Green and Yello

[Chris Lay]

Hi, I live in California, I was at a stop light and when it turned green I went, I did not take off fast, or go through it as it was red, I was stopped while it was red then went when it turned green.
about 1 half way through the 4 way intersection, I was hit by a person who was turning left, as I was going straight., on her claims report she says her light was yellow, I state mine was green, witch it was, I had a passenger, and so did she, my passenger says the same thing as me, and her passenger says the same thing as her. so its our words against hers, now I was wondering what to about this to get them to pay for my damages because, she says yellow light, that means at least, it was yellow on the moment of entry, after that it could have easily went to red and she still ran it. I'm just confused on what to do and I don't want to take her to court and not win. any help for this would be great, I do not want my insurance to pay for this, I want either hers to, or her self.
Chris-

 

[CdwJava]

Yellow or red, the person making a left turn has to yield to traffic proceeding straight across the intersection.

But! If the other driver was facing an arrow, then the allegation might hold weight as they would apparently allege that if their arrow light was yellow your light had to be red.

- Carl

 

[lwpat]

What did the police report determine and did either of you receive a ticket?

If you are the first car at a light you need to get in the habit of checking opposing traffic before you assume that you can proceed.

Famous last words: "I had the right of way and/or the light was green"

 

[trashtalk]

If the other car entered on green or yellow it had the right of way. That's why it can be hazardous to start immediately when your light turns green.

 

[Chris Lay]

..

but if my light was green, hers must have been RED, dont all lights have a slight pause between changing to prevent people from hitting each other, that would make me think she simply wasent paying attention and just ran her light because the only thing that i could think of is that when she enterd on yellow, it chagned red almost immediatly, therefor i would have and a few seconds before my light even turned green....

 

[CdwJava]

but if my light was green, hers must have been RED, dont all lights have a slight pause between changing to prevent people from hitting each other, that would make me think she simply wasent paying attention and just ran her light because the only thing that i could think of is that when she enterd on yellow, it chagned red almost immediatly, therefor i would have and a few seconds before my light even turned green....

It depends if the turning person had an arrow or not ... an arrow would indicate a seperate light, whereas a circular green would indicate proceed when clear (i.e. to yield to oncoming traffic before turning).

The problem is that BOTH parties appear to claim they had the green - this cannot be so, and one of you must be mistaken.

A judge will have to decide this.

- Carl

 

[Robbie0723]

Let your insurance company handle this. Never accept payment directly from the other driver.