Fault in a Flashing-Signal Intersection Collision

Attorney Answer

With a flashing red on your side, you had the duty to stop and yield before entering, so this is a genuinely contested crash and Texas may split the fault rather than hand it to either driver. That is the honest answer, and it is better to hear it now than from an adjuster.

Texas has a specific statute assigning right-of-way at flashing signals, and behind it sits the general intersection rule. Tex. Transp. Code § 545.151(a) requires a driver approaching an intersection to stop, yield, and grant immediate use of the intersection in obedience to an official traffic-control device, and provides that after stopping the driver may proceed when the intersection can be safely entered without interference or collision. A flashing red is an official traffic-control device. So the question the carriers will ask you is whether the intersection could be safely entered when you moved.

The other driver was not free to do as they liked either. Tex. Transp. Code § 545.351(a) provides that "An operator may not drive at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the circumstances then existing," and § 545.351(b)(2) requires a driver to control speed as necessary to avoid colliding with another vehicle that is on or entering the highway in compliance with law. Two facts in your account go straight to that rule: you say they accelerated on the approach, and you say you were already in the intersection when you saw them. A driver with a flashing yellow is being warned to proceed with caution, not given permission to speed up into a car that is already there.

Texas then divides the responsibility instead of choosing a winner. Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.003 the trier of fact assigns each party a whole-number percentage. Section 33.001 provides that "In an action to which this chapter applies, a claimant may not recover damages if his percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent." At 50 percent or less, § 33.012(a) reduces your damages by your own percentage, and § 33.013(a) makes each defendant liable only for its own share. In a flashing-signal case, the percentages usually come from speed evidence and from where each vehicle was when the other entered.

What you can do

1. Request the officer's crash report and read how the officer described the signals, the lanes, and the point of impact.

2. Ask the city or county traffic department in writing whether the signal was in flashing mode at that time and why, and ask for any maintenance or timing record. Ask soon; these records do not sit around forever.

3. Ask nearby businesses for camera footage right away, and save any dashcam file before it is overwritten.

4. Photograph the damage to your driver door and to the other vehicle before repairs, since the contact angle helps show who was where.

5. Get the names and phone numbers of any witnesses, including anyone who stopped.

6. Ask a Texas lawyer about the flashing-signal right-of-way rule and how it applies to your intersection before you give the other insurer a recorded statement. 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. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) sets two years from the day the cause of action accrues for personal injury and for injury to property. Whether that period has started to run for you, and what your particular facts do to it, needs a Texas attorney's review of the file. Do not calculate it from a general rule.