“Need Expert On Fault Determination Rules For Collision”

I was involved in a collision a while ago. I was doing a left turn/u-turn in an intersection at the same time as someone else was doing a right-turn on the crossing road. There was no "no-u-turn" sign. My light was green and his was red. We basically converged in the center lane. There wasn't any charges, or injuries, and the damage is not too bad (a few hundred in damages). This is an issue of insurance and who gets the fault.

I have 2 questions.

Many of you have probably already seen that. As far as I can tell, two rules apply in my case, first, that the other guy ran a red, which makes 100% of the blame his, and the other is that I was doing a "u-turn", which makes 100% of the blame mine. If there's conflicting rules, that means it will be 50/50.

My question is about the rule that gives me 100% blame, which is this:

19. The driver of automobile "A" is 100 per cent at fault and the driver of automobile "B" is not at fault

(c) when the driver of, or a passenger in, automobile "A" opens the automobile door or leaves the door open.

It seems really weird to me that making a U-turn in an intersection would be at the same level of fault as backing up or opening your door. You *are* allowed to do a u-turn in an intersection if you have the green arrow (that makes it protected). I think what it means is a u-turn done anywhere on the road.

So my question is, what exactly is meant by u-turn in 19b, and also if the move I did could be labelled under a "left-turn"?

This is a really specific question, so if you don't know, I would appreciate at least knowing who to contact to find out.

Q 2. - When I went to report the incident (the other guy insisted on contacting the police), I indicated that the report can be released to my insurance (I was told that since the cops already had it, it would get to them anyway), but I haven't heard from them in about 2 weeks. My question is - what is going on? Has the police not forwarded my information to my insurance? Does my insurance company know but they found me not at fault so they haven't bothered to contact me? (My coverage wouldn't cover something like this anyway)

The best outcome for me here is if either my insurance doesn't find out/doesn't care, or if my insurance doesn't find me at fault.

Contacting them now could be seen as the "responsible move" which would be good for me, however as far as I can tell, they might just be finding out about it then, which would be bad.

Q 2a. - does your insurance company have to contact you when they receive information about a collision you were in? What does it mean when they don't?

Thanks folks!

PS: I browsed these forums a bit before writing this, and I saw lots of people getting into far worse stuff than this, but I would still appreciate any help I can get.

The police do not send a copy to the insurance company.

The problem I see with your scenario is that it can clearly be shown you made a u-turn but it would be harder to prove the other driver failed to stop for a red light.

screeech wrote:The police do not send a copy to the insurance company.

I'm not sure that's accurate. Many of the collision reporting centres are partially funded by insurance companies and they in turn do receive copies of accident reports.

Don't quote me on this, but aren't you supposed to report an accident to the insurance company within 24 hrs or they have the right to revoke your policy, or something like that?

UnluckyDuck wrote:Don't quote me on this, but aren't you supposed to report an accident to the insurance company within 24 hrs or they have the right to revoke your policy, or something like that?

Not exactly 24 hours. I believe it's 7 days unless there's some circumstance that would prevent you from doing so in that timeline (eg. The accident left you in the hospital). But yes, your policy would outline your requirement to inform your provider. Whether they use that against you to not pay out is another story.