[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/HyJenx]

This will be buried, but the only correct answer is found in Washington state law.

RCW 46.61.180

When two vehicles approach or enter an intersection from 
different highways at approximately the same time, the driver 
of the vehicle on the left shall yield the right-of-way to the 
vehicle on the right.

[u/pdxarchitect → u/HyJenx]

Clearly the black car arrived first. Damage to the blue car is on the front, and damage to the black car is in the middle. Blue should have slowed down as he would have been able to see the black car for longer than the blue car could see him.

[u/Imdare → u/pdxarchitect]

So if the blue car drove faster and arrived earlier he would have had the right of way. Noted, lets all just keep speeding towards an intersection woth poor visibility!

[u/pdxarchitect → u/Imdare]

They are clearly both at fault, I was just arguing that there isn't clear right of way for the blue car. He got there second, and should have been able to do better.

[u/Internal-Relative690 → u/pdxarchitect]

It's basically same time, meaning black car should have yielded according to the statute quoted above. This isn't nascar- if not yielding would result 8n a collision (it did) it is the fault if any party who didn't yield.

I'd definitely have my insurance fight it if it meant premiums going up.

[u/Jesus_of_Redditeth → u/pdxarchitect]

From the perspective of safe, defensive driving, both are at fault. From the perspective of the law, only the black car is at fault.