Car Driver Motorcycle Truck Turning Laws (Veh. Code, § 22107)

A driver must use reasonable care when turning [or moving to the right or to the left].

• Turning and Changing Lanes. Vehicle Code section 22107.
  
  
• “This provision does not require the driver to know that a turn can be made with safety but only that he must exercise reasonable care, and whether such care has been exercised is normally a question of fact.” (Butigan v. Yellow Cab Co. (1958) 49 Cal.2d 652, 656 [320 P.2d 500].)
  
  
• Section 544 of the California Vehicle Code, Cal. Veh. Code § 544, permits the making of a turn only when it can be made with reasonable safety and after giving an appropriate signal. This provision does not require the driver to know that a turn can be made with safety but only that he must exercise reasonable care, and whether such care is exercised is normally a question of fact.  Butigan v. Yellow Cab Co., 49 Cal. 2d 652.
• Courts have held that a reading of section 22107 should be followed by an instruction clarifying that the driver is under a duty to exercise only as much care as a reasonably prudent person when making a turn or movement: “An instruction to a jury concerning Vehicle Code, section 544 [now 22107] must make it clear that the driver who is about to turn must exercise such care as would a reasonably prudent man under similar circumstances, no more and no less.” (Lewis v. Franklin (1958) 161 Cal.App.2d 177, 184 [326 P.2d 625].)
  
  
• In an action for personal injuries sustained by a taxicab passenger when the cab was struck by an automobile coming from the opposite direction as the cab driver was attempting to make a turn before reaching an intersection, where the cab driver’s testimony that he did not see any traffic coming from the opposite direction, that he gave an arm signal 60 to 70 feet before he commenced his turn, that when he was on the center line his motor stopped, and that for one and a half to three seconds he unsuccessfully tried to start the motor before his cab was hit by the automobile conflicted with the automobile driver’s testimony that when 150 to 175 feet away he saw a cab moving in the lane near the center line, that when the cab was not more than two car lengths distant it made a sudden turn over the center line in front of his car without giving any signal, and that the cab had not stopped or hesitated before the impact, whether the cab driver violated Veh. Code, § 544, relating to turning and signals, and whether the inference should be drawn that the other driver exceeded the prima facie speed limit of 25 miles per hour in a business district (Veh. Code, § 511, subd. (b)), or whether any speed in excess of that limit violated the basic rule of reasonable and prudent speed (Veh. Code, § 510), were questions of fact for the jury. Butigan v. Yellow Cab Co., 49 Cal. 2d 652