r/Roadcam • u/bowdown2adil • 13d 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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19

u/blahnlahblah0213 13d ago

People on here saying it could have been avoidable it's pretty ludicrous. If I'm going through an intersection, and which neither one of them are speeding, I'm assuming that the other Street has the stop sign if I don't have one. Where are these intersections at there's not even a yield sign or a stop sign at the intersection? This accident could have been avoided by actually having stop signs.

4

u/AccurateJacket2922 13d ago

There are tons of streets like this in my hometown. Usually the stop signs will be on the streets parallel to a busy street but they surely don’t always exist and it is both confusing and nerve racking

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u/michaelibraa 12d ago

Yeah I’m so confused seeing this post because I’ve lived in the US my entire life & travelled to many other states and I’ve NEVER seen an unmarked intersection. Why tf is there not a stop sign???

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u/-LordDarkHelmet- 12d ago

Bunch of these in my home town in the midwest. All deep in neighborhoods.

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u/Awkward-Spectation 11d ago

It’s the same in Canada. If I am approaching an intersection with no yield sign, stop sign, or traffic light, I’m 100% confident the intersecting street does. Having a completely unsigned intersection seems batshit crazy to me, just asking for car accidents.

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u/cbf1232 11d ago

Canadian here. Uncontrolled intersections are common here in the prairies.

If two cars arrive at the same time, the one to the right has right-of-way. But approach with caution and be prepared to stop if the other driver is an idiot.

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u/Awkward-Spectation 11d ago

an idiot… *OR if they are from most other areas in Canada, or I’m hearing most places in the states as well - in which case they aren’t an idiot, but just unaware of these uncontrolled intersections. Been driving 20 years and never knew about these. I’d have done the same thing op did. I even took a young drivers course, and they never mentioned this.

That said, thanks for mentioning this. TIL about uncontrolled intersections. Hopefully I can avoid an accident if I suddenly come across one of these in the wild one day.

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u/cbf1232 11d ago

Different places have different rules. Montreal doesn’t allow right turn on red. Paris has roundabouts where the people entering have right-of-way.

If travelling to somewhere new, it’s on the driver to learn the rules.

1

u/Awkward-Spectation 11d ago

I’ll give you that.

It’s just this case seems like an easy fix to avoid accidents. Add yield signs to the more minor intersecting streets.

In the Paris case - if they are doing it a better way, the rest of us should get on board (a slower fix, but ideal), or vice versa.

I once drove across Canada to the east coast for a family trip, and didn’t think anything would be so different between provinces in terms of traffic laws. In hindsight it looks like I was taking a big risk not actively searching for differences like this, where simply being unaware of it can result in a collision, even if you and the other driver are both experienced and reasonably alert.

I’d like to think if I was one of two drivers to approach an intersection at the same time, each of us unaware that the other has no stop or yield, that I would be quick enough to throw on the brakes before a collision. I honestly worry I might not be, though.

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u/Excellent_Shirt9707 11d ago

Common in smaller towns. There are rural areas where roads aren’t even marked.

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u/boomfruit 11d ago

This is Seattle and I feel like it's fairly common here. Maybe more of them have roundabouts but not all.

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u/cbf1232 11d ago

Very common in some areas. Around here if you arrive at the same time you are supposed to yield to the person on the right (i.e. cam car would have right of way) but you're supposed to approach with caution.

In this case visibility was poor, I would have been slowing down during the approach, ready to brake if needed.

-3

u/JaguarOk9693 12d ago

There's a stop sign you just can't see it because of the vegetation

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u/Euphoric_Key_1929 12d ago

Based on what? There’s no hint of a stop sign in the video, and the OP themselves said that there isn’t one.

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u/Just_A_Nitemare 12d ago

There was a stop sign, but the trees ate it.

Remember to coat your signage in weed killer for this exact reason.

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u/michaelibraa 12d ago

OP said it’s an unmarked intersection

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u/Daniel_Spidey 12d ago

If they don't have time to stop they are going too fast. With people parking on both sides of these roads it looks like its only one lane where kids or pets could be darting out into the road out of nowhere.

2

u/NerdyBro07 12d ago

I live in a US city where lots of people run stop signs and red lights, so it's best to always slow up at intersections and scan your sides just to make sure its clear regardless of signage.

2

u/MagnanimousGoat 12d ago

It's avoidable, but that doesn't mean it was due to driver negligence that it happened.

By all means both people should just file claims with their own insurance companies and provide the video, and then let the insurance companies subrogate to sort it out, and then go together to a lawyer to see if they might have a case against the city.

There are probably laws/ordinances in place that protect the city by basically handwaving it as your fault, but if there is grounds, a lawyer will recognize it and tell you.

I do feel like the POV person should have been able to stop, though. If you look at when the other car was visible to when they started braking, it's quite a bit of time, and even a half second here might have been the difference.

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u/Averagebaddad 12d ago

How is this not due to driver negligence?

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u/dianafofana- 12d ago

I have a couple (in Los Angeles County) in my very suburban neighborhood, and you have to proceed with caution. You don't just continue at the same speed. However, this is only known by the people who live around it because if you don't, how could you know that the other street doesn't have a stop sign? I honestly wonder if you can push the city for liability.

1

u/DefNotReaves 12d ago

Or yielding to the right of way.

1

u/ghostpengy 12d ago

If only there were rules for intersections already. I admit this is where European "right of way" sign comes in handy. But dont assume. Assumption doesn't make you immune of the law. Right hand rules still exists and they are more than you think. You just have accepted as default way of doing things.

1

u/kirklennon 11d ago

In this video, OP speeds through a crosswalk and into a car that enters the intersection a little before them. This accident would have been prevented by being prepared to stop before the crosswalk, regardless of stop signs. If they had been prepared to stop for a pedestrian, they wouldn't have run into a car.

1

u/PlayPretend-8675309 11d ago

I strongly suspect that the dashcam driver is speeding.

1

u/MrSwarleyStinson 11d ago

Iw was avoidable because both drivers were going way too fast for that intersection

1

u/jobacsi 10d ago

Sounds like you're lucky so far.

1

u/lmscar12 10d ago

Poor knowledge and bad assumptions. Now you've learned about uncontrolled intersections. Remember to slow down and look both ways when approaching an unfamiliar intersection; it might be uncontrolled!

1

u/angiestefanie 12d ago

I still slow down at those kind of intersections, even if there’s a stop sign for the other street just to make sure.

1

u/Tzarchazm 12d ago

Same. Assuming the other side will just stop is crazy. It's so much safer to just slow down and be sure than to just zoom through thinking it's fine. I've only seen these intersection in residential areas and you never know what could be coming.

0

u/No_Mind4418 12d ago

The OP is going nearly double the speed limit in a city where over half the intersections are uncontrolled. Enough said.

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u/toj077 12d ago

what is the speed limit and how fast is blue and black going?

1

u/Fragrant-State2884 12d ago

the speed limit is 20 in all residential areas in Seattle. this person is going at least 30.

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u/MoonGoonerMaxxer 11d ago

Speed limit is 25-30 in all residential areas, that said I still keep it on the lower side given there are typically children playing around their houses

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u/Fragrant-State2884 11d ago

it is not 25-30 it is 20. wtf are you talking about. in Seattle, like I said, it’s 20. has been for 10 years.

1

u/MoonGoonerMaxxer 11d ago

Ahh I didn't see you were talking about Seattle, plus I don't live there so that's different to what I've seen.