En Español
You won’t get far in Atlanta without taking a left turn, yet left turns carry a greater risk of accidents than most other everyday driving maneuvers. When you’re turning left, you must yield to other vehicles, and that makes left turns a prime candidate for driver mistakes and errors in judgement. Left turns are a leading cause of T-Bone collisions, which can total cars and leave drivers and passengers with serious injuries. If you’ve been involved in a left-turn accident that wasn’t your fault, you don’t have to shoulder the cost of your injuries alone. You are entitled to financial recovery from the driver who caused your accident. An Atlanta left-turn accident lawyer can help.
At John Foy & Associates, we help accident victims get financial recovery for their injuries so they can heal and move on with their lives. We devote our entire law practice to victims, never taking the side of insurance companies, and we have become one of the most widely respected law firms in Georgia. We offer a free consultation to discuss your case and advise you on your options. Call us at 404-400-4000 and get your free consultation today.
What are the rules for left turns in Atlanta?
If you make a left turn in the City of Atlanta you must follow Georgia’s traffic laws. The Georgia Drivers Manual describes these rules for making a left turn:
- Use your turn signal and give other drivers adequate warning
- Turn from the far-left lane, or the left turn lane, if there is one
- Yield right of way to all vehicles, including bicycles, that are approaching from the opposite direction.
- Yield to pedestrians.
- Turn so that your vehicle ends up in the center lane of the road you are turning onto. If there is no center lane, you should turn into the lane closest to the center line.
- If there are multiple left turn lanes, stay in the same lane as you turn onto a new street.
- You cannot change lanes in an intersection while making a left turn.
- You must stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk of a road you are turning onto, and you must remain stopped until they clear the lanes of traffic you are traveling on. Pedestrians will usually have a “walk” signal if the light is green in the direction you were originally traveling.
- You can make a left turn on red from a one-way street onto another one-way street, but you must follow all traffic laws.
Who is at fault in a left turn accident?
Because drivers making left turns are required to yield to oncoming traffic and stop for pedestrians, the driver making the left turn is usually at fault in a left-turn accident. This may happen for several reasons:
- The driver may not have seen an oncoming car, a pedestrian or a bicyclist.
- The driver may have misjudged the speed at which other cars were traveling.
- The driver may have been distracted by a cell phone or other distraction.
- The driver may not have used a turn signal.
- The driver may have changed lanes illegally while making a left turn.
In some cases, however, the driver making the left turn is not at fault. For example, if you are turning left at a signal and another driver runs a red light or flies through the intersection at an extremely high speed, the collision may be the other drivers’ fault, not yours. And some left turn accidents happen because of a malfunction with an automobile or traffic signal, making a manufacturer responsible.
What costs can I get in a left turn accident claim?
Georgia law allows you to recover 100% of your costs related to a left turn accident that wasn’t your fault. This isn’t just limited to your doctor bills. You can recover the cost of:
- Your doctor and hospital visits and other medical bills
- Your prescription medications
- Physical and rehabilitative therapy
- Repairing your car or replacing a totaled car
- Your lost pay, if you missed time from work because of the accident.
Depending on your injuries, you may be able to recover additional sums of money, particularly if you have severe pain or an ongoing disability. In some cases—such as when you were hit by a drunk drive—the local courts may award you punitive damages designed to punish the driver for making poor choices. Of course, money can never replace the losses you’ve suffered in an accident, but we hope that it will at least help ease your financial stress as you continue your recovery process.
Do I need a lawyer for my left turn accident?
Many people think they don’t need a lawyer for a left turn accident because the accident is clearly caused by the driver making the left turn, and that driver has car insurance. In fact, the other driver’s insurance company may already have contacted you with a settlement offer.
The problem with these quick settlement offers is that they’re almost always way too low. Insurance companies are trying to make a profit, so they have a financial motivation to pay you as little as they can get away with. They hope you’ll take the “easy money” before you have a chance to get a full medical diagnosis and find out what your injuries will really cost over time. At John Foy & Associates, we know these insurance company tricks all too well, and we make sure our clients get a full evaluation by a qualified doctor before we even think about talking to the insurance company. We know how to present your claim in the best possible way and force them to the negotiating table. In most of our cases, we are able to get a substantially better offer without ever having to file a lawsuit.
There’s no risk to you if you hire us to handle your left-turn accident claim. We won’t change you any legal fees—ever—unless we win money for you. If we are able to get a financial recovery, we’ll take our fees out at the back end. We think this is the best way to give accident victims access to quality legal help when they need it most.
Talk to an Atlanta Left-Turn Accident Lawyer for Free
At John Foy & Associates, we’d like to help you get the money you deserve for your left-turn accident injuries. We’ve been helping accident victims like you for 20 years. We offer a free, no-obligation consultation to talk about your accident, explain the law, and help you decide what to do. Call us at 404-400-4000 or fill out the form to your right and get your FREE consultation today.
