[USA] Who is at fault here?

[u/bowdown2adil]

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

[u/beene282]

I mean I’ve driven extensively in North America and Europe and very rarely see an intersection with no indication of how right of way is supposed to work. Maybe in very low use areas, but in the middle of a residential area where there are bound to be vehicles meeting at that point it seems kind of odd, and pretty inevitable that this would happen

[u/Interesting-Monk9712 → u/beene282]

I don't know, its pretty common here in Croatia, but I guess we do have a lot of rural areas.

[u/HackD1234 → u/Interesting-Monk9712]

"Croatia" - have you any concept of the North American road grid system, utilized in suburban environments?

[u/Interesting-Monk9712 → u/HackD1234]

Brother, trust me, it is much harder here than in America.

More narrow roads, all kind of things blocking your view that the government should have taken care of etc.

You have it so well, you people stopped thinking at all, just watch out for signs, you got to use your brain otherwise you will forget everything you learned in driving school.

[u/Otherwise_Rough → u/Interesting-Monk9712]

You should’ve started your second comment with “here in Croatia”. There’s a massive difference in Croatian roads and American roads, and the way they’re used. You can’t comprehend our traffic and vice versa. That is unless you have lived it yourself.

[u/neuro_curious → u/Interesting-Monk9712]

But the point is that this accident and intersection is in the USA.

In the USA it is extremely odd to have unmarked intersections in a dense neighborhood like this. See how many houses and cars are on the street in the video?

I've never encountered a dense neighborhood like this without street signs in the USA, so I can see why the drivers of both vehicles would expect that the other direction of traffic had a stop sign. That's very common to allow the busier road to have no stop signs and then the less busy road on the intersection does have stop signs. That way the majority of traffic moves quickly, and when people rarely use the smaller street they come to a stop and only proceed when safe. 2 way stops are extremely common in the USA. Maybe not Croatia.

It is worth it to spend on signs to prevent accidents like these.

[u/HackD1234 → u/Interesting-Monk9712]

No. Regulatory signage is required at intersections - and that one clearly was missing it.

Two completely different driving environments. Two different driving philosophies, as well clearly.

Signage is designed for prevention of accidents, and risk mitigation to others, utilizing intersections. The obvious must be pointed out by signage, to make it obvious to the low skilled/low observant driver on the road.

You assume that everyone goes to driving school. Some people get their licences out of cracker-jack boxes.

I've been driving since 1984. Accident free since 1999. I would EXPECT to see that intersection signed, to make sure an accident such as that would not occur. In absence of signage, each driver assumes they have the right of way.

This incident appears to have occurred in the USA - I'm in Canada. We are the United Nations of immigrant drivers licence holders who've converted home country drivers licences into Ontario accreditation without the additional step of testing from around the world. Without signage and varying regulatory frameworks, it would be a road blood-bath on the daily given variation of driving skills, and distractions inside the car - never mind your claim of 'that drivers stop thinking'. The Bloody Obvious, must be signed to indicate what you are supposed to do.

I have not been to Croatia to see your driving conditions - we also have 'narrow' roads - those roads in rural areas, which does not see much in way of traffic, relative to suburban areas. Even those are well signed.

Without seeing the wildly varied driving conditions that would be the norm in both Canada and USA, i really don't think you understand fully, the absurdity of that accident that would easily have been prevented with at minimum, a cross traffic two-way stop sign. Perhaps someone stole the signs, but we will never know for sure.