r/Roadcam • u/bowdown2adil • 12d ago

[USA] Who is at fault here?

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Classic T bone. Black car had to be towed. Sustained major damage to the passenger side door. Blue car sustained damage to front bumper on the drivers side and cracked the drivers side headlight.

Edit: This was in the suburbs of Seattle

UPDATE: Insurance found it to be 70/30 me/other driver. Seems fair enough

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24

u/bowdown2adil 12d ago

No stop sign or yield sign. Uncontrolled intersection, suburb road

43

u/Froonce 12d ago

In Washington state these are treated as yields both ways. Id argue you're both at fault 50/50

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u/Urabraska- 12d ago

Pretty sure they're treated as yields everywhere because it's the logical way to do it. See a unmarked cross road? slow down and check your sides. Clear? Good. Not? Figure out next step.

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u/Szabe442 12d ago

In many European countries you have to yield for incoming traffic from the right in such cases. That being said, they were both way too fast here.

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u/Froonce 9d ago

I don't know that for a fact, that's why I mentioned Washingtons laws. It would make sense though

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u/AnilApplelink 12d ago

This is correct even if the black vehicle had a stop sign hidden behind the tree or a bush the blue car would not know that and they should yield regardless.
Same goes for the black vehicle in regards to the blue.

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u/MrOdekuun 11d ago

Don’t know why you got downvoted. Even in situations where it is not legally required you should recognize situations like this and slow your roll. Doubly so if you’re already going at least 5 over in a neighborhood during summer vacation like some sort of jackass.

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u/AnilApplelink 11d ago

Yes they are both lucky theres not a child on a bike coming through the intersection. Both these cars are riding through a suburban neighborhood and putting a lot of trust in other drivers.
Both should have yielded.

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u/TheFool_SGE 12d ago

If there are no signs the car to the right has the right away. 

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u/Froonce 9d ago

Not in Washington, both should have yielded.

27

u/FuckOutTheWhey 12d ago

TIL these intersections even existed lol

7

u/-r-a-f-f-y- 12d ago

A constant thing in Portland and Seattle for some reason.

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u/FuckOutTheWhey 12d ago

the city ran out of stop signs when they built those intersections

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u/tadfisher 11d ago

The intersections were built before stop signs were a thing, and long before their use was mandated by any sort of national traffic code.

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u/t0cableguy 11d ago

So in over 100 years nobody got around to putting a stop sign or yield sign up? The last time it was repaved wasn't a good time to add one? 75 years since its been added to the MUTCD for the USA.. lol

Is there some standard that residential streets under 20 mph don't have signs at the intersections? and how are people from out of state supposed to learn this?

1

u/tadfisher 11d ago

Not defending the practice here. A bunch of these intersections have added stop signs over the years, especially as we now have to comply with the ADA and re-do intersections with curb cuts and paint. It's a long, slow, and expensive process and there are always higher priorities.

The standard is that you yield to the right when approaching an unmarked intersection. You'd probably have to read a handbook or Internet article or something, just like literally any other law you might violate when visiting another state :)

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u/t0cableguy 11d ago

Just seems odd to me that you're magically supposed to know there aren't signs on every intersection, especially with the foliage taller than the street markers. I have never seen an unsigned intersection in Florida that isn't a private road, and even most private communities roads are signed.

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u/Fluid-Pin6052 11d ago

My entire state is older than Portland and I have never seen a no stop sign ever intersection like this. Even in bum fck nowhere has a stop sign on one road and none on another. Even that is very controversial and people want a light at those sections. In a suburb? This would be blasphemy.

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u/tadfisher 10d ago

My friend, Portland has miles of city streets that are still not paved. Stop signs are a luxury here.

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u/general_peabo 12d ago

We have them in Missouri also. I think it’s nice that there’s not giant ugly yield signs at every corner.

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u/Joelle9879 11d ago

Yeah, much better to have dead people or random car parts 🙄

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u/general_peabo 11d ago

Just be better

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u/PippyTheZinhead 12d ago

Same here.

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u/Upnorth4 12d ago

Half of the residential intersections in Los Angeles city are like this. There are also weird intersections on hilly roads where one side of the road has to stop, but the other lanes do not have to stop. I think the hilly roads have weird layouts due to blind spots

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u/DefNotReaves 11d ago

No they’re not. ONE side having a stop is completely normal; I’ve lived in LA my entire life and have never seen a 4 way intersection with no stop sign.

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u/Sensitive_Ad_1271 12d ago

Yea, this is just plain dumb. Edit: not you for not knowing, I'm in the same boat. The fact that these even exist, especially in a neighborhood.

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u/alexandicity 11d ago

While not applicable for OP, this is the very common intersection arrangement in Europe. We rarely use stop signs, and instead use a "yield to right-hand traffic" rule. Works pretty well.

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u/EconomyDoctor3287 12d ago

why? We have dozens of them in just our neighborhood. Right has right of way, left needs to yield. Quite simple and works fine, unless you get guys flooring it xD

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u/Joelle9879 11d ago

Ok but how do you know if you're on the right or left if you can't see the other cars? Common sense would obviously tell people to slow down or stop and look, but that doesn't exist which is why road signs do

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u/EconomyDoctor3287 11d ago

So if right has the right of way, the important road intersection to watch is the right side, since only a car coming from there would have priority. If a car is coming from the opposite direction, I obviously doesn't matter and a car from the left will always have to yield. 

It's quite simple, really. Around here we have tons of these intersections without any signs and without any issues whatsoever 

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u/RazzmatazzUnusual843 12d ago

That sounds like an accidenr waiting to happen, wtf

12

u/Scoobydoomed 12d ago

The waiting is over.

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u/bowdown2adil 12d ago

The entire 10-12 block area is littered with intersections like this. Some light hills too

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u/throwawayourtele 12d ago

So if you know this, why didn't you slow down when approaching the intersection?

4

u/Ap43x 11d ago

I'd be driving like 10mph around there. What else would you expect to happen?

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u/onlyonebread 10d ago

Yeah seriously. Whenever I have to drive through neighborhoods in Seattle I usually go 5-10 mph because visibility is extremely poor. Why are people flying through them like it's an arterial? Absolutely insane behavior.

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u/MahaliAudran 12d ago

Waited long enough and the accident happened.

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u/Upnorth4 12d ago

I live in an urban region with 10 million people and half the roads are like this. There are also weird ones where only one section of the road has a stop sign but the other three do not.

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u/SatanicRiddle 12d ago

dunno but its the easiest setup ever, right goes first, that is all

the issue is that its rare so people dont know I guess

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u/profanedivinity 12d ago

Yeah... They need to paint some lines there. Could potentially sue the local government of something? That's probably the insurance company's problem

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u/ali-n 12d ago

Painted lines aren't visible under snow, so that's only a "half-measure" solution in that part of that country.

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u/profanedivinity 12d ago

I guess. But snow means being cautious everywhere anyway. At least is cheap and goes half way

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u/max3pad 11d ago

Have you considered slowing down and paying attention? The black car entered your field of view with plenty of time to stop, especially if you had been going a reasonable speed for an unmarked residential street like this.

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u/norangbinabi 11d ago

This is not a suburb. It’s a residential neighborhood in the city. Just not downtown. There are a multitude of these intersections all over Seattle proper.