Who's at fault?

I have. And when you are pulling out of a small road onto a highway that has limited sight distance in either direction (especially if you know you can't complete the turn without backing up), then you better #### well make sure it's clear before you pull out. And if you can't you better get yourself a spotter.

And what does it say about pulling out of intersections with limited sight distance?

And who is in charge of deciding what the safe speed for conditions is? A bunch of armchair quarterbacks on the internet? The police? The operator of the vehicle? The government? You might think 55mph is the safest limit for the conditions. I might think you are a pansy because I know that I can safely drive at 70 in those conditions. And don't say that we have to drive defensively for the worst among us. If that was the case, we'd all be going 15mph everywhere.

The problem with most traffic laws and statutes is that they are left up to individual interpretation. And that individual interpretation will ALWAYS fluctuate wildly depending on who you ask.

 

It's up to the driver to be able to stop as far as they can see for the conditions at the time. It's up to the driver to determine what speed is safe to do that. If the driver runs into something stationary, then they were not driving at a reasonable speed.

If the road was clear at the time Driver B pulled onto the road, then they have fulfilled their responsibility to yield to traffic. Even if you could show that they had an obligation to yield (to a vehicle that didn't exist yet...), you've got this gem- "Even when one driver is legally required to yield right-of-way, if they fail to do so, other drivers are still required to stop or yield as necessary to avoid a crash."

It's all there in black and white. Read it five times for all I care. The only way the laws make any sense in preventing accidents is by placing the responsibility on Driver A. Driver B can't just develop psychic powers. Driver B can't just randomly have a helper standing down the road at any given moment. If you hold them responsible, then it does nothing to actually deter accidents. They will be playing a game of chance every time they pull onto the road. But hey, that's the manly way to do it. If someone wants to be a pansy, they can sit in that driveway forever or grow some balls.

 

Yet I have been in the above accident. I was the driver pulling out. I got the ticket.

As I've said. Both did wrong things. But you can't prove driver A was going too fast. Unless you were there or he admits it. You CAN prove driver B failed to yield.

 

Unless you told him you were going too fast for the conditions. You should be good.

 

Whatever.

 

I'd probably be looking into grabbing some fiberglass cloth, resin, and bondo to patch the hood if it were going to take that long.

 

….on the crest of a hill on a blind curve…..

I think it was one of those freak accidents. If you approached every hilltop with a blind curve assuming someone was blocking the road we’d all be crawling at 20 mph lol. Hindsight is 20/20…so yeah the dump truck could’ve had a spotter or put a cone out, and yeah driver A could’ve been going slower, but again it was the crest of a hill on a blind curve. How many of those do we all travel everyday without an issue? What if a moose or deer was standing in the roadway? I don’t run mountain roads at a crawl because something “might” be in the roadway around the next curve.

The school bus question is moot because any quality bus company isn’t going to have a bus stopped in a blind curve. That’s just a lawsuit waiting to happen. I used to drive school bus and I had a spot that was similar to this situation. I brought it up with dispatch they went and checked out the stop and we moved it so that it was safer and cars would have a chance to see the flashing lights giving them time to stop.

 

That makes 2 of us stuck in the body shop. Do u have a loaner truck in the meantime?