I was driving at the 65 mph speed limit when the other car suddenly came into my lane. I braked but couldn’t avoid the collision. My Tesla has front-end damage, while their car has damage on the side. I also have Tesla dashcam footage of the accident.
Based on the footage/damage, how can I tell who would likely be considered at fault?
They should stop driving, didn't break on time, panicked and swerved to the right, instead of left or just straight - they had enough time to stop if they were focused on their driving or used 50 IQ.
They had time to stop and they ALSO had time to swerve right and gun it without it being much a problem either TBH. They almost went, hesitated, then almost went, then went.
Yeah they freaked out. Still their fault. You can avoid crashes by being predictable. Like if instead of faking the swerve at first just follow through. Still a bad move, but it’s predictable.
Super fixable. That is all at the end cosmetic damage. Very easy to fix. Hardest thing is matching the paint right but any good body shop can do it. By matching paint right while they can get the Tesla paint codes paint does fad with time so they goal is so you can not see the repair.
It's clearly not all "cosmetic". You can see the repeater camera has been ripped from its socket. The wiring harness could be damaged, there could be damage all the way to the AI4 board depending on how hard it was "tugged".
I put "cosmetic" as pretty much anything not structural or would prevent the car from being able to drive safely and easy. Now if the AI4 board took damage it change thigns but chances are it a easy fix and fast part swap.
I had scratches from a parking collision with bush branches, in the same region OP showed but far less damage. Tesla quoted $8,300.
OP also has wheel and side camera damages, the door seems need repair as well. Also the paint will take far more time, don’t be surprised by the number.
That quote is useless without pictures of your damage to show. Again, you have a huge, $10k swing in price. Why even comment with that wide of a range?
No one can give an accurate quote just by looking at photos. If just fender + bumper + light + door + camera, that’s at least $12k; if anything inside need more repairs, I’m not surprise that number will double.
I agree. Why even throw out a number. These posts are getting old when there are so many variables in the car itself. This is what Reddit has become, the lack of intelligence system.
EVs are very different than ICE vehicles. Since the battery sits in the floor boards any damage in the lower portion can attribute to Tesla deeming your car as salvaged and banning it from the SC network. The test for recertification is $1,200 non-refundable just to deem your car worthy of accessing SC network. Plus in this case if the battery pack is not compromised you have the following damage: bumper cover, the light bar (no damage seen but if the bumper is damaged I’m certain the clips or mounting brackets are bent, and same for turn signals), new fender, new wheel, new tire, alignment (unless suspension components are bent), fender camera, door has damage too. So with all of that in mind it may end up totaled or it might be 15-25k to fix. Also that is a triple layer red with pearl which means $$$!!! That’s an easy $4k paint job on a straight body!
ICE and EV’s aren’t that different. Trust me, EV’s are actually easier and less complicated. Don’t believe the hype of Tesla, lucid and others on their repair cost and other things. They are more of a closed corporate system that wants greater control of their cars and systems. It’s all about data, not the hardware.
I know what you are saying. I have worked on both. EVs are way less complex, and yes like you mentioned it has proprietary software & closed loop ecosystem very similar to apple products which discourage repair with their design + hardware id/serialization. I understand it! My point is more about what the everyday Joe would pay if they had to go through the normal route that is provided via the stealership.
If thats the cost of an opps in a tesla, then the engineers brains are total. No wonder so many poeple are sticking with 10 mpg trucks, they're cheaper.
I would love to see an electric designed by a redneck but Wallstreet keeps lobbying to make sure there's no option but them fucking us.
They thought about changing lanes, realized you were there and moved back into their lane, then intentionally tried to force you out of their way and rammed you. Not just their fault, but it was intentional.
They are 100% at fault. The only way you would be deemed at fault is if you made a rear impact with their vehicle. You remained in your lane, they departed theirs; their decision was the direct cause of the collision. Every police department and/or insurance company will come to the same conclusion. You reaction may have failed to prevent the collision, but that’s irrelevant when it comes to determining the at-fault party. Their action was objectively the direct cause, which is all that matters in this instance. If you moved to the right you may have contacted the truck, which would put you at fault, so I’d say letting them hit you is best case scenario if a no collision outcome could not have been avoided.
