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RCW 46.61.185

Vehicle turning left—Vulnerable users of a public way—Fine.

Applied in 20 court decisions — leading case Ellwein v. Hartford Acc. and Indem. Co. (2001)

Most recently applied in Mossman v. Rowley (March 2010)

2023 c 471 s 7; 2019 c 403 s 6; 1965 ex.s. c 155 s 29.

How often courts cite this section

19671970198019902000201020
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) The driver of a vehicle intending to turn to the left within an intersection or into an alley, private road, or driveway shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction which is within the intersection or so close thereto as to constitute an immediate hazard.

(2)(a) When the vehicle approaching from the opposite direction within the intersection or so close that it constitutes an immediate hazard is a vulnerable user of a public way, a driver of a motor vehicle found to be in violation of this section must be assessed an additional fine equal to the base penalty assessed under RCW 46.63.110(3). This fine may not be waived, reduced, or suspended, unless the court finds the offender to be indigent, and is not subject to the additional fees and assessments that the base penalty for this violation is subject to under RCW 2.68.040, 3.62.090, and 46.63.110.

(b) For the purposes of this section, "vulnerable user of a public way" has the same meaning as provided in RCW 46.61.5259.

(3) The additional fine imposed under subsection (2) of this section must be deposited into the vulnerable roadway user education account created in RCW 46.61.145.

Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.