If an Accident Occurs While Turning Right on Pedestrian Green Light... 100% Fault

Logo of the General Insurance Association

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] A standard has been established stating that if a vehicle making a right turn ignores the pedestrian green signal at a crosswalk and causes an accident with a vehicle going straight, the right-turning vehicle is solely at fault.

On the 20th, the General Insurance Association of Korea announced 23 new atypical fault ratio standards, including those for frequent motorcycle accidents and right-turn accidents during pedestrian signals.

The atypical fault ratio standards refer to fault ratio criteria that are not currently included in the official fault ratio recognition standards but are prepared for reference by consumers, insurance companies, and the legal community. They serve as a prior notice and may be included in the official fault ratio recognition standards if their effectiveness is proven through future operation.

The General Insurance Association recently established 23 new non-standard fault ratio criteria, including those for frequently occurring motorcycle accidents and right-turn accidents during pedestrian signals, and announced them on the 20th.

The new standards were established to raise awareness of traffic accidents that may cause casualties and to clearly define the responsibility of violators of traffic laws, thereby promoting traffic safety and compliance with legal order. Additionally, the focus was on supplementing standards for accident types that are mostly minor but prone to disputes due to difficulty in determining fault and damage.

According to the standards, if a vehicle makes a right turn while violating the pedestrian signal 'green' at a crosswalk, it is considered solely at fault (100:0). This is because the vehicle going straight has no reason to anticipate or be cautious of the right-turning vehicle violating the pedestrian signal at the crosswalk.

Similarly, if a motorcycle crosses the crosswalk during the pedestrian signal 'red,' it is solely at fault. Vehicles going straight (or turning left) according to the signal have no reason to anticipate or be cautious of the motorcycle violating the signal while crossing the crosswalk.

Overtaking and going straight (or turning left) by crossing the center line to pass a preceding left-turning vehicle at an intersection without signals is also considered solely at fault. According to the Road Traffic Act, overtaking at intersections is prohibited, and it is judged that the preceding vehicle making a normal left turn at the intersection cannot anticipate illegal overtaking by the following vehicle.

An official from the General Insurance Association of Korea stated, "The standards were prepared by referring to traffic laws and recent domestic and international precedents through legal experts, and were finalized after consultation with traffic, legal, and insurance experts to ensure objectivity and public interest."