Left-Turn Motorcycle Accident: When a Driver Turns Across Your Path

Who is at fault when a car turns left in front of a motorcycle?

Usually the turning driver. Pennsylvania law requires a driver turning left at an intersection, or into an alley, private road or driveway, to yield the right-of-way to any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction that is close enough to be a hazard (75 Pa.C.S. § 3322). An oncoming motorcycle is a vehicle under that rule.

The insurer's usual answer is that the rider was going too fast or was hard to see. Those arguments go to comparative fault, not to whether the driver had a duty to yield. Under 42 Pa.C.S. § 7102, a rider's recovery is reduced by any share of fault assigned to the rider and is barred only if that share is greater than the combined fault of the defendants.

"I never saw the motorcycle" is not a defense

Drivers often say the rider came out of nowhere. The duty to yield includes a duty to look for what is there to be seen. A motorcycle's narrow profile can be hidden behind a pillar of the windshield frame or a van waiting to turn the other way, but a driver who pulls across without a clear view is still turning into a hazard.

Our job is to prove what the driver could have seen. That means sight lines at the intersection, the timing of the signal, the position of any vehicle blocking the view, the rider's headlight and lane position, and the time it takes a motorcycle at the speed limit to cover the distance.

Answering the speed argument

If the insurer claims you were speeding, it has to prove it. Evidence that answers a speed claim includes:

• Traffic camera or business video showing your approach
• The rest position of the bike and the car, and the damage pattern
• Skid or scuff marks on the road, photographed before they fade
• Data from the car's event data recorder, which can capture the car's speed and braking in the seconds before impact
• Witnesses who were behind you or waiting at the light

Who pays your medical bills as a rider

This is where motorcycle claims differ sharply from car claims. Pennsylvania's required $5,000 first-party medical benefit applies to policies on motor vehicles except motorcycles (75 Pa.C.S. § 1711), and § 1714 goes further: an operator or occupant of a motorcycle cannot recover first-party benefits. Section 1713, which sets the order of policies for first-party benefits, is expressly subject to that § 1714 exclusion.

In practice your health insurance usually pays for treatment while the claim is pending, and the turning driver's liability insurance pays at the end. Your health insurer may then seek repayment from the recovery. If the driver had little or no insurance, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policies may apply (75 Pa.C.S. § 1731).

Injuries typical of a left-turn impact

A left-turn crash usually means the front of the bike strikes the side of the car, often at close to full road speed. Riders are thrown forward over the handlebars or into the car. Leg and knee injuries from the point of impact, wrist and shoulder fractures from the landing, and head and spinal injuries are common. Keep your helmet, jacket and boots as evidence and get checked even if you walked away.

Intersections where left-turn crashes happen

West Chester Pike has long stretches of shopping center entrances where drivers turn left across two lanes of oncoming traffic. Baltimore Pike, Township Line Road and Lansdowne Avenue have busy intersections where permissive left turns on a green ball put the judgment on the driver. A crash in Upper Darby, Springfield or Havertown is usually filed in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas in Media. A crash in West Philadelphia usually goes to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas at City Hall.

Ask the responding officer whether a report will be written and how to get a copy. The report often records the turning driver's statement, and those early words can matter.

Deadlines and how we help

Pennsylvania generally allows two years from the crash to file an injury lawsuit (42 Pa.C.S. § 5524). Video and vehicle data can disappear long before that, so early preservation letters matter.

Warren I. Siegel, a Pennsylvania lawyer since 1992, builds left-turn cases around evidence of what the driver could see and when. Our fee is 100% contingency: no attorney fee unless we recover, all case costs advanced by the firm and repaid only from a recovery, and nothing owed if there is no recovery. Call (267) 412-4601 or send the free case review form.