Proving Fault for an Unsafe Left Turn

Attorney Answer

A driver turning left across your path has to yield to you, and that duty is what your claim rests on. What you have to establish is ordinary and concrete: the turning driver owed you the right-of-way, took it anyway, and that is what caused your injuries and the damage to your car.

Cal. Veh. Code § 21801(a) requires a driver intending to turn left, or to complete a U-turn, to yield the right-of-way to vehicles approaching from the opposite direction that are close enough to constitute a hazard at any time during the turning movement. Cal. Veh. Code § 22107 adds the general rule: "No person shall turn a vehicle from a direct course or move right or left upon a roadway until such movement can be made with reasonable safety and then only after the giving of an appropriate signal in the manner provided in this chapter in the event any other vehicle may be affected by the movement." A left turn taken in front of a car crossing on a green light is the ordinary case of both duties being broken.

Liability itself comes from Cal. Civ. Code § 1714(a): "Everyone is responsible, not only for the result of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person, except so far as the latter has, willfully or by want of ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself or herself." And Cal. Civ. Code § 3333 sets what is recoverable: "For the breach of an obligation not arising from contract, the measure of damages, except where otherwise expressly provided by this Code, is the amount which will compensate for all the detriment proximately caused thereby, whether it could have been anticipated or not." Burns from a deploying airbag, dizziness and hearing symptoms, treatment costs and the vehicle are all detriment to be proved with records.

Expect an argument about your speed or your chance to avoid the impact. California allows it without letting it end the claim: in Anderson v. Latimer, 166 Cal. App. 3d 667 (1985), fault was allocable between a driver who turned left unlawfully and an oncoming driver who was speeding. Fault gets divided in proportion rather than handed to one driver.

If the other car's occupants changed places, that matters less than it feels. Cal. Veh. Code § 17150 makes the owner of a vehicle responsible for injury caused by a person driving it with the owner's permission, though Cal. Veh. Code § 17151(a) caps that statutory owner liability at $15,000 per person, $30,000 per accident and $5,000 for property damage. Whoever was actually at the wheel remains responsible under § 1714(a), without that cap. Who drove is an evidence question — which is exactly why an independent witness is valuable.

What you can do

1. Ask a local attorney about your filing deadline first. On a collision that is no longer recent, that question governs everything else.

2. Keep the witness's contact details somewhere safe and give them to your attorney or insurer; ask whether any second witness can still be identified.

3. Collect the medical records for the burns to your face and hand and for the dizziness and hearing symptoms, and photograph the injuries as they heal.

4. Preserve the collision report number, photographs of both vehicles, and the airbag and interior condition of your car before it is repaired or sold.

5. Report the claim to both insurers, and let your attorney or insurer handle any recorded statement or discussion of who was driving.

6. Ask a local attorney before signing any release. Under Cal. Civ. Code § 1541 a written release extinguishes the obligation, and burn injuries can change over months.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1 gives two years for an injury claim, and Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1) gives three years for damage to the vehicle. Those periods run from your own facts, and on a crash that is not recent the injury period may already have passed — that would end the injury claim no matter how clear the fault. Take the dates to a local attorney immediately rather than assuming either way.