At Fault Car Insurance Accident – Who Should Pay The Claim?

Reader question:

If I’m changing lanes and somebody in the lane I’m changing to is pulling out of a parallel parking spot, who is the at fault driver if we get into an auto accident?

Jerry

That’s a good question, Jerry.

It all depends on the timing of your little collision ballet, actually. For example, of the other car started pulling out before you started changing lanes, then that would bring one result. But if you started changing lanes before the other car began to pull out, then it would bring another. IT just goes to show how similar situations can be and how different the results are.

From the situation you describe, though, I want to say that it is most likely that the onus of the accident would be on the person who was changing lanes. The reason for this is, to begin with, that any time you collide with someone in a car insurance accident from behind, you are almost always at fault. This even applies when somebody slams on their brakes and then you run into them. The reason for this is that your car insurance company expects you to practice defensive driving techniques, which would have helped you avoid an accident.

It is also probable that if you started to change lanes and the other person started to pull out at the same time, that it would be a case of shared negligence. That way you would be considered responsible for a certain percentage of the other person’s damage, and they for a certain percentage of yours, depending on how much they are considered to be at fault in this car insurance accident. Either way, the person who ended up paying more would be the lane changer.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.