The Dangerous Turn: Why Rideshare Drivers Cause So Many Left-Turn Crashes

You’re riding in the back seat of your Lyft, heading to dinner or back to your hotel. The driver approaches an intersection and suddenly turns left in front of oncoming traffic. You brace yourself as you see another vehicle speeding toward you. The impact is violent. Metal crunches, glass shatters, and you’re thrown against your seatbelt as the airbags deploy. You’re injured and confused about what just happened. Left-turn accidents involving rideshare drivers occur with alarming frequency across New Jersey. Understanding why these crashes happen so often and what to do if you’re injured can protect your rights and help you recover the compensation you deserve.

At The Law Offices of Anthony Carbone, we help victims of rideshare left-turn accidents navigate the complex legal process and fight for full compensation.

Why Left Turns Are Among the Most Dangerous Driving Maneuvers

Left turns create inherent risks that don’t exist with other driving actions. Unlike right turns where drivers merge with traffic moving in the same direction, left turns require crossing directly into the path of oncoming vehicles. This makes them particularly dangerous and requires careful judgment, timing, and attention.

The Judgment Challenge
Drivers making left turns must accurately judge the speed and distance of approaching vehicles. They need to determine whether they have enough time to complete the turn safely before oncoming traffic reaches the intersection. Even small miscalculations can result in devastating collisions.

Multiple Points of Conflict
Left turns create potential conflicts with oncoming traffic, pedestrians in crosswalks, cyclists, and vehicles turning from the opposite direction. Drivers must monitor all of these threats simultaneously while executing the turn. Missing any one of these hazards can cause an accident.

Limited Visibility
Depending on the intersection, drivers may have obstructed views of oncoming traffic due to other vehicles, buildings, trees, or road design. This limited visibility makes it harder to spot approaching vehicles and judge safe gaps in traffic.

Traffic Signal Complications
Many drivers attempt left turns during yellow lights or immediately after lights turn green, when oncoming traffic may still be entering the intersection. These rushed decisions increase collision risk significantly.

For rideshare drivers facing unique pressures and distractions, these inherent dangers become even more pronounced.

Why Rideshare Drivers Make More Left-Turn Mistakes

Several factors specific to rideshare driving increase the likelihood of left-turn accidents beyond the risks faced by typical drivers.

GPS Navigation Distractions
Rideshare drivers rely heavily on GPS navigation to find unfamiliar destinations. They frequently check their phones for turn-by-turn directions while approaching intersections. A driver focused on their screen instead of oncoming traffic may misjudge gaps or fail to see approaching vehicles entirely. They may also turn suddenly to avoid missing their route, without properly checking for oncoming traffic.

Pressure to Complete Rides Quickly
Rideshare drivers earn money based on completed trips. This creates pressure to finish rides as fast as possible so they can move on to the next passenger. At intersections, this pressure can lead drivers to take risky left turns through smaller gaps in traffic rather than waiting for safer opportunities.

Passenger Distractions
Drivers may be answering passenger questions, adjusting destination details, or managing conflicts about routes while approaching intersections. These distractions pull attention away from the critical task of judging oncoming traffic before making left turns.

Fatigue and Long Hours
Many rideshare drivers work extended shifts to meet income goals. Fatigue impairs judgment, slows reaction time, and reduces the ability to accurately assess vehicle speeds and distances. Tired drivers are more likely to misjudge whether they have enough time to complete a left turn safely.

Unfamiliar Intersections
Rideshare drivers frequently navigate areas they don’t know well. Unfamiliarity with specific intersections, their timing, typical traffic patterns, and visibility issues increases the risk of poor decisions during left turns.

All of these factors combine to make left-turn accidents a common and serious problem in rideshare crashes.

Common Injuries From Left-Turn Collisions

Left-turn accidents often result in T-bone or side-impact collisions where one vehicle strikes another at a perpendicular angle. These crashes can cause severe injuries because the sides of vehicles provide less protection than the front or rear.

Passengers commonly suffer whiplash and neck injuries from the sudden sideways impact. Head trauma and concussions occur when passengers strike windows, doors, or other interior surfaces. Broken bones and fractures, particularly to arms, ribs, and hips on the side of impact, are frequent. Internal injuries to organs can result from the violent forces involved. Soft tissue damage throughout the body causes pain and long-term problems.

Because left-turn accidents often occur at busy intersections, they may involve multiple vehicles, increasing the number of injured parties and the severity of the crash.

Determining Who Is Responsible

Liability in left-turn rideshare accidents depends on the specific circumstances but typically follows certain patterns.

Presumption Against the Turning Driver
In most left-turn accidents, the driver making the turn is presumed to be at fault. Drivers turning left must yield to oncoming traffic and may only turn when it is safe to do so. If a collision occurs, it usually means the turning driver failed to yield properly.

However, this presumption can be overcome if evidence shows the oncoming driver was speeding excessively, ran a red light, or violated other traffic laws. In these cases, fault may be shared between both drivers.

Rideshare Driver Negligence
If the rideshare driver was making the left turn, their negligence is typically clear. Evidence proving fault includes witness statements about the driver failing to yield, traffic camera footage showing the sequence of events, police reports documenting violations, and app data showing the driver was distracted by their phone.

Rideshare Company Insurance
When the rideshare driver is at fault and was actively working at the time of the accident, Uber or Lyft’s commercial insurance should provide coverage. This insurance protects injured passengers in the rideshare vehicle and victims in other vehicles struck during the collision.

Shared Liability
New Jersey’s modified comparative negligence law allows for allocation of fault among multiple parties. If the oncoming driver was also negligent, both drivers may share responsibility. As long as you as the passenger were not at fault, you can recover full compensation regardless of how liability is divided between the drivers.

Protecting Your Rights After a Left-Turn Accident

If you are injured in a rideshare left-turn accident, taking immediate steps strengthens your claim and protects your ability to recover compensation.

Get Medical Care Immediately
Seek evaluation by a healthcare provider right away. Left-turn accidents commonly cause injuries that may not produce immediate symptoms. Medical documentation links your injuries to the crash and establishes their severity.

Ensure Police Respond
Call law enforcement to create an official accident report. Officers will document the intersection, traffic signals, right-of-way issues, and their observations about fault. This report becomes crucial evidence.

Document Everything
Photograph all vehicles involved, damage from multiple angles, the intersection layout, traffic signals and their status, skid marks, debris, and visible injuries. The more evidence you gather, the stronger your case.

Collect Witness Information
Get contact details from anyone who saw the accident. Witnesses can verify which driver had the right of way, whether signals were obeyed, and how the collision occurred.

Save Ride Details
Screenshot all information from your rideshare app proving you were a passenger and establishing the driver’s status.

Contact Experienced Legal Help
The Law Offices of Anthony Carbone knows how to investigate left-turn accidents, prove driver negligence, navigate complex insurance coverage, and fight for maximum compensation covering medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and future needs.

Hold Negligent Drivers Accountable

Left-turn accidents are dangerous and often preventable. When rideshare drivers make careless decisions at intersections, they put passengers and other motorists at serious risk. If you’ve been injured in a left-turn rideshare crash, you deserve full compensation and accountability.

Contact Us Today