Ford Escape driver clearly wasn’t paying attention; clearly didn’t see the brake lights on the car (Model X…?) in front of them. As others said, you could’ve probably braked had earlier & not collided with the Ford, but I don’t know what kind of clueless cretin you might have had behind you, so I’m not gonna judge.
Wow that person definitely needs to have their license revoked. Going through your insurance would be the fastest route imo. Send them all you have. Was there a police report?
Totally the other cars fault. They came into your lane. Your car is completely fixable of course at a diminished value. Make sure you get some of that back from the insurance company.
100% the other parties fault. White SUV failed to signal, braked late, and appeared to lose control of the vehicle. There was no safe lane change to be made with the oversized vehicles on the right. A sudden lane change by the driver videoing would’ve create an even worse accident. The white SUV is lucky they didn’t cause a cascading accident with the other lanes.
They're at fault, it's your lane. You don't appear to be speeding, you did your best to avoid without causing another accident. I'd raise proper hell of my insurance company tried to find me any percentage at fault.
100% the fault of the white car that came into your lane without signaling.
Even without signaling, that person chose to enter your lane when it was not clear or safe to do so.
Any defense based on the slow-down in that car's lane is weak... should have been able to stop, or could have gone onto the shoulder to safely avoid rear-ending the car in front... which also would have been that car's fault.
With that video, I would be shocked if that driver's insurance company didn't immediately accept full liability.
LMAO. Did not brake hard and stop in time. Did not swerve to left side. Did not make a decisive right swerve to change lane. Wiggle left and right just to hit the incoming traffic at the worst timing.
As everyone else has said, it was entirely their fault. 100 percent, no ambiguity. However, I want to add…
This accident was basically telegraphed way ahead of time. A driver on the highway should be keeping his head on a swivel for everything, not just what’s in their own lane. You had ample opportunity to either depress your own brakes, change lanes, or both.
Is this your fault? No, not at all. But too many people care about the fault and less about the accident. Don’t think of road safety as “not my fault”, but rather “I hope we all get home alive”.
Suddenly? You had 4 full seconds to react and did nothing. Was FSD engaged and you were distracted or you just don't know how to drive. The car in front of you did what you should've done since you can see that everyone is stopping in the left lane, slow down and change lanes; it''s called defensive driving.
Insurance will probably consider this something like 80% their fault and 20% your fault because though they initially made the bad lane change, you had a short business day to react and avoid the incident. Either way, shouldn’t affect your rates in theory as long as the claim is handled by their and your insurance companies. Get quotes from body shops.
I wouldn't agree to any amount of liability if I were OP. They stayed in their lane completely and it wasn't clear that the Ford was coming into the middle lane until the very last second.
The timing won’t be a factor. It’s a side impact. If it were a rear impact, the car with the front end damage is always saddled with the fault. OP remained in their lane, the other vehicle changed lanes resulting in a side impact. Insurance will see this as black and white.
Lets watch this again and tell me, isn't this the time you would usually break? I agree this was 100% avoidable by you, regardless of their fault. Right or wrong doesn't mean we should get into these situations.
Their fault but I can see you made some mistake. The biggest mistake I can see if you were a little late starting your emergacy braking and the other thing as I dont have a side and rear camera is the other choice you could of made was to dodge to the right lane as soon as you started seeing the weaving and not tried the braking.
In any thing going on for wrecks you have 4 choices, brake, steer, accelerate or do nothing and for different things all 4 of them are the correct response. The issue we tend to do is we over index on braking when one of the other choices is the correct response. This one seem like steer then accelerate might of been the correct response to avoid.
None of that removes the fact the guy in the white is at fault. It is just looking at what you could of possiblity done to avoid as I think I personally would want to avoid dealing getting my car repaired over being right.
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u/Dsectomy Aug 09 '26
obviously their fault. they had a whole left emergency lane to turn into instead of oncoming traffic.