In Oregon the passing car on a 2-way street/highway has the right of way. If you pass and the other car decides to turn left it is their duty to make sure no one is passing them.

 

The question also is ... How fast were you going? If your speeding down the road and decide to pass a car in your own lane, thats wreckless endangerment (term used here in Canada).

To do that kind of damage to your car while hitting a car comming the other way, or even a parked car/object i can see. But for you to do that damage while a car is moving in the same direction as you, you would have to be going quite a bit faster then her to make that kind of damage on contact.

 

It's a tough call on that one, the determining factor will probably how far along side here you were when she initiated the turn, my guess is that even if you were right next to her (front fender of your to her drivers door) with it being a large SUV she probably still didn't or wouldn't of seen you, looking at your car I'd guess you were more towards her blind spot. Generally the overtaking will wind up with the charge (unless they decide to leave it at 50/50. If she had caught you at the dor of your car or further back....definately her fault. Best of luck and hope the ball rolls your way.

 

Sadly, there is no such thing as a blind spot. Anyone licensed to drive has the capacity to turn their head and look at what isn't in their mirrors, but apparently the way the law is written (the car further ahead has right-of-way) there is no punishment for cutting someone off.

Unless you have a witness attesting to illegal lane change or aggressive driving or something like that, her stupidity alone is not enough to pin it on her unless there is clear evidence that your nose was ahead of her.

Dave

 

to make a left turn while crossing traffic, she must have been going pretty slow...sounds like you decided to pass her as she was turning...

 

Being a motorcycle rider I tend to be very aware of the "not recognized as a blind spot" blind spot. Position of the passing car is generally the key factor (as you pointed out Dave) in determining who gets the ticket (that and who the cop likes better) usually the passing car gets the ticket (much like the guy who rearends someone) wish you luck. Jack

 

I believe he said it was a two lane road, so she went from her lane across the oncomming lane and into the ditch with him. The speeds couldn't have been too fast (as an SUV very seldom makes high speed turns)

 

She was driving an SUV, I say: enough said.

 

Jesus bless.

 

So you assumed since she was slowing she was making a RIGHT turn without signaling and you decided to go around her in the oncoming lane when in fact she was making a LEFT turn and you hit her? Sorry to say this, but even though she did not signal her turn, she still had possession of the lane.

 

Hope everything turns out all right with the insurance. If it was up to me I would place all the blame on the lady, not using turn signals is one of the things that pisses me off the most when I am driving and no one here in NC use there ******* turn signals so I get angry alot.

 

NAH... Those dimwits have a reason for not using their turn signals.

They just assume that you have all day to wait until they make up their minds what they are going to do before you pass them. They're so dumb that they don't realize that using their turn signals can keep THEM out of an accident.

The other thing that ticks me off is when they turn on the turn signals when they have already started to turn!