Accident Fault - Failure to Yield (no headlights)

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
In Georgia:
I was cited with failure to yield - other vehicle did not have headlights on in darkish, rainy, foggy conditions.
Impossible to see other vehicle.
Witness almost hit vehicle before me, flashed his headlights at her while trying to pull out of his driveway - seconds later she hit me in the middle of the road after I had pulled out from a stop sign.

Georgia requires headlights in the rain. Witness gave police officer statement of no headlights, etc. - also other driver was on the phone at the time of the accident.

The witness confirming no headlights may mitigate your fault some, but you are still at fault. You had a stop sign and the other vehicle did not.

Maybe ecsmt would have you motoring around in conditions of low visibility with infra red goggles strapped to your head.

Anyway, I suspect the traffic court judge will come to a more sensible conclusion. But then there is the danger that he or she may lack the experience of serving as an apprentice insurance adjuster for two years.

pelicanz3 said:

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
In Georgia:
I was cited with failure to yield - other vehicle did not have headlights on in darkish, rainy, foggy conditions.
Impossible to see other vehicle.
Witness almost hit vehicle before me, flashed his headlights at her while trying to pull out of his driveway - seconds later she hit me in the middle of the road after I had pulled out from a stop sign.

Georgia requires headlights in the rain. Witness gave police officer statement of no headlights, etc. - also other driver was on the phone at the time of the accident.

Click to expand...

Where and when did the accident occur? (roughly is fine)

A traffic court judge might dismiss the ticket (that's a big might) but that doesn't change the fact that the driver with the stop sign has a duty to yield and a driver without a stop sign does not.

Also, you said "darkish", so it was not night time. I would say that means the car was DIFFICULT, not impossible to see. I think your insurance will still find you 80-90% at fault.

Rain can be present without limiting visibility (regardless of the headlight requirement). The officer made a determination based on the conditions at the time. Apparently, the officer didn't feel that the lack of headlights was a contributing factor.

We don't know if OP is trying to beat the ticket, reduce points from his/her record, recover damages from the other driver/insurance company, or recover a deductable from the other party.

Under the doctrine of negligence per se, the other driver may be found negligent because he/she violated a statute (driving without headlights), that statute was intended to protect others from harm, and the OP was a member of the class of persons intended to be protected by the statute.

That should go a long way to sway the fault towards the driver without the headlights. If the other driver was cited for driving without headlights, that would be more compelling.