Who is at fault in a left-turn or intersection accident?

The rule of the turn

Texas law is unambiguous: a driver turning left at an intersection, alley, or driveway must yield the right of way to vehicles approaching from the opposite direction that are close enough to be an immediate hazard. The oncoming driver holds the lane; the turner holds the duty; and the anatomy of these crashes, the T-bone into the passenger side, the motorcycle or car struck mid-intersection, follows from a judgment call the law placed squarely on the person who turned. That allocation is why left-turn cases begin with a presumption worth having, and why the turning driver's insurer works so quickly to complicate it.

The two defenses, and their answers

The first defense is speed: the oncoming car was going too fast for me to judge. Sometimes true, and always testable, speed reconstructs from crush damage, event data recorders, and throw distances, and the law's own logic answers the rest, a yielding duty exists precisely because oncoming speeds must be judged conservatively, and a turner who guessed wrong at a hazard the statute told them to respect has described negligence, not an excuse. The second defense is the light: each driver swears theirs was green. That swearing match is increasingly obsolete, signal-timing records can be obtained from the city, intersection and business cameras are canvassed in days, and vehicle data fixes speeds and braking to the second, which is why the evidence race this site keeps describing is nowhere more decisive than at an intersection, the best-documented real estate in any city.

Comparative fault at the crossroads

Real intersections produce shared stories, the turner who misjudged and the oncoming driver ten over the limit, and Texas resolves them in percentages under the comparative-fault machinery covered on its own page: recovery survives unless your share exceeds half, and every point is argued with the concrete evidence above. What should never happen is self-conviction by phone, the adjuster's early theory that you were partly at fault is a negotiating position, and the yielding statute, properly deployed, is heavier than any theory.

After an intersection crash

Photograph everything, identify the businesses whose cameras face the crossing, and get the download before it overwrites. Silver Key Law works intersection cases with the statute and the physics together, and the consultation is free.

Injured in Arizona? Some rules on this page are Texas-specific. Arizona differs on points that change outcomes, including pure comparative fault and government-claim deadlines. See our Arizona answers or call (888) 508-6967.

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This page is general information about Texas law, not legal advice about your specific situation. Deadlines and outcomes depend on facts; talk to a lawyer about yours.