Who is liable in a traffic accident?

Questioner

we stop at the traffic light. it turns green and my husband, the driver, pulls away. a car came from the right claiming that he drove through an orange light. we drove into each other. the police report states that the man states that he drove through an orange light and we collided with him. it also states that i warned my husband about the car, but that it was too late. i warned my husband to stop, because i saw something approaching out of the corner of my eye. who is at fault here? after all, we had the green light.

Lawyer

The question of who was at fault is easy to answer. If you had green, then the other party must have had red (even if he claims otherwise). If I understand correctly, then your husband was the driver and you were the passenger. In that case, you are a witness. If you also saw that your husband had green, then you can act as a witness. The fact that you are married does not matter. If there is any doubt about the functioning of the traffic light system, you can request a so-called phase diagram and a conflict matrix from the road authority (= often the municipality or province). This shows whether both parties came from a blocked direction of travel in relation to each other. You can also check with the road authority whether there was a malfunction in the system. If this is not the case and you do not have a witness and the other party, the insurer of your other party should acknowledge liability. Success!