Hit while sharing a lane – Who’s at fault?
Every riding season, we get calls because a biker saw a car pulling over as if they were making a turn or pulling off the roadway, and at the last moment veer back into the lane ramming into a bike who was trying to go around the car. The biker always tells us the car didn’t signal. This type of Washington motorcycle accident is not only common, but also tricky when it comes to getting insurance companies to pay for your bike repairs and medical bills. You may be thinking it’s obvious the car was at fault and therefore the insurance should pay up to fix the bike and cover any medical bills the biker might have incurred. Well, under Washington vehicle and traffic laws the car is not entirely at fault. In fact, in Washington it is illegal for two vehicles to share one lane at the same time, which means that when the biker tried to go around the car which had begun to pull over but had not yet turned (and therefore was still somewhat in the lane) the biker was advancing and sharing the la
