Assessing who is at fault for an accident described
by one driver as "the other car came out of nowhere."In my many years of
practice as an attorney handling car accident cases, I can hardly begin
to count the number of times that I have heard a witness say that "the
other car came out of nowhere," which is then typically confidently
asserted to demonstrate why they were not at fault and the other driver
must have been.
There is usually an accompanying declaration that,
"I looked both ways before pulling out, and no one was coming." However,
the true catch phrase and red flag is the statement that follows - "so I
pulled out and then, another car creams/rams/barrels/t-bones/(pick a
colorful word) me, 'out of nowhere.'"As an attorney, when I hear the statement that the car came "out of nowhere," what I hear is that the person so exclaiming was not paying attention or maintaining a proper look out. The law requires all drivers to exercise due care and maintain a proper look out, particularly so when pulling out of a parking lot or turning onto a different roadway, because in that position, the driving turning or pulling out has an obligation to yield to drivers already on the roadway. This means that if there is a bend in the road or some other obstacle obstructing your view, you should exercise the level of caution necessitated by those particular circumstances and proceed in pulling out with all due caution. Unless there are witnesses to attest that the other vehicle was operating in an unsafe manner (texting, talking on the phone, driving at an excessive speed, in the wrong lane) or the car skidded or level of impact otherwise demonstrates that the vehicle was operating in an unsafe manner, the presumption will be against you as the driver having pulled out onto the roadway.
Cars do not come 'out of nowhere,' thus it is up to you to ensure that you have looked far enough down the road and intelligently surveyed the scene before pulling out. If there is a bend in the roadway, then perhaps a vehicle could appear from around the bend at the precise second that you choose to pull out - in such a case, you must pull out with sufficient vim and vigor to ensure that you can safely clear such a potential hurdle. If something is obstructing your view, then you should slowly creep the vehicle forward and or onto the shoulder of the roadway until you have a clear view and are more certain that the roadway is clear for you to pull all the way out.
