to establish it rather than on the claimant to disprove it. And it is not established simply by showing carelessness: the defendant generally has to show the claimant knew of the danger, appreciated it, and failed to take reasonable care anyway. Alabama's courts have said that simple heedlessness is not enough, and that it is normally a question for a jury rather than something decided as a matter of law.

And it is no defense at all to wanton conduct. Where the other party's behavior goes beyond ordinary negligence to wantonness, contributory negligence does not bar the claim. That makes how the other driver's conduct is characterized one of the most consequential questions in an Alabama case.

This is why a rear-end collision in Alabama is not the routine matter it is in most states. Elsewhere, a finding that you signalled late might cost you a share of the claim. Here, if it amounts to negligence that helped cause the collision, it costs you the claim. The other side has to prove it, and proving it takes more than suggesting you could have been more careful — but the incentive to try is much larger here than it would be over the state line.

The evidence that settles it is mostly about the seconds before impact, and almost all of it is perishable: whether your indicator was working and on, what the car behind was doing, and whether any camera saw it.

What you can do

1. Get the crash report and read how it describes the turn and the signal. If that is wrong, it is far easier to address now. 2. Check that your turn signal and brake lights work, and photograph them working, before the car is repaired. If you signalled, this is the evidence of it. 3. Photograph the damage to both vehicles, which often shows the angle and whether the turn had begun. 4. Identify witnesses, and ask in writing for any nearby camera footage straight away — most systems overwrite within days. 5. See a doctor promptly if you have any symptoms at all. Neck and back injuries from a rear-end impact commonly present a day or two later. 6. Do not give the other driver's insurer a recorded statement about your signal, your speed or your braking before taking advice. That conversation is the whole case. 7. Speak to an Alabama attorney. In a state where partial fault defeats a claim outright, a rear-end collision is worth more care than its apparent simplicity suggests.

⏱ Time limits apply. Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l) gives two years: “all actions for any injury to the person or rights of another not arising from contract and not specifically enumerated in this section must be brought within two years.” Evidence goes sooner — footage is overwritten and memories fade — so the practical deadline is usually much earlier than the legal one.

An Alabama attorney can tell you quickly how the facts here line up, and most will look at a matter like this at no cost.