ehrhart@sri-spam.UUCP (05/23/86)
This news group has been much to quiet lately !! And seeing as those it's my favorite I thougth I'd try to breath some life into it regarding the topic of lane splitting. In California, lane splitting is as I understand it, is not illegal. But what are the legal ramifications if you have an accident while splitting lanes ? Imagine this scenario and what you would do: There you are cruising down a three lane highway at Friday afternoon at 5:00 PM on your way to the Honda dealer to put a down payment on a 1985 Nighthawk 700s. You are going about 20-25 MPH splitting lanes between traffic moving about 15 MPH. All of a sudden a guy in an out of state $300 beater car changes lanes right in front of you. You crash into his driver's side door, carroming off and going down. You land on your butt, the bike's got a couple of broke turn signals and handlebars bent a bit from landing on one side. Damage to the car is almost unnegligable. Now for the toughie for all you experts out there. Who is at fault ? If this sound like a made up story, it probably isn't. Tim Ehrhart 415-859-5842
bw@lanl.ARPA (Barbara Weintraub) (05/23/86)
case of an accident References: <5808@sri-spam.ARPA> Reply-To: bw@a.UUCP (Barbara Weintraub) Distribution: usa Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory Keywords: legal ramifications In article <5808@sri-spam.ARPA> ehrhart@sri-spam.ARPA (Tim Ehrhart) writes: > >In California, lane splitting is as I understand it, is not illegal. >But what are the legal ramifications if you have an accident while >splitting lanes ? > >There you are cruising down a three lane highway at Friday afternoon >at 5:00 PM. You are going about 20-25 MPH splitting lanes >between traffic moving about 15 MPH. All of a sudden a guy in an out >of state $300 beater car changes lanes right in front of you. You >crash into his driver's side door, carroming off and going down. You >land on your butt, the bike's got a couple of broke turn signals and >handlebars bent a bit from landing on one side. Damage to the car is >almost negligible. > > Who is at fault ? I no longer live in California, but this could very well have been me a couple of years ago. Lane splitting is legal in CA, and the scenario you outlined above is fairly common in terms of predominant conditions. Almost regardless of what the car driver was doing, the mc rider is at fault in any accident while splitting. If anyone has any info contradicting this conclusion, I would certainly like to hear of it. Barb Weintraub Los Alamos Nat'l Lab ...cmcl2!lanl!bw bw@lanl.ARPA
chip@vaxwaller.UUCP (05/23/86)
> Now for the toughie for all you experts out there. Who is at fault ?
The bike is at fault. Even though it is legal to lane split
here, you are expected to proceed with all due caution, and, even if
the clown in the car didn't signal (and could get cited for an unsafe
lane change), the bike would probably be found at fault, and could be
cited for driving in an unsafe manner (I agree it's a catch-all, but
life is harsh). As has been said many times before on the net, it may
be legal, but is it sane? I won't lane split unless I know that no one
for the next 'n' distance down the road can move at all. Even then I'll
take it nice and slow. Personally, splitting lanes in moving traffic
just is not worth it to me. That's my $.02.
Happiness;
Chip
PS I hope this DOES reactivate this net a bit...it HAS been awfully
empty lately.
--
,,
*** SOLIDARNOSC ***
Chip Kozy (415) 939-2400 x-2048
Varian Inst. Grp. 2700 Mitchell Dr.
Walnut Creek, Calif. 94598
{zehntel,amd,fortune,rtgvax,rtech}!varian!chipcurry@nsc.UUCP (Ray Curry) (05/24/86)
In article <5808@sri-spam.ARPA> ehrhart@sri-spam.ARPA (Tim Ehrhart) writes: > >In California, lane splitting is as I understand it, is not illegal. >But what are the legal ramifications if you have an accident while >splitting lanes ? This is an area of great confusion and the law is not super clear. As in the case of many things in the golden state, the law is mostly based upon the CHP's interpretation of the law and how they inforce it. The clear cut laws are as follows. 1. A motor vehicle must be in a lane. That is to say no sholder or beyond white line driving. This does not mean to say that the vehicle must have sole occupancy. 2. A vehicle passing another by sharing a lane where there is legal room can not interfere with other traffic. This has caused citations where cars felt pushed and swerved or hit the breaks. 3. A vehicle turning or changing lanes must signal for 100 feet before. Okay, that's about it for the law. There are defacto assumptions and prece- dence that extend the considerations. First there's the old standby that in a uni-directional collision, the driver from behind is general assumed at fault. Lack of turn signal if provable by independent witness or ad- mission by the offender becomes the major fault. In addition, the CHP uses some guidelines in when lane breaking is legal. If the traffic is stopped or moving slowly in a bumper to bumper condition, (10 to 15 mph but I have heard some traffic schools say 25) and the motorcycle passes slowly (5 to 10 mph), they generally won't interfere. The motorcycles should not be causing problems with the cars however. I have seen people not fully understand and pass high speed traffic to get around slower traffic. That will someday cause anti lane splitting laws to be passed. I have my own theories about when its proper. Bumper to bumper traffic is very necessary because you don't want spaces that cars want to change into. Stop and go traffic, because you are more likely to get rear ended that swerved into (no. one accident is still the rear ender). I don't split in city traffic unless I know I'll miss several lights. City cops give more tickets for it as well although they generally get thrown out in court. Why bother cutting to the head of the line to pass a few cars. Boy this is getting long. Anyway about the accident. Here practicallity overrules the law. The insurance company will decide. If both are insured, both will be faulted so both rates go up. If one is uninsured, the blame will go totally on the uninsured. If both are uninsured, no one will be found at fault unless the cop wants to write a ticket on the spot, which probably won't happen. A word of advice from one who rides 101 in San Jose and breaks lanes alot. The motocycle should take the care to make sure the accident doesn't happen. Lane changes are predictable even without a signal. There is one case that the bike can't avoid. That's if the car immediately to the side squeezes over to get in. Then the same thing would happen even if there weren't a car to the other side.