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Keep forgetting to ask a policeman. So I'll ask here.
Scenario: 4 lane FWY.
A car in lane #1 and a car in lane #3.
Lane #2 is empty.
Both drivers decide to take lane #2, for whatever reasons, at the same time. Correction. Both drivers are at the same speed and "nose to nose" in their respective lanes.
Legally - and it's WA state, should it make difference - who has the right of yield?
Happens all the time on multiple lane FWys.
It would be a dual fault accident. There would be no way to establish who had more of the lane. For insurance purposes, each party would take care of their own damages.
I would agree that in the case of an accident, the insurance would probably not find a single person at fault. That said, insurance does not always equate to the law and generally,in most states, the person on the left should yield to the person on the right. A quick glance at the WA vehicle code shows that is the law when two vehicles get to an intersection at the same time (driver on left yields to driver on right), but does not seem to indicate the same law applies at a non-intersection. Based upon the wording of that rule in WA, I don't believe they have legally defined the right of way in this instance. Of course, if one driver did not signal or something, that would also be taken into account. I would also imagine no tickets or anything either.
Well, it's not the question of being bigger or smaller man. Those merges happen on I-5 continuously and I spend at least 2-3 hrs a day commuting, about 60% of that commute on that FWY. Not necessarily "nose to nose" but people jump into any gap in any lane at first opportunity.
Personally, I'd have assumed that RIGHT side is "yield to" side. It is a world wide used principle. But that means nothing here.
So I was mostly curious.
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