Who's at fault in this accident?
 

I will say that I think the Police Officer making the U-Turn is at fault. He clearly made a U-Turn in front of a moving semi without a clear view of the road behind him.

The overtaking car on the other hand had a good clear view of on-coming traffic to make his pass.

http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/2256...ml?thema=autos

Well, imagine you had been able to see the cop. Imagine you're overtaking anyone, and they suddenly steer into your vehicle. The matter of fault seems pretty clear cut then. I think it applies here, too. The guy's overtaking, the cop steers into him. It's an accident still, but the cop car would be at fault in my opinion.

i wod say that it wasnt anyones fault unless there is a law on how many cars one can pass in the left lane. otherwise no one broke the law so no one clearly did any wrong doing.

If you look at the angle of the police car on the road its obvious the officer had been on the shoulder of the road instead of the actual road. The officer should have waited until the train of cars had passed before making his U-turn.

I have no idea what he is saying. but I imagine it to be something like "oh my god, **** me... did I really just hit a cop? I am so ****ed. Why do you spurn me lord!" or somesuch.

The cop was being reckless. That was too close already to the semi, and allowed no alternative to possible oncoming traffic. As long as it was a legal space for passing, i see no other person who could be at fault.

Okay, here are my reasons for why the Officer is at fault. Now, I'm not sure where this accident occurred. Tried to find out with some searches but couldn't find anything but links to the video itself. I don't think the collision happened in the US, I don't recognise any of those squad cars.

In the US on a 2 lane rural highway it is legal to overtake traffic in the opposing lane so long as its a intermittent line. There are some other stickers about specific footage from a hill or crest which I agree with. A double solid line marking the lanes means that neither opposing, nor your own lane is allowed to overtake. If its a single solid line plus a intermittent line the side with the intermittent line is allowed to overtake. Usually the solid/intermittent combo is because as you crest a hill you are not allowed to blindly overtake. But as you decent down the hill you have a clear view so overtaking is allowed. However, U-Turns on rural highways are illegal.

Why do I think the officer is at fault?

The Overtaking car was overtaking with a intermittent white line.

The officer was parked on the shoulder and made his U-Turn without a clear view of oncoming traffic. Also, the officer did not have lights/sirens on indicating they were responding to a call. The sirens only came on after the car was struck.

Dacia.

That car I mean. So my guess would be some very poor country. Could be the home country of Dacia, Romania....(Or is it Romany in english...)

Was the officer parked there and then moved out in front of traffic, or did they slow down and go off onto the shoulder to make the u-turn?

Laws vary drastically, but here you can make a u-turn anywhere you want unless posted otherwise.

The way that I see this video is the officer wanted to make the u-turn so slowed down, waited for oncoming traffic to pass by, then which he preceded to make the u-turn. Just unfortunate for them, someone wanted to pass up a semi, half semi and a car.

The guy passing up the semi's didn't know that traffic was slow because a copper wanted to make the u-turn.


It is really hard to say imo, especially if they both were performing legal actions. This is why it is always dangerous to perform either action. I have almost witnessed several accidents where someone is going slow, the guy behind decides to pass the slow dude, but then almost hit someone pulling out from their driveway. The copper wouldn't know that someone decided to overtake without sticking their noise out, and the guy overtaking wouldn't know someone wanted to make a u-turn right there unless they hit them. lol


Now if the copper decides to pull out in front of a semi, half semi and two cars without concern of themselves or others, then fail on them.

copcar making u-turn so short of oncoming traffic. He had no vision whatsoever.

Also not bright driver of intaking car, too long of line existing of cars/trucks.

It looks like the vehicles he was passing were stopped/stopping for the officer based on the brake lights of the last car in the line. With that being said, it's kind of a 50/50 fault because the officer clearly couldn't see around the semi and pulled out rather quick and the person overtaking was kind of reckless by passing a bunch of cars with their brakes on.
I don't know about you all, but if I saw a bunch of cars slowing/stopped I would assume there is a reason for it and follow suit.

50/50 ?
Copcar is fault, should of waited for his turn when he had clear vision of road behind him.

They are cops yeah, reckless turning is a shame. What if a car is between two trucks and decides to overtake first one? same accident.

--- Post Update ---

DACIA is sub from Renault. Cheap yes, but we also see their SUV wannabe's driving here.

So are you saying if you saw 3 cars stopped/slowing you would just pass them without thinking "why"?

I am saying... it is not wise to overtake this long of a vehicle line.


Second I say, if between two semi's car would overtake situation be same. Accident.

Copcar should have waited for clear vision.

Copper could have pulled onto the side of the road and waited. It was a haphazard decision to pull a u-turn like that. Wholly at fault and reckless driving.

I cant +1 you, so here ya go

I think overtaking 3 vehicles like this is very risky, and at some point the parked cop car would have been visible to the overtaking car. But the cop car should have waited until both side of the road were clear before pulling out, so ultimately the fault lies there.

+1 for you too

Just looking at what we can see, they're both at fault. We didn't hear the siren until after the crash, but at the same time the guy shouldn't have been passing so many vehicles at once. I know a lot of you jackasses around here think you're as brilliant as a F1 driver, but you just don't pull stupid **** like this. You assess what's ahead of you and then you pass, which is clearly not what this moron did.

Was it parked or was it a u-turn? If it was parked, 100% the coppers fault. If it was a uturn, the officer did wait for the left lane to clear to make the uturn which is also why the guy in the back decided to overtake, the left lane was clear.


I wouldn't really say what the cop did was reckless because that is fairly common for cops to do. Just pull a uturn. Very reckless though to over pass 2 semis and a car all at once, especially when they are already slowing down for some reason.



As far as the siren, could go either way.
Was the copper in the process of turning it on? Does the siren automatically go off when the vehicle is in a accident? Maybe dopplar shift?

I wouldn't be surprised if the copper was going after that vehicle that passed in the left lane. Most of the uturns I see pulled are when the cops pass someone breaking the law.

In Eastern Europe (that's where this is, right?) it's usually the fault of whoever hass the least money.