Left Turning Driver Is Not Always At Fault

I just completed a successful jury trial, Avila v. Sherrier, et al., in the Murrieta Branch of the Riverside County Superior Court. Our Judge was Raquel Marquez and the Defense Attorneys were Stephen Moore of Ford Walker Haggerty & Behar and Joseph Walsh of Ives, Kirwan and Dibble.

My client is a 76 year-old woman who was a passenger in her daughter’s car. It was a situation where children were being dropped off at school in an area where there was a middle school and an elementary school on Lincoln Avenue in Riverside. Traffic was backed up and blocked an uncontrolled intersection leading up to the school. A driver who had just dropped her son off at Matthew Gage Middle School was attempting to turn left at the uncontrolled intersection.

The intersection was initially blocked by cars. When the intersection opened up the driver on the other side yielded to the driver attempting to turn left. That driver pulled forward and left only three feet. So there was an expert, Isaac Ikram, that testified that her line of sight was limited by the position of her car, the car in front of her and the obstacles such as the “A” pillar of her car and the car in front of her. Issac Ikram testified that had that driver pulled to a point approximately in the middle of the lane then she would have been able to see the other driver approaching and the collision could have been avoided.

My client’s daughter had been stopped in traffic per an independent witness. She pulled out of the stopped traffic and proceeded to drive to the right of traffic. The vehicle code allows you to do that as long as you do it with reasonable safety. The expert for the left turning driver, Thomas Fugger, testified that her speed was approximately 30 miles per hour and that she was not turning left, but in reality going straight when the collision occurred. He testified that the other expert had positioned the car in the wrong place for his sight analysis and that by the time that the left turning driver had started her turn she had “control” of the intersection and the other driver had the duty to yield to her.

The jury found my client’s daughter 100% at fault. That is somewhat unusual as a left turning driver has a high duty of care. The left turning driver knew that vehicles would drive to the right of traffic and testified that she had seen them do this and turn right about 4-5 times prior. She testified that she was looking for such an occurrence prior to making her left turn, although she only looked for 2-3 seconds. Ultimately, the jury thought that my client’s daughter was the only one at fault for the crash due to her speed and apparent inconsistency in her testimony. Her insurance company, Amica, will be responsible for paying the jury verdict for my client’s medical costs and pain and suffering, as well as costs of bringing the case to trial.

So if you are involved in car crash that one of the party’s is turning left, you cannot just assume that the left turning driver is at fault. You should consult a competent attorney that may have to conduct extensive investigation and hire experts to determine who is at fault. If you need a consult on your case, do not hesitate to contact our office. We will put together a winning strategy like we did for our client in this case.