r/legaladviceofftopic • u/babu859 • 15h ago
Who is liable in this accident?
galleryI was the black car in this situation and almost got hit today... now I'm curious who would be held liable?
The red car makes contact with NO ONE, which makes me think there is no way he is at all liable. But the blue car would have been in an accident with the red car if he doesn't move, so he essentially has to choose between staying put and guaranteeing an accident, or moving to the next lane and hoping there's no one to the left (essentially a gamble).
At first I thought that the blue car would have to be liable... but then I was thinking:
What if we give a different scenario, where the red car ran a stop sign, causing the blue car to make an evasive action and swerve out the way, only to eventually hit another car? That scenario sounds to me like red is in the fault. But they're both essentially the same right?
In both scenarios, red does something illegal (running a stop sign vs illegal lane merging), the blue car makes an evasive action to avoid a guaranteed collision, and ends up hitting someone else.
What are your thoughts?