Car Driver Motorcycle Trucks Left Turn Laws

The statute just read to you uses the word “hazard.” A “hazard” exists if any approaching vehicle is so near or is approaching so fast that a reasonably careful person would realize that there is a danger of a collision [or accident].

[A driver who is attempting to make a left turn must make sure that no oncoming vehicles are close enough to be a hazard before the driver proceeds across each lane.]

• Duty to Yield Right of Way: Left Turn. Vehicle Code section 21801(a).
  
  
• In California, Veh. Code, § 21801, governs the respective duties of drivers of left-turning vehicles and those of approaching vehicles. That statute imposes upon the left-turning driver the duty to ascertain, before proceeding across each successive lane of oncoming traffic, if any approaching vehicle constitutes a hazard. § 21801, subd. (a). Section 21801, subd. (a), has been construed to mean that if the oncoming vehicle in the lane closest to the left turning vehicle surrenders its right of way by indicating to the operator of the left turning vehicle that it desires him to proceed, such operator may not proceed beyond that first lane of traffic, now effectively blocked by the waiving vehicle, if in fact other vehicles approaching in any of the other oncoming lanes will constitute a hazard to the left turning vehicle during the turning movement. Pursuant to § 21801, subd. (b), the burden shifts to oncoming traffic to yield the right-of-way to the left-turning driver only where the left-turning driver has complied with § 21801, subd. (a), but is forced to stop midturn for some reason beyond the driver’s control. Gilmer v. Ellington, 159 Cal. App. 4th 190.
  
  
• “We hold section 21802, subdivision (a), requires that where, as here, some, but not all, of the oncoming vehicles have yielded their right-of-way to a left-turning driver, that driver has a continuing duty during the turning movement to ascertain, before proceeding across the next open lane(s), if any vehicle is approaching from the opposite direction so close as to constitute a hazard.” (Sesler, supra, 219 Cal.App.3d at pp. 224-225)
  
  
• Noting that in 1957 the Legislature added the phrase “at any time during the turning movement” to this section, the court in In re Kirk (1962) 202 Cal.App.2d 288, 291, reasoned that “if the oncoming vehicle in the lane closest to the left turning vehicle surrenders its right of way by indicating to the operator of the left turning vehicle that it desires him to proceed, such operator may not proceed beyond that first lane of traffic, now effectively blocked by the waiving vehicle, if in fact other vehicles approaching in any of the other oncoming lanes will constitute a hazard to the left turning vehicle during the turning movement.”
  
  
• From the authorities, the following rules may be gleaned: (1) approaching vehicles in oncoming traffic that are close enough to constitute a hazard to a left-turning vehicle, have the right-of-way over that left-turning vehicle; (2) a left-turning driver has a duty to ascertain whether an approaching vehicle constitutes a hazard and, if so, to yield the right-of-way to that approaching vehicle; (3) such duty continues throughout the turning maneuver and applies to each approaching vehicle in each successive lane of oncoming traffic; and (4) even where the driver of an approaching vehicle yields its right-of-way, the left-turning driver has a continuing duty to anticipate that other drivers will not yield their right-of-way; i.e., the left-turning driver may not treat one driver’s yielding as a yielding of the right-of-way of any other approaching vehicle. Veh. Code, § 21801. Gilmer v. Ellington, 159 Cal. App. 4th 190.
  
  
• Where all the participants are adults, driving in ordinary circumstances, a driver who signals permission to a left-turning driver to cross in front of the signaling driver’s vehicle assumes no duty to other drivers to warn the left-turning driver of the approach of those other drivers: As a matter of law, the signaling driver’s hand motion signifies nothing more than permission to cross in front of the signaling driver’s car and cannot be relied upon as assurance that all is clear ahead. Gilmer v. Ellington, 159 Cal. App. 4th 190.