Shared Fault in a Left-Turn Crash With a Distracted Driver

Attorney Answer

This one is genuinely contested, so the rule to know before you talk to anyone is the bar: in Texas a claimant found more than 50 percent responsible recovers nothing at all. How the blame splits here is not a detail — it is the case.

Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.001 provides that a claimant may not recover damages if his percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent. Below that line, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.012(a) requires the court to reduce the damages by a percentage equal to the claimant's own percentage of responsibility, so a 30 percent share costs 30 percent of the recovery rather than all of it. And Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.013(a) makes each defendant liable only for its own percentage of responsibility, with the exceptions listed in (b) — Texas is not a joint-and-several state by default.

Both sides of this crash have something to answer for, which is exactly why it lands in that framework. A driver turning left is generally expected to yield to oncoming traffic that is close enough to be an immediate hazard, and being already committed to the turn does not by itself settle the question. Ask a Texas attorney how it applies to your intersection.

What the other driver told you is real evidence on the other side of the ledger. 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 an operator to control the speed of the vehicle as necessary to avoid colliding with another person or vehicle that is on or entering the highway in compliance with law and the duty of each person to use due care. A driver whose attention was on a child in the back seat rather than on the road ahead is the ordinary shape of that failure. Whether a jury weighs that more heavily than your turn is the fight.

On the information you are waiting for, the law is on your side. Tex. Transp. Code § 550.023 requires the operator of a vehicle involved in a collision resulting in injury or in damage to a vehicle driven or attended by a person to give their name and address, the registration number of the vehicle they were driving, and the name of their motor vehicle liability insurer to the other operator, and to show a driver's license if it is requested and available. You are entitled to that at the scene; you should not have to chase it for weeks.

Your own policy may pay while all this is argued. Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.152 requires personal injury protection to be provided unless a named insured rejects it in writing, and § 1952.155(a) makes PIP benefits payable without regard to the fault or nonfault of the named insured and without regard to any collateral source. Tex. Ins. Code § 1952.101 requires uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage on the same terms, which matters if the other driver turns out to be uninsured or thinly insured.

What you can do

1. Report the crash to your own insurer now and ask specifically whether you have PIP and uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage.

2. Preserve what already exists: the photos you took, the phone number you were given, any texts between you, and the vehicle damage before repair.

3. Ask the police agency for the crash report if an officer responded. Texas has no driver-filed report, so there is no form for you to submit.

4. Get checked by a doctor if you have not, and keep the records and bills together.

5. Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer and do not discuss percentages of fault with anyone but your own insurer or your own lawyer.

6. Because fault is disputed and the bar is a hard one, talk to a Texas attorney before you accept any offer or sign any release.

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) requires suit for personal injury and for injury to property to be brought not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues. When that day falls depends on your facts, and in a disputed-fault crash the evidence that decides the percentages fades long before the deadline does. Have a Texas attorney review your dates and the fault question together.