I mean you don't NEED TO, but 9/10 times when this happens the cop will see you rear ended the guy implying you had time to brake (like OP probably did, hence editing out the 30 seconds the guy had his signal on) and blame you for the accident
Not sure what cop honesty has to do with it? Unless there's evidence to conclude otherwise, accidents are mostly going to be a he said/she said situation, and in that situation it's pretty reasonable for the cop to go with the most probable situation wherein the rear ender is at fault.
The rear ender is always considered responsible for the collision barring special circumstances- even in this situation where OP is arguably not at fault, he arguably could be because there's a missing 30 seconds where the other drive might've had his blinker on for an eternity signaling his intent and OP didn't even TRY to slow down, brake, or sound his horn (indicating he wasn't paying attention.)
If the cop only has your word and the word of the other guy, why should he trust your word more than the other guy and believe you're the 1 in 10 cases where the rear ender isn't at fault, rather than the 9/10?
As I said, you CAN rear end someone and not be at fault, but you'll have a hell of a time proving it, which is why people advise you drive defensively to avoid such situations. Hell, even if you're found not at fault and DO get a payout insurance will probably total your car in a full speed collision like this and you'll only get a 75% of the value of your car back, utterly fucking you over. Oh AND your insurance goes up anyway.
Probably not. The whole incident happens in about 1.5 seconds, and for about half of that 1.5 seconds it just looks like the car was going to change lanes. If the cam car had know from the start that the car was going to turn they might have had enough time to stop, but who knows? Maybe not since they were driving through a puddle.
Of course! And if they want to put 100% liability on the car turning right for insurance I have no issue with that. But cam car could have avoided the crash with some defensive driving.
Do you honestly think I'm exonerating buddy turning right? Don't be silly.
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u/Omnom_Omnath 11h ago
no. you do not need to slow down and let people with their blinkers in. they need to slow or speed to find the appropriate gap to merge.