I was in a car accident. The other driver was cited, but the police officer said that I could have avoided...?

the accident.

Here's what happened. I was making a left turn in the left lane. A car about 6 vehicles behind me thought it would be a good idea to cross into an empty on-coming traffic lane to make the turn. I was in process of the turn and she hit me in the side.

The officer cited her for driving in the wrong direction, but said he put me down for not checking my blind spot. I told him that the only person that could legally be to the left of me would be a car heading in the opposite direction.... but he said i should still check...

Will i have a problem making the cited driver pay for my damages? They are very minor, but i have a pretty expensive car. I have a 2008 Audi S4, and anything Audi is extremely overpriced.

Rapid Fire

The other driver is clearly at fault and the cop (while being an ***) is essentially correct. You have nothing to worry about with your insurance or if this goes to court. The other drive did deliberately go into a lane they had no right to be in and did cause the collision with your vehicle.
What the cop said has no bearing at all since he chose to charge the other driver and not you.
Any court will plainly see that you had no reason to expect a car to be coming up upon you from the opposing traffic lane.

Mike S

Well you should always check your blind spot, just for stupid people like the one that hit you. But you just need to place a claim in on the other persons insurance company. If they don't have insurance, then small claims court. The judge will be able to determine who was at fault.

UCANTCME

You wont have any problems because this was the other drivers fault and as stated above you do need to always check and never assume but at the end of the day its their fault....make sure that you make a statement about this with your insurance company ASAP.

Friendly Stranger..

Since the driver was cited for the accident the driver's insurance should still cover the damages. As for you, you should "always" check your blind spots. No matter what the situation, if you are making a move into traffic always check the blind spots. The officer was correct in this sense, because you should have looked before you moved. In this case both of you were at fault for this. The other driver was at fault because they did not check to make sure that the passage way was clear and they hit you in the side.

eric

Just put in a claim to the other driver's insurance or ask your own insurance to put in the claim for you. If you have collision coverage, which you probably do for a 2008 car, you can put in a claim to your own insurance after paying your deductible and your own insurance will go after the other driver's insurance (or the other driver if she doesn't have insurance) and when they collect, you'll get your deductible back.

From your description of the accident, it sounds like there wasn't a center turn lane? Or if there was a center turn lane that you were in, then the other driver is just more stupid for trying to go around you. The cop has a valid point of always checking your blind spot. I always check my mirror/blind spot before moving in the center turn lane to make sure someone else isn't there, but I never think of checking in this situation because there shouldn't be someone in an oncoming traffic lane. Did you have on a turn signal?

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