Imagine yourself in a position in which you probably have been on hundreds of occasions. You are driving your car, stopped at a stop sign, while waiting to make a right turn. The street you will turn onto has two lanes of traffic heading in the direction you wish to go.
You see only one car near you. It is in the lane closest to the center line, traveling in the direction you will be heading after you make your turn. This leaves the curbside lane open for you. (Arizona law requires that you use the curbside lane, when making a right turn).
Sensing that it is safe to begin your turn into the curb lane, you do so. At that moment, however, the driver of the oncoming car changes lanes and moves into the curbside lane. The result is a collision.
Who is at fault?
This situation appears to place in conflict two different requirements of Arizona’s traffic laws—the duty to yield vs. the duty to avoid unsafe lane changes.
In most cases, an investigating police officer will issue a citation to the driver of the car making the right turn. The legal obligation to yield the right of way is controlling. Generally, the driver of a car who has the right of way need not assume that another driver entering the roadway will fail to yield.
Insurance claims, as opposed to traffic citations, might be treated differently. Under Arizona’s shared-fault law, some portion of the fault might be attributed to the driver who changed lanes, particularly if he did not signal his lane change in advance.
Drive defensively. Do not make turns until it is clearly safe to do so and use your turn signals. Avoid damaging property or causing injury to anyone.
The law may not require you to assume that another driver will not yield the right of way, but a good defensive driver never takes anything for granted.