Cherry Hill T-Bone Accident Lawyers

Where do T-bone accidents happen?

T-bone accidents can happen anywhere. These car accidents often occur at:

• Intersection accidents. Intersection T-bone accidents usually occur when cars in perpendicular lanes both try to cross through the intersection at the same time. For example, if you’re waiting at a traffic light, you have the right to proceed when the light turns green. If another car to your right or left tries to run through the red light, the front of your car could strike its side.

Liability should be clear if one person failed to stop at a stop sign or drove through a red light.  Liability becomes more difficult when the intersection has no light or stop sign. The issue then becomes who had the right of way.

• When a car backs out into traffic or a car merges into traffic from another road. Generally, a car that is entering a roadway from another road, a parking lot, or a driveway has a duty to yield the right-of-way to the driver who is already driving on that roadway. Still, liability may be an issue if the driver who is traveling on the road sees the entering car and fails to move into another lane or slow down to let the car enter the same road.
• Parking lot accidents. These broadsides usually occur at the end or the start of an aisle of cars as cars that are circling the parking lot, leaving the parking lot, or just coming in from the highway. T-bone accidents can also happen if a driver backs out without checking to see if there are any moving cars behind them. Generally, the drivers of cars that back out without looking are liable. Otherwise, an investigation of the accident is required to determine who is responsible.
• When a car is making a left turn across traffic lanes. As a rule of thumb, drivers who turn left assume the risk. Drivers should not start their turn until all traffic coming towards them or from their sides has passed them by. Still, there may be situations where the car that turned is not responsible and the other car is – such as when you have a green light and turn left, and while you’ve completed most of your turn, a car in an oncoming lane speeds through the intersection or drives through a yellow or red light.

T-bone accidents may also be due to the negligence of the New Jersey Department of Transportation or other state entities/agencies to properly design or maintain a road – such as by failing to install a stop sign or a traffic signal at an intersection that clearly needs one.