Accident Prime Advanced - Collision (released from hospital)

That looks totaled, beyond debate.

 

Yeap, a little beyond duct tape and Gorilla glue.

Bob Wilson

 

Please name a jurisdiction where the crossing SUV would NOT be at full or majority fault.

Yes, drivers in OP's situation must be wary of such gaps. But that doesn't relieve the gap-crosser from the majority of fault.

I addressed pedestrians in the portion you snipped out.

 

Looks like Cramer77 is in Canada. Maybe their laws are different than ours. I hope everything works out in favor of the OP’s situation .

 

It looks like it's totaled, but there is a shop in Indiana called Auto Be Yours that repairs salvaged Prii.

You may want to give them a call.

 

Wow, that look bad. I am amazed you escaped from this without major injury. What was the speed of this impact? Another question. Why is the driver side front has major damage? From the map and the direction SUV hit your car, right passenger side should have been hit directly. Or, maybe SUV almost made across in front of you and you clipped the tail end of SUV with your left driver side front? In any case, I hope things works out for you. I am sorry.

 

It is amazing how much damages low speed collision like this can cause to today's cars. I grew up watching The Dukes of Hazzard. The Dodge Charger, aka the General Lee would have had just a few scratches with that kind of low speed impact. Now I am not sure if today's advanced collision avoidance technology is much better than 1969 steel body.

 

As advanced as the PRIME is I would think it would never be the same. Get a new ride and enjoy the experience all over again. Will you go with the same color this time?

 

He's absolutely not at fault. He was on a roadway and had clear right of way. Regardless of what other gaps there were, the other person did not have any right to enter his roadway and pull in front of him. She cut clearly cut across the road from another. Regardless if the intersection is controlled or not, she had a duty to stop and proceed with care which she obviously did not do.

As for the gap... sure, he should have wondered why it was there (could have been a pedestrian or another accident or any of a number of possibilities), but that doesn't excuse the other person from failing to give right of way. Unless you were speeding this is going to be the other persons fault.

And remember, the lane keeping camera on the Prime also serves as a dash cam in case of collision (the last N seconds are saved for retrieval). I don't know what it takes to download, but it's there. Likely the police don't know about it, however. Talk to a lawyer if you're worried, or ask the police directly about fault and if the other driver was cited (should be for careless).

 

Since she was crossing the traffic lanes I expect that not only was she going across but she had turned INTO the op's direction of travel in preparation for travel on the opposing direction. That would have put the two cars on a potential head-on, or in this case, a driver-side to driver-side impact.

 

That explanation fits the OP's description of damage on other car.

 

I interpret this to mean that the cars in the other lane were moving and that there was a random gap between cars that the SUV shot through. However several people here are operating under the assumption that the cars in the other lane were stopped and had purposely left a gap for the SUV to cross through. Do you mind clarifying which of the two situations it was. Thanks.

 

The basic speed of the impact seems to be caused by SUV, plastic/metal are torn away to your right, probably the Prime was also spun CW, looking from above.

 

Volunteer NO statements to the opposing insurance.

 

If traffic was moving, then I misunderstood what the OP was saying.

OP should not have said to the cop that he didn't see the SUV because his view was blocked.

Why would anyone want to downgrade from a Prime to a Prius C?
I'll bet the OP doesn't have 'New Car Replacement Insurance' which would result in a new Prime without the depreciation penalty if his car is declared as totalled.
New Car Replacement Insurance | Liberty Mutual

 

And if traffic was stopped then I misunderstood. In that case it would raise the possibility that better defensive driving could have prevented the accident. However legally I don't think that would change that it would be 100% the fault of the SUV. That's not saying anything against the importance of defensive driving, just looking at it from a legal point of view. Hard to tell from some of the comments if people think the OP is legally party to blame or just ethically I guess you would say, but again that depends on whether there was anything that they could have done by being more vigilant. Without viewing dash cam footage it's always going to be somewhat uncertain.

 

Unless there's a sign that says not to block an intersection when traffic is stopped, there shouldn't be a gap. In NJ, if someone leaves a gap for someone to pull into traffic and the puller gets into an accident, the person that left a gap is also at fault for the accident.

 

I.e. slam the passengers full-force into the steering wheel and dashboard, increasing their injury or killing them, to 'save' the car structure.

As a comment I heard years ago said, many cars of that era were strong. Just go to a junkyard, get a car with light damage, wipe the bloody faceprints of the deceased occupants off the inside of the windshield, and you were almost good to go!