Indiana law asks the driver turning left across traffic to yield first, which is why that driver carries the first duty in a left-turn crash. The first duty is not the only one, though. The same statute that puts it on the turning driver also puts a duty on oncoming traffic, once the turn has been yielded and signaled. Which half of that rule your crash falls under is what the insurer will argue about. A left turn is a different question from a T-bone or right-angle collision, which we cover on its own page.
Oncoming traffic has it, but only if it is already in the intersection or close enough to be an immediate hazard. Under IC 9-21-8-30, the turning driver yields first: a driver within an intersection intending to turn left must let that oncoming traffic through. Those two conditions are part of the rule, not a detail of it. The statute does not make every left turn the turning driver’s fault. That is worth knowing before you accept that framing from an adjuster.
Turning out of a driveway is a separate rule, and a broader one. Under IC 9-21-8-34, a driver about to enter or cross a highway from a private road or driveway must yield to all vehicles approaching on the highway. That section has no immediate hazard qualifier. If a driver pulling out of a private drive hit you, that is the section your claim starts from.
Two things, and both can be tested after the crash. Under IC 9-21-8-24, turning a vehicle from a direct course upon a highway is lawful only when the movement can be made with reasonable safety. Notice has to come first: a clearly audible horn signal if any pedestrian may be affected by the movement, and an appropriate turn signal.
That signal can be given by a signal lamp or mechanical signal device, or by hand and arm — but hand and arm is not an option every vehicle has. That option closes once either of IC 9-21-8-27(b)‘s measurements is exceeded — more than twenty-four inches from the steering post to the left outside limit of the body, cab or load, or more than fourteen feet to the rear limit — except for farm tractors and implements of agriculture built to work mainly in a field or on farm premises.
Where that option closes is a question of vehicle size. Under IC 9-21-8-27, a motor vehicle in use on a highway must be equipped with a signal lamp or mechanical signal device, and must signal that way, once either of two measurements is exceeded: more than twenty-four inches from the center of the top of the steering post to the left outside limit of the body, cab or load, or more than fourteen feet from that post to the rear limit of the body or load. That measurement applies to a single vehicle and to a combination of vehicles, and farm tractors and implements of agriculture built to work mainly in a field or on farm premises sit outside the requirement.
That detail earns its place in one situation: if what turned across your lane was large enough to cross those measurements — a truck, a long-bodied van, a vehicle towing a trailer — an arm out of the window was not a lawful signal for it, and whether its lamps were working becomes part of your claim.
It depends which green you had. Indiana’s Code draws a sharper line here than drivers usually do. Under IC 9-21-3-7, a plain green ball lets you turn left, unless a sign at the place prohibits the turn. What comes with that green is a yield duty — and it is not a duty aimed at turning drivers alone. Every vehicle facing the circular green has to yield to other vehicles, and to pedestrians who were lawfully in the intersection or on a sidewalk beside it when the light was shown — and to pedestrians lawfully in an adjacent crosswalk and to other traffic lawfully using the intersection. Drivers turning right or left are named in the rule, but they are not the only drivers it binds: a driver going straight through on the same green carries it too.
A green arrow does less than it looks like it does. It is permission to make one movement: a driver facing the arrow may enter the intersection carefully, and only to do what the arrow points at — or whatever else a second signal showing at the same time allows. It says nothing about priority over everyone else already in the intersection, and nothing about what the oncoming driver’s light showed. Read alongside the rest of the same green-light rule, it also leaves the arrow driver owing the right of way to pedestrians lawfully in an adjacent crosswalk and to other traffic lawfully using the intersection. That gap is what a left-turn dispute is usually about, and it is a question, not a statistic: a signal can allow the movement and still leave open who held the right of way. So your light settles what movement you were allowed to make. It does not settle who was at fault.
The oncoming driver shares it once the turning driver has done what the statute asks, because IC 9-21-8-30 has a second sentence and it points the other way. After yielding and giving the signal the chapter requires, the person driving may make the left turn. At that point, drivers still approaching the intersection from the opposite direction must yield to the vehicle making the left turn.
