Beyond What You Learned in Driver’s Ed

by: Robert Slaughter

We all know how important it is to keep a careful lookout when driving. That’s a basic way of avoiding a car accident. So, you may ask why you need a personal injury lawyer telling you how important it is. After all, that was stressed in driver’s ed, and besides that, anyone who even rides in a car as a kid knows that a good way for the driver to have a wreck is to fail to pay attention. Keeping a careful lookout is certainly basic, but it also has important legal consequences in Virginia and North Carolina that you may not have thought of. That’s what this paper is about.

At Slaughter & Lupton Law, we handle personal injury motor vehicle crash cases extensively in Virginia and North Carolina. Many of the cases we do involve unsafe movements—running a red light, not stopping for a stop sign, failing to yield when pulling out from a parking lot, making an unsafe lane change, crossing the center line, and so forth.

The Legal Consequences of Failing to Keep a Proper Lookout

Let’s use a running a red light example to show some legal consequences of not keeping a careful lookout. When two cars have a wreck, the typical question is which driver was at fault—or sometimes, which driver got the ticket. In a wreck at a traffic light, people will immediately ask who had the green light and who had the red light.

Yes, the driver who ran the red light will normally be considered at fault. Now, here’s one of my main points: The driver with the green light could also be considered at fault. How could that be? You might ask, “If I had a green light, and the other driver blew through a red light, and his car rammed mine broadside, how could I have been at fault?”

Virginia Law on Keeping a Proper Lookout

Starting with Virginia, let’s look at the applicable driver negligence law. In Virginia, the general law on proper lookout is that a driver must use ordinary care to look in all directions for vehicles, people, and conditions that could affect driving, and see what a reasonable person would see and react as a reasonable person would react to avoid a wreck.

The specific Virginia law for a driver with a green light is that the driver can drive through the intersection but must yield to vehicles and pedestrians lawfully in the intersection and drive with ordinary care. That means, as in all other type cases, the driver with a green light must use ordinary care to keep a proper lookout to avoid an accident. And, even with a green light, the driver must yield to vehicles and pedestrians lawfully in the intersection (such as an ambulance with a siren blowing or, in some circumstances, a person crossing the street in a crosswalk).

Green Light Doesn’t Mean You’re Free from Fault

Most people understand that a driver with a green light must still yield to emergency vehicles and cannot ignore people in a crosswalk. But many people don’t understand how they can be at fault in other circumstances when they have a green light.

The key is the duty to use ordinary care, defined as the care a reasonable person uses under the circumstances. Reasonable drivers with a green light, knowing that other drivers sometimes disobey red lights (often when trying to “beat” a yellow light), will proceed with caution driving through the intersection, watching carefully for other vehicles that could cause a wreck. Drivers who fail to do that, when a crash occurs, can be considered at fault along with the driver who ran the red light.

North Carolina Law on Keeping a Reasonable Lookout

North Carolina law is worded differently but is basically the same as Virginia law in principle. In North Carolina, the driver has a duty to keep a reasonable lookout, meaning the same lookout a reasonably careful and prudent person would keep under the circumstances.

The duty is not just to look but also to see what ought to be seen, be reasonably vigilant, and anticipate the use of the road by others. Specifically for green lights, a driver approaching an intersection with a green light can proceed with due care through the intersection, subject to the rights of other drivers and pedestrians. But it’s not permissible for a driver with a green light to go through the intersection if under the same or similar circumstances, a reasonably careful and prudent person would not do so.

How Contributory Negligence Affects Car Accident Cases

So, what does all this mean from a legal standpoint in personal injury cases in Virginia and North Carolina? Let’s continue to use the running the red-light example.

Virginia and North Carolina still have the harsh law of contributory negligence that most states have done away with. Under contributory negligence law, if the injured person, called the plaintiff, is at all at fault, the plaintiff loses the case and cannot recover a penny. So even if the other driver (the defendant in the suit) is 99% at fault, and the plaintiff is only 1% at fault, the plaintiff can go home with nothing (unless an exception to the contributory negligence rule called last clear chance—discussed in a previous article on our website—applies).

Using our example, we’ll make the injured plaintiff the driver with the green light and the defendant the driver running the red light. Normally the defendant will be held at fault. But if the plaintiff with the green light is even 1% at fault for not keeping a careful lookout, the plaintiff risks losing the case and getting no recovery.

Example: Deposition Questions That Can Affect Your Case

In personal injury lawsuits, the lawyers have the right to question the opposing drivers under oath. This is called a deposition. Consider the following example of questions and answers in the deposition of the plaintiff with a green light (“Mr. Green”) by the lawyer for the defendant who ran a red light (“Mr. Red”):

Q: Mr. Green, you were going to drive straight through the intersection?

A: Yes

Q: And you say you had a green light?

A: That’s right.

Q: You say Mr. Red ran a red light, and his car hit yours?

A: Yep. He surely wasn’t paying any attention. I bet he was texting.

Q: He came from your right?

A: Yes

Q: His car hit yours on the passenger side towards the front?

A: Correct

Q: When did you first see his car?

A: When it rammed into mine. I could have been killed.

Q: This was a clear day?

A: Yes

Q: The road Mr. Red was on was straight approaching the intersection?

A: I believe so.

Q: Nothing was obstructing your view of traffic coming toward the intersection in Mr. Red’s direction?

A: Nope.

Q: Where were you looking when you started through the intersection?

A: At the green light. I wanted to make sure I could go through.

Mr. Red’s lawyer just walked Mr. Green into a near admission of not keeping a proper lookout. Mr. Green should have seen Mr. Red’s vehicle coming, and if Mr. Green’s failure to do so was one of the causes of the wreck, the law of contributory negligence ruins his case, resulting in no recovery for his injuries.

When Failure to Keep a Lookout Applies to Other Accidents

We’ve used running a red light for our example, but this law applies when the defendant fails to stop for a stop sign, improperly changes lanes, fails to yield, crosses the center line, or makes about any other unsafe movement. Despite the clear fault of the defendant, the plaintiff can walk away with nothing for not keeping a reasonable lookout.

How Lookout Law Can Benefit a Plaintiff

The lookout law can also benefit a plaintiff. Using the same Mr. Green versus Mr. Red facts, let’s assume the plaintiff is a passenger in Mr. Green’s car. While the plaintiff’s obvious case is against Mr. Red for running the red light, the plaintiff can also sue Mr. Green for not keeping a proper lookout. That could increase the available insurance funds for the plaintiff’s recovery because not only is Mr. Red’s insurance available, but Mr. Green’s could be too.

Protecting Your Rights After a Car Accident

These are among the many things we at Slaughter & Lupton Law have learned to consider in our many years of fighting for fair recoveries for our motor vehicle crash clients.

If you’ve been injured in a car accident in Virginia or North Carolina, contact Slaughter & Lupton Law for a free consultation. Our attorneys understand contributory negligence, lookout laws, and how to fight for your right to full compensation.

And I hope from this you’ve picked up a few things you didn’t learn in driver’s ed!

Robert Slaughter is a personal injury attorney and partner at Slaughter & Lupton Law, PLLC. Slaughter has over four decades of courtroom experience as a trial lawyer. He has built a successful private practice in North Carolina, handled 100+ trials, and has made countless other court appearances across Virginia and North Carolina. Learn more about Robert Slaughter on his Attorney Page.