If I get in a crash while turning left, am I always at fault?

My daughter was turning left at a green light during a snowstorm. The car across from her was also turning left, so my daughter started to go. But then that car turned and another driver sped straight through and hit her. She hadn’t seen the oncoming car in time because her view was blocked by the left-turning vehicle.

We have dash cam footage, but my daughter was found at fault. Because we didn’t have collision coverage, our car was written off and we didn’t get any money for it. The insurance company said it’s always the left-turning driver’s fault – even though the other car was going too fast for the conditions. Is that true? – Michael, Alberta

When you’re turning left at a green light, it’s usually up to you to make sure it’s safe to go.

If you get into a crash, your insurance company will usually find you at fault, but how much you’re at fault depends on what the other car was doing – and what you can prove.

“When you’re turning left, the onus is on you,” said Rob de Pruis, national director of consumer and industry relations with the Insurance Bureau of Canada. “Generally speaking, a left-turning vehicle at a controlled intersection (an intersection with traffic lights) would be at least partially, if not fully, liable for the damages that were caused.”

That’s because cars going straight through or turning right at a green light generally have right-of-way over oncoming cars turning left.

When I’m turning left at a green light, do I have to wait for cars turning right?

That’s true even when the light turns amber – the car turning left is still supposed to yield to oncoming cars, he said.

So, why does fault matter? In most provinces, if somebody hits you and they’re entirely at fault, something called Direct Compensation Property Damage (DCPD) in your basic policy will usually cover the entire cost to repair or replace your car as long as the car that hits you has insurance.

But if you’re found to be 100 per cent at fault, you’re on the hook for the cost of repairing or replacing your car – unless you have collision insurance.

Also, insurance companies generally can raise your rates after you’ve had an at-fault collision.

Faulty logic?

But fault isn’t all or nothing. Insurance companies can split the fault between drivers in a collision, de Pruis said.

“It’s not zero, 50 or 100,” he said. “It could be any number in between.”

This is where it gets complicated. If you get in a crash, are found to be 75 per cent at fault, for instance, and don’t have collision insurance, you would have to pay for 75 per cent of your repairs and the insurance company would pay for the remaining 25 per cent, de Pruis said. If your car was written off, you would only get a check for 25 per cent of its value.

That split can happen when both drivers were doing something wrong. For instance, if one driver was speeding through the light. But, often, unless that speeding driver got a ticket, it might be tough to prove they were speeding, he said.

“The average driver doesn’t have the training, experience or knowledge to conclusively say that another driver was speeding,” de Pruis said. “It would just be [your] opinion.”

Provinces with DCPD generally have rules that determine who’s at fault. In Alberta, for instance, the rules say the driver turning left at a green light is liable, but there are exceptions.

“If the vehicle travelling in the opposite direction was convicted of going more than 31 kilometres an hour above the speed limit, [then fault would likely be split],” de Pruis said.

But those rules also say that you have to obey traffic lights.

For instance, Ontario’s rules state the left-turning driver isn’t at fault if the oncoming car “fails to obey a traffic signal.”

So, if you were turning left on an advance green light but were hit by a car turning right, they would be at fault because they had the red light.

But even with rules, figuring out who’s at fault isn’t always straightforward, he said.

“Usually, each driver has their own version of what happened and the truth might be somewhere in between because people recall things differently,” he said. ““So, if we can’t prove whether you’re at fault or not, [fault] might be split 50/50.”

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