Failure to Yield in Texas

As a roadway user in Texas, you must learn the appropriate times and places to yield to others. Yielding means giving the right-of-way to someone else based on the rules of the road. When you yield, you stop and allow another person to proceed. Motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians all have to yield in certain situations. Failure to yield is a traffic violation that could cause an auto accident in Texas.

What Is Right-of-Way?

Failure to yield goes hand-in-hand with the right-of-way. The right-of-way is a legal right to proceed onto a road or cross an intersection. Right-of-way and yield rules promote traffic safety by decreasing the amount of conflict between road users. They set boundaries for when a road user must halt and yield to others.

Right-of-way is especially important in places where vehicles cross the paths of other vehicles, pedestrians or cyclists, such as at intersections. When two or more road users intersect each other’s routes, the rules of right-of-way explain who must yield and who may proceed. Right-of-way helps prevent traffic accidents by creating a pattern all motorists must follow in these situations. Failure to yield the right-of-way is a common cause of collisions in Texas.

Who Has the Right-of-Way in Texas?

Right-of-way rules can be confusing, especially for a new or inexperienced motorist. All drivers must learn the rights-of-way for common scenarios when training for driver’s license tests, such as at four-way stops. Learning who has the right to proceed and when is important for preventing collisions in Texas.

• Uncontrolled intersections. Intersections without stop signs or lights require all drivers to slow down and prepare to stop. You must yield to any vehicle that is already in the intersection, as well as vehicles that stopped before you did. If you both approached the intersection at the same time, yield to the car on your right.
• Controlled intersections. At a controlled intersection, follow the rules of the signs or lights. With a yield sign, you must yield to other drivers until it is safe for you to proceed. At a traffic light, proceed through the intersection on green. At a stop sign, come to a complete stop and yield to the driver that approached first.
• Pedestrians at intersections and crosswalks. Pedestrians have the right to cross the road at controlled intersections and marked crosswalks only when given the Walk signal. At uncontrolled intersections, pedestrians generally have the right-of-way. You must stop and yield to a pedestrian trying to cross at an unmarked crosswalk in Texas.

Understanding the right-of-way takes common sense and courtesy. All drivers should pay attention to the road, obey traffic laws, be vigilant at intersections and courteous to other drivers. They should also drive defensively to help prevent accidents.

Common Failure to Yield Accidents

Ignorance as to Texas’s right-of-way laws or negligence on the part of a driver could lead to a failure to yield accident. When the law requires one driver to yield and he or she fails to do so, that driver could collide with the party that had the legal right to proceed. Failure to yield can cause many types of serious accidents in Texas.

• Bicycle and pedestrian collisions
• Crosswalk accidents
• Intersection accidents
• School zone accidents
• Red-light running accidents
• T-bone accidents
• Left-turn accidents
• Right-turn accidents
• Merge and lane-change accidents

After one of these accidents in Texas, the driver who failed to yield the right-of-way could be liable for others’ damages. Texas is a fault state, meaning the driver guilty of a tort will have to pay for the medical bills and property repairs of everyone else involved in the collision. Proving a breach of the duty to yield, however, may take assistance from a car accident attorney. If you get into an accident at an intersection or due to someone else’s failure to yield, contact a lawyer for advice about your insurance claim.