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Who's at fault?

A long time ago, I got a ticket for driving without my headlights on (in the night of course). I totally forgot to turn the headlights on. I had an old eff'd up car, so the instrument panel was not working. It was in the city, and the street lights were bright. Anywho, I had no good excuse. I thought for a small, minor thing, the cop would not show up in court. He did. While in court, I wasted my time waiting for my case to come up, but I did pay less than the fine.
 
el jorge loco said:
My legal opinion:
The Camaro is 100% at fault for causing this accident. However, you would have to assume that the pick-up was driving at the posted speed limit and no higher. Also, I can only apply the laws of the State of California, not any other state (this video was in NY).

The Camaro violated the law in two ways: (1) using the shoulder/emergency lane in an attempt to pass; and (2) tailgating. He could also be charged for reckless driving given what he is doing on top of the other violations to the vehicle code. The pick-up, again assuming he was driving the speed limit, would have been deemed driving normally, except the one bit where he used the emergency lane slightly to avoid collision with the Camaro.

At civil law, the Camaro is also at 100% fault because he caused the incident by using the shoulder in attempt to pass and then cut off the pick-up while in that position. Whether or not the pick-up should have let the Camaro pass earlier is a non-issue if the pick-up was driving at the posted speed limit.

No matter how you look at it, from a legal standpoint, based on JUST the video, the Camaro was the absolute actual and proximate cause of the accident.

My personal opinion:
At a certain point, you have to recognize that there is some lunatic behind you trying to pass. If it was me in the pick-up, I would have driven faster to get ahead of that one semi towards the end of the video and let this guy go. As you can see in the video, it just isn't worth it to give some asshole some grief. You are legally allowed to drive beyond the speed limit for a short amount of time if you can show that there was some guy behind you closing in and it was reasonably necessary for you to increase your speed above the speed limit to safely move out of the way.
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You actually missed the first violation, lane change into an occupied lane, that alone would of been a moving violation and two points on his record. The truck using the break down lane would of been seen as evasive maneuvers and not seen as a violation or ticketed. I had an accident that had me avoid a high speed runner and slightly hit a compact car, the trailing police officer wrote the accident up as no fault. He saw it as both my car and the car I slightly hit to have been secondary damage to the red light runner who was running from police. I was thankful as it saved me a ton of points, increased insurance rates and a woman who looked like she had a lawyer on speed dial.

You nailed most of it correctly with regards to CA law and that cluster fuck of an alcoholic fueled tour of the turnpike. There is no way to know what the speed of the vehicles is with regards to the posted speed limit but the pickup was at least traveling at the speed of the semi and he can be guaranteed to be at or just above the speed limit due to the money\time nature of how they make money. The pickup driver is nearly taken out by the Camaro making a lane change into him, forced half off the road before giving just enough space for the Camaro to slide in behind. I would of recognized the alcohol\drug induced driving weave and gotten the hell out, but the driver of the pickup is not obligated to do anything he deems unsafe in getting out of the way. I keep hearing people say speed up but in the end, he wasn't obligated by any law to speed up to accommodate a drunk driver.

Had it been me, I would of sped up a bit, moved to the right and hit have my car dial 911. I would of asked for local dispatch of area I am in and let them know I am following a highly intoxicated driver heading (insert direction, road # and make and model of car), Having spent the last twenty years traveling CA roads for my job, I have had to do this quite a few times. Not every time but most often I have a CHP car come flying up, light em up and pull em over. I just laugh and wish I could watch the arrest go down.

Tuco and a few others are seeing this new breed of driver, I equate them to online gamers who's greatest achievement is how much they can irritate and piss everyone else off, a griefer. These assholes know they are holding up traffic, acknowledge them by glancing in rear-view mirror, and yet will not move over to let faster traffic pass. I recently had a CHP officer, cute woman no doubt, let me off the hook for making a pass that hit 83 MPH in a 65 due to some ass-hat in one of those new BMW I3 (what ever that new Prius like car from BMW is). The guy had been holding up HWY 101 from Salinas all the way to Gilroy doing 62 MPH. I was a ways back and he had people so angry they were doing stupid shit to get past, yet he would could not be bothered to give one ounce of courtesy to anyone else on the road. I didn't see the CHP moving up in traffic to get this asshole pulled over and the moment I saw some clear light I zoomed past and I get pulled over... She heard my protest and agreed, the BMW driver was a nuisance and becoming a road hazard, she did get me for a fix it on a brake light...
 
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Those I3's are full electric me thinks, so they can be used on carpool lanes?
I saw one at KFC parking lot last week. Wow. Nice design.
Much better looking than Prius's, to me.
 
v.Kamikaze said:
So did she go after him and make him move out of the way? lol
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Sadly no, in the end she saw me as the greater threat to safety and pulled me over. When questioned about the driver in the BMW going several miles below the speed limit in the fast lane she agreed, only due to her probably hating drivers just like him did I even get off with a warning, the ticket even stated the speed of travel, LOL.
 
tuc0 said:
Those I3's are full electric me thinks, so they can be used on carpool lanes?
I saw one at KFC parking lot last week. Wow. Nice design.
Much better looking than Prius's, to me.
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i think they're just as ugly as a prius, lol
 
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