Being an Excluded Driver After a Left-Turn Right-of-Way Collision

Attorney Answer

Your excluded-driver status does not affect your claim against the driver who turned left in front of you. It affects your own policy — and that is where it may hurt.

The claim against the other driver is a claim against their insurance, and it does not care what your policy says. Cal. Veh. Code § 21801 requires a driver intending to turn left to yield the right-of-way to vehicles approaching from the opposite direction that are close enough to constitute a hazard. A left-turning driver who fails to yield to a car proceeding straight on a green light is negligent, and violating a safety statute of this kind supports negligence per se. On these facts, fault sits with the turning driver.

The exclusion bites in two places, and you should know both. First, if the other driver has no insurance or not enough of it, you may have no fallback. Cal. Ins. Code § 11580.2(a)(1) governs mandatory uninsured motorist coverage and expressly allows the insurer and insured to agree in writing to "delete the coverage when a motor vehicle is operated by a natural person or persons designated by name." A valid named-driver exclusion can therefore remove your UM/UIM protection when you are the one driving. Second, if any share of fault is assigned to you, you likely have no liability coverage defending or indemnifying you, which means personal exposure.

California is a pure comparative fault state, so even if some fault were assigned to you — speed, for instance — your recovery would be reduced by that percentage rather than barred.

What you can do

1. Open a claim directly with the left-turning driver's insurer and confirm its policy limits in writing. 2. Get the traffic collision report. An officer's finding that the other driver violated § 21801 is powerful leverage with an adjuster. 3. Photograph vehicle damage and the intersection, and identify independent witnesses. Point-of-impact damage is what proves who was turning across whom. 4. Get a copy of your own declarations page and the signed exclusion endorsement. Whether the exclusion is valid depends on the paperwork, and a defective endorsement is worth having reviewed. 5. Check for other coverage that may apply to you as an injured person — a resident relative's policy, or medical payments coverage — before assuming you have none. 6. Get medical evaluation and documentation early, even for symptoms that seem minor.

⏱ Time limits apply. The personal injury claim against the at-fault driver must be brought within two years under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1. Separately, your own policy's notice and suit-limitation terms govern any first-party claim and can be far shorter. The exact dates depend on your specific facts.