The crash report does not settle that question. Failure to yield right of way was the primary factor recorded in 32,979 Indiana collisions in 2024 (*Indiana Crash Facts 2024*, Table 2.10, printed p.32), so the box is ticked often. But primary factor is only the coding the reporting officer put on the report. It is not a finding of legal fault, and it does not establish liability in any individual case.
Where fault is split, Indiana compares it — in a claim against another driver. One carve-out is worth knowing about only if it touches you. Where the claim is a tort claim against a governmental entity or a public employee under Indiana’s Tort Claims Act, the comparative fault chapter does not apply at all, under IC 34-51-2-2. In the ordinary driver-against-driver claim, it does apply. Your own share of fault reduces what you recover under IC 34-51-2-5. Only a share greater than everyone else’s combined bars the claim entirely, under IC 34-51-2-6. We set out how those splits work on our page about both drivers sharing fault.
Then the deadlines change shape, and the first one is short. Where an injury claim is a tort claim against a governmental defendant under Indiana’s Tort Claims Act, notice comes before any lawsuit.
A claim against a political subdivision is barred unless notice is filed with its governing body — and, in the cases the statute specifies, with the Indiana political subdivision risk management commission — within 180 days after the loss occurs, under IC 34-13-3-8.
That term is broader than it sounds. “Political subdivision” is a defined term, and the list is a broad one: a county, township, city, town, school corporation, state educational institution, city or county hospital, and the other entities named at IC 34-6-2.1-155. If any body on that list may be involved in your crash, the 180-day window is the first date to ask a lawyer about.
A claim against the state is barred unless notice is filed with the attorney general or the state agency involved within 270 days after the loss occurs, under IC 34-13-3-6. Either notice must be in writing, delivered in person or by registered or certified mail.
Both windows are far shorter than the two-year lawsuit deadline, and the Act has narrow exceptions of its own. So if any government body may be involved, speak to a lawyer well before the notice window closes — and do not assume a missed window has ended the claim without asking.
No. Indiana’s Code does not use the phrase “protected turn,” and it says nothing about what the opposing signal shows. The arrow speaks only to the driver looking at it: it allows that driver to enter the intersection carefully, and only to make the movement the arrow points at, or another movement a second signal displayed at the same time allows. It is not a finding about anyone else.
No. IC 9-21-8-30 runs in both directions, and the second direction is the one to check if you were already mid-turn when you were hit. The turning driver yields to oncoming traffic already in the intersection or close enough to be an immediate hazard. After yielding and giving the signal the chapter requires, drivers still approaching from the opposite direction must yield to the vehicle making the left turn.
No Indiana statute allocates the right of way for turning left across oncoming traffic into a private drive. The duties that apply are IC 9-21-8-24‘s reasonable-safety and signal requirements. How the loss is then divided between the two drivers is a comparative-fault question.
Two years, in the ordinary case. IC 34-11-2-4 gives you two years from when your claim arises to file an injury lawsuit, and for most crash injuries that is two years from the day of the crash. It is the deadline for starting a lawsuit, not for opening an insurance claim. Where a government body may be involved, the Tort Claims Act notice windows above close first.
If you were hurt in a left-turn crash, two details are where the dispute usually starts: what the signal showed, and where the oncoming traffic was. Those are worth putting in front of someone who works with these rules. At Blackburn Romey we handle car accident claims across Indiana. Our attorneys include Chris Blackburn, who, in the words of his own bio, “passed the bar in February 2011 in Indiana and began his law career that May.”
A free confidential consultation is the place to start. It is a conversation about what happened, and about which half of the left-turn rule your crash falls under. Call 833-366-6595 or contact us.
Wherever you are in the state, there is a page for your area: Fort Wayne, Merrillville, South Bend, Lafayette, Terre Haute, Evansville, and Indianapolis.
Blackburn Romey founding partner Tom Blackburn graduated with honors receiving a degree from Indiana University at the Robert H. McKinney School of Law. Initiating his legal career in 1977, he has been active in practicing law and currently serves as a member of the Indiana State Bar Association on the Ethics and Advertising Committees, the American Bar Association, the American Association for Justice, as a board member at the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, and as an appointed member of the Executive Committee for the State of Indiana for the National Trial Lawyers Association.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by Founding Partner, Tom Blackburn, who has more than 47 years of legal experience, including over 39 years specializing as a personal injury attorney.
