Houma Failure to Yield Accident Lawyer
As defined by Houma law, vehicles on side streets must yield to the traffic in the main thoroughfare. Any person entering from a driveway or a parking lot must yield the right of way to the traffic proceeding on the highway they want to enter. In Louisiana law, one highway has the right of way in a key intersection. When a person approaches it and there is a stop sign, they must stop and cannot move into the pathway of the other lane of travel unless it is safe to do so. Anybody operating a motor vehicle must yield to the traffic on the other roadway before they enter.
A Houma failure to yield accident lawyer has seen these collisions commonly occur when someone is coming out of a parking lot, a private driveway, or an intersection controlled by a stop sign or a flashing red light. Contact a distinguished car accident attorney to begin filing a claim for the damages you are rightly owed.
Common Accident Patterns in Houma
Failure to yield accidents often occur at stop signs and exits of parking lots. In addition, individuals exiting off a four lane highway or merging into traffic on a four lane highway must yield the right of way to the vehicles that are proceeding on the main road. They can make a turn, they can enter the highway, but they must yield the right of way to the vehicles that are traveling on those roads when they exit from a major highway.
Complications Identifying Fault
When there is a stop sign or a yield sign, identifying fault in a failure to yield case is never an issue. However, if someone is entering the road from a private parking lot or from a private driveway, they may enter the intersection without stopping and looking before it is safe to go forward. They are required to yield the right of way. The offending party entering the roadway often that has the superior right of way may claim that they did not see the other vehicle and the other vehicle that had the right of way was speeding.
Houma car accident attorneys often see failure to yield collisions are caused by mistakes of someone not keeping a proper lookout for another vehicle. They may look to the left and to the right, and pull out onto the roadway without looking back to the left again. If the driver with the right of way sees that another driver has failed to yield the right of way, he must take reasonable steps to avoid a crash if reasonably possible.
Role of Liability
When there is a stop sign or someone enters a roadway that has a superior right of way, they are at fault if they cause a collision. From the standpoint of the party that is injured when a driver did not yield the right of way, there may be an argument that the driver was speeding or could have avoided the accident by turning one way or another, applying the brakes or blowing a horn. These accidents happen suddenly and the party that is not yielding the right of way is more often going to be found to be at fault.
There are often road signs present but sometimes they are not obeyed. For example, in an accident at an intersection where a two-lane roadway enters a one-way controlled access highway, a witness may allege that the party at fault did not yield or stop. Another example is an accident that occurs in an intersection where someone wants to make a left turn and hits another vehicle. The driver of the left turning vehicle may claim that the person injured was speeding. Although witnesses are important, it may be critical to speak with a Houma car accident attorney about how to establish liability in a potential failure to yield case.
Insurance Companies’ Expectations
There is not much the insurance company can do when their insured individual is ticketed for failure to yield; especially if the ticket is paid, or the crash report by the investigating officer indicates that the fault was their insured. They may try to claim some comparative fault or mitigation such as not keeping a proper lookout, speeding, or not honking their horn. In situations where there is a sudden violation by failure to yield, the law tempers any comparative fault to the injured party because there is a presumption people will obey the traffic rules, follow the rules of the road, and yield the right of way. If someone has further questions about if a failure to yield car accident may be covered by insurance, they should discuss this possibility with a Houma car accident attorney.
How a Houma Failure to Yield Accident Attorney Could Help
A Houma failure to yield accident lawyer can help in numerous ways. They obtain the crash report and order the 911 recordings. They can speak with the witnesses identified in the crash report or discovered during their investigation. The attorney talks to first responders and obtains evidence from local business establishments that may have recorded the crash.
A law firm in Houma has more employees than a solo practitioner. They have the resources to retain investigators and accident reconstruction experts early on and generally have more experience, more knowledge, and more resources. If you need guidance throughout the ensuing legal process of a failure to yield accident, contact our firm to get started today.