Yielding is an important practice that drivers in New Mexico must master for the safety of everyone on the roadway. Failing to yield the right-of-way when it is required can have serious consequences, such as a harmful or fatal crash. If you get hurt in a failure-to-yield accident, learn your rights with help from an experienced car accident attorney in Albuquerque.
The Dangers of Failing to Yield
Failing to yield means a motorist violates New Mexico’s traffic laws by proceeding into an intersection or roadway when it is someone else’s turn. In specific traffic situations, such as at an intersection, New Mexico has laws that dictate who has the right to proceed. Breaking these rules increases the odds of a collision by putting a driver in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Failing to yield the right-of-way is an extremely dangerous mistake that can lead to catastrophic accidents. This includes T-bone collisions, head-on collisions, high-speed accidents, and collisions with vulnerable road users (motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians). These accidents can lead to broken bones, brain injuries, spinal cord damage and other serious injuries.
Who Has the Right-of-Way in New Mexico?
The “right-of-way” refers to the legal right to proceed based on the traffic laws applicable to the scenario. Motorists in New Mexico need to learn these rules before they attempt to navigate public roads. Otherwise, they may make dangerous mistakes that result in a failure-to-yield accident.
Right-of-way rules vary based on location:
- At a crosswalk: pedestrians have the right-of-way at marked and unmarked crosswalks in New Mexico. Drivers are required to stop and yield to pedestrians who are approaching or already in a crosswalk.
- At a four-way stop: at a four-way intersection with stop signs, the driver who arrives first has the right-of-way. If two vehicles arrive at the same time, the vehicle to the right has the right-of-way.
- At a signalized intersection: at an intersection that has a traffic control signal, drivers must wait for the steady green light to proceed. A steady red light requires the driver to stop. When making a left turn at a green light, drivers must yield to oncoming traffic.
- At a highway on-ramp, all traffic that is already on the highway has the right-of-way at an on-ramp. Drivers who are entering the highway are responsible for yielding and merging safely into existing traffic.
The right-of-way is not automatically given to any one type of road user in New Mexico. Instead, drivers must adjust to each unique circumstance based on applicable traffic laws.
Violating traffic laws or negligently failing to yield is a tort or wrongdoing that can make the driver responsible (liable) for a victim’s related injuries.
Common Failure-to-Yield Accident Scenarios
Serious accidents in New Mexico can happen due to many examples of a road user failing to yield the right-of-way to others as required by law. Knowing how to recognize the most common failure-to-yield scenarios could help you avoid a collision:
- T-bone accident: a T-bone or side-impact collision can occur in an intersection if a driver runs a red light or passes through a stop sign without coming to a stop. This is an extremely serious type of accident that can lead to catastrophic injuries and deaths.
- Head-on collision: another severe type of auto accident that can come from failure to yield is a head-on collision, when the front ends of two vehicles collide. A head-on collision can occur if a driver ignores a red light or stop sign and collides with cross traffic.
- Left-turn accident: a driver turns left at an intersection, driveway or parking lot without yielding to oncoming traffic. This is an especially common risk for motorcyclists, as they may easily be missed by inattentive drivers.
- Highway accident: failing to yield when merging onto a New Mexico highway could lead to a high-speed collision, such as a sideswipe, blind spot accident, rear-end collision or multi-vehicle pileup.
- Bicycle or pedestrian accident: vulnerable road users are often victims of failure-to-yield accidents in New Mexico intersections. Cyclists and pedestrians may get hit by negligent drivers when trying to cross the road.
The failure to come to a complete stop, yield to others who have the right-of-way, and wait until the safe and lawful time to proceed can have serious ramifications. While some of these accidents involve shared fault by both parties, in most cases, they are caused by a driver who violated traffic law.
Proving Fault in a Failure-to-Yield Accident
New Mexico is a fault state, which means when a car accident takes place, the injured victims have the right to seek compensation from the at-fault party. However, the victim is responsible for proving fault with evidence. Proving fault for a failure-to-yield accident generally means providing evidence that a driver was in violation of a traffic law when he or she did not yield to the victim.
