Car accident at intersection, both parties are claiming to have had a green light?

[walazins314]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia

My sister, myself, my grandmother and my sisters 2 year old were driving through an intersection when we were struck on the side of our vehicle totaling our car. I am 100% certain that our light was green, as is my sister and grandmother.

The other driver however has another car that claims his light was green. That other vehicle however, was stopped at the light coming from his direction. The driver claims that he was coming up to the light and it was red. He went to get his drink and took his eyes off the road, and when he looked up the light was green and our car was in the intersection, and he had no time to stop.

The police say that because he had a witness non-related that my sister will likely get charged, but what I am having such a difficult time understanding is, the driver admits to coming up to the light and that it was red.. He then took his eyes off the road to get a drink and when he looked back up, yes he claims his light was green, but regardless, he still had no time to stop to avoid our car.... Had he planned on stopping in the first place?????

I am without a doubt certain that our light was green. The witness that claims his light was green was stopped at the light coming from his direction. And the driver admits to taking his eyes off the road while the light was red and that when he looked up he could not stop in time to avoid our vehicle.

There is no guarantee that these two people do not know each other. Legally how can we prove he is at fault here? There are no traffic cameras at this light and the only witnesses we have are the ones in our vehicle. This literally happened an hour ago and my sister is being held at the ER for monitoring because she is pregnant. So I have not been able to obtain the police report to verify that they indeed accurately documented it this way as he stated it.

Any help or suggestions?

 

[ecmst12]

Witnesses related to and/or in the same car as the driver are useless - they are not INDEPENDENT witnesses.

The witness they spoke to was not involved in the accident and has no known connection to either driver. If the driver's insurance can uncover some prior relationship to call his statement into question, then that might affect the investigation. If she gets a ticket and wants to fight it and SHE finds some evidence of bias by the witness, that might help her. But, in this situation, in the BEST case scenario (for your sister) you end up with a 50-50 fault division and they both pay for their own damages.

None of this nonsense of "he wouldn't have had enough time to stop IF the light had been red because he wasn't paying attention" has even a speck of relevence. An independent witness, uninvolved in the accident, says his light was green, so why would it matter what would have happened if the light had been red? The witness' statement is going to hold the most weight in the investigation, by far.

 

[walazins314]

...so why would it matter what would have happened if the light had been red? The witness' statement is going to hold the most weight in the investigation, by far.

It would go to show negligence on the Driver. Approaching a red light, not only without the intention to stop, but without keeping his eyes on the road to see if it would turn green or not seems pretty negligible. I'd bet you'd be singing a different tune if it was a kid that ran out trying to cross the street while they had a green light and got killed because of this person's negligence.

I'm not saying that you are wrong on the outcome of this situation, but you hold a distorted view on things if you think that his recklessness should play no part in this situation. Not to mention, if his witness claims the light was green, why were they still sitting still at the light when the accident happened. Either they didn't realize it was green because they also weren't paying attention or it simply wasn't green.

 

[ecmst12]

The investigation is to find out what DID happen. What MIGHT have happened doesn't matter.