QuestionQUESTION: I am in Sacramento California. Real quick question..try to give you info so you can visualize this. I was driving on a one-way 3 lane street in the far LEFT lane. A Suburban in front of me slowed to parrallel park. He went in front end first because it was the last space at the corner of the alley way. When Suburban was done, I continued to drive by and as I was passing, they suddenly began to drive again and merge over and literally pushed up side by side against my driver side?! Then they immediately turned left into that alley driveway. Apparently they realized that they were not allowed to park there and decided to pull up and turn left into the alleyway. However, they did not check their mirrors/blindspot/look over their shoulder and they pulled up against me.
He begged me not to report to insurance, I did however. He told me plainly that he'd lie to his insurance company (state farm). He did. He stated that he drove forward to turn left into alley way and DID NOT GO OVER THE LINE INTO MY LANE. They denied my claim. Now we are going to court.
It is obvious that if you are in the far left PARKING lane, in a Suburban, that if you pull forward to attempt to turn immediately LEFT into an alley driveway, that you MUST pull out towards the RIGHT, away from the curb, then whip back to the left to drive in the alley way. If he literally pulled forward then immediately left WITHOUT going into my lane...his back tires would have driven over the sidewalk. Just not possible with that size and length of car. His insurance took his side...they like to save their money anyway.
I need someone who knows about cars, SUV's, size, lengths, and just general knowledge of technical measurements of driving this maneuver. I am even allowed to bring a VHS tape video. If someone has a comparable SUV, I'll video tape at the exact location on J street and see if they are able to turn left and NOT cross into the driving lane on their right side.
To me...it seems so logical and I just can't believe that he got away with lying!? I feel like the judge will believe me. However, this is my VERY FIRST, and hopefully LAST, experience with this. I have never been in an auto dispute and never been to court. I want to be prepared.
Please help! I can't let this guy get away with this!
Does this make sense? Do you have any thoughts at all on this?
ANSWER: Honestly, if you tell the judge exactly what you've told me, I believe that you'll be fine. It makes perfect sense. A small claims court judge isn't going to let you take the time for a bunch of technical jargon that gets into vehicle length and geometry.
Good luck.
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QUESTION: Well that makes me feel soooo much better. Thank you. I asked someone about this and they said that I will probably lose. He wrote:
"I used to work for a insurance company as an investigator and from what you had stated, you will not win your case because you had the better line of sight then the other driver, being in an suv works to your favor if your in a collision because its hard to see out of one and it would have been a lot easier for you to have seen a big suv pulling out, plus the same law applies with a car pulling out of a parking spot or drive way you are at fault if you hit them because you can see them better then they can see you. Sorry about your luck but in all honesty you will not have a leg to stand on."
I can't believe that? Do you know about what he said about having "the better line of sight" law??
AnswerYes, that is a valid defense argument in some accidents. It is most often applied in lane change cases where the party to the right generally has much more opportunity to avoid vehicles coming from the left when they are traveling in the same direction.
I've never seen this argument applied in a situation where someone is pulling out from a parking space and making a wide turn. This driver had the opportunity to check for clear space while sitting at a dead stop. He could have turned his head and been much more capable of observing traffic than a car driving down the road.
Let me know how court goes, ok?