Elements of Negligence
Proving fault in a car accident case often requires proof of negligence. Negligence refers to someone failing to act with the proper level of care for the situation, such as a person driving while distracted, drunk or drowsy.
Negligence in a failure-to-yield case has four parts:
- Duty of care: the defendant or accused party had a duty to operate the vehicle safely, obey New Mexico’s right-of-way laws and behave reasonably to prevent accidents.
- Breach of the duty of care: the defendant breached or failed to fulfill their duty of care, such as with negligent, careless or reckless driving behaviors. This includes failing to properly yield.
- Causation for the accident: the defendant’s breach of duty is what caused the automobile accident. The crash most likely would not have occurred without the failure to yield.
- Damages: the victim suffered real, specific losses as a result of the defendant’s negligent failure to yield, such as physical injury, property damage and medical bills.
Examples of negligence in a failure-to-yield case include ignoring red lights or stop signs, coming to a “rolling stop,” texting while driving, driving under the influence, failing to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk, speeding, and illegally passing a stopped vehicle at a crosswalk.
Evidence to Gather for Your Failure to Yield Case
If you were involved in a collision because someone failed to yield you the right-of-way in New Mexico, you can take steps early on to build and support your car insurance claim. This includes collecting evidence you can use to prove negligence or fault.
Common types of evidence are:
- Police accident reports
- Witness statements
- Photos from the scene
- Video footage of the accident
- Property damage analyses
- A driver’s cell phone records
- Accident reconstruction
- Testimony from relevant experts
In addition, do your best to gather evidence proving your injuries and the losses caused by the failure-to-yield accident. This can include copies of your medical bills and health care records, property repair estimates, and lost wage statements.
Comparative Negligence in New Mexico
Fault is often disputed in a failure-to-yield case. It is possible that both parties involved in this type of case share fault if they both did not yield the right-of-way correctly. For instance, if a pedestrian crossed at a Don’t Walk signal but a driver ran a red light, both parties could be allocated a proportion of fault for a resultant collision.
New Mexico uses a pure comparative negligence system, where an injured victim can still recover financial compensation with shared fault. This means even if the injured person contributed to the failure-to-yield accident, he or she retains eligibility for a diminished settlement.
Under New Mexico’s law, a victim’s financial settlement will be reduced by an amount equivalent to his or her percentage of fault for the accident. Twenty percent of the blame, for example, would reduce a $100,000 settlement by 20 percent ($20,000) to an $80,000 final recovery.
Since New Mexico uses a “pure” version of this law, there is no cap, short of 100 percent. In states with modified comparative fault laws, a plaintiff’s ability to recover compensation is capped at a certain percentage of fault, typically around the majority share (51 percent).
What to Do After a Failure-to-Yield Accident to Protect Your Rights
It is common for car insurance companies to try to blame the victim to diminish payouts. In the aftermath of an accident involving someone failing to yield the right-of-way, do your best to protect your rights by taking the following steps:
- Check for injuries.
- Call 911 to report the accident.
- Get medical care right away.
- Don’t admit fault.
- Exchange information with the other driver and any eyewitnesses.
- Take pictures at the scene.
- Look around for surveillance or traffic camera footage.
- Notify your own car insurance company of the crash.
- Contact the other driver’s insurer to file a claim.
- Call an attorney from The Fine Law Firm before accepting a quick settlement.
Before you give a car insurance provider a recorded statement or sign anything, contact us to discuss your rights. We are highly knowledgeable and experienced car accident lawyers who can help you with every step of the claims process.
When to Contact a Car Accident Attorney in New Mexico
If you get hurt in an accident involving a driver who failed to yield the right-of-way, it can be helpful to contact a car accident lawyer for assistance with the insurance claims process. These types of cases can have challenges, such as an insurance company disputing liability and trying to blame you for the collision.
An attorney can help you collect evidence to help prove fault, such as accident reconstruction evidence, police reports, eyewitness statements and video footage. Your lawyer can negotiate with an insurance provider or litigate your case in court to fight for fair financial compensation for your medical bills and property repairs.
To learn more about how a car accident attorney can help you with a failure-to-yield case in Albuquerque, contact us at The Fine Law Firm for a free case review.