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You’re halfway through the intersection at Hertel and Delaware, trusting your green light the way you have a thousand times before, when a car comes through the cross street and slams into your driver’s side door before you even see it coming. The impact spins you toward the passenger seat, and your ears are ringing louder than the horns still going off outside. You sit there for a second just trying to figure out which way is up, and through the windshield you see the other driver already out of their car, pointing back toward their own light.
By the time you get your door open, they’re telling anyone who will listen that they had the green, and now it is your word against theirs after getting hit broadside. As your Buffalo T-bone accident lawyer, New York Auto Law knows how disorienting it is to get hit from the side with no warning and then have to defend your own account of what just happened. We can help you prove what actually happened at that light, so their word is not the only version anyone hears.
What Makes T-Bone Accidents Different from Other Crashes?
A T-bone crash happens when the front of one vehicle strikes the side of another, usually at an intersection where one driver failed to stop, yield, or obey a signal. Unlike a rear-end collision, where fault is often obvious from the moment of impact, T-bone crashes frequently come down to two drivers who each believe they had the right of way. We would encourage you to contact a broadside accident attorney in Buffalo, NY, to help you sort these things out so you are not on your own trying to prove your actions didn’t put anyone at fault, but the other driver’s did.
Why Are Side-Impact Crashes so Dangerous?
The doors and side panels of a vehicle carry far less structure between an occupant and the force of a crash than the front or rear of the car. When another vehicle strikes the driver’s or passenger’s side directly, that limited buffer means the people sitting closest to the point of impact often absorb the worst of the collision. Head, chest, and pelvic injuries are common in T-bone crashes for this reason, and the severity tends to climb sharply with speed. When injuries are this serious, the outcome of your claim depends heavily on being able to prove exactly what the other driver did wrong.
Who Usually Causes a T-Bone Accident?
Most T-bone crashes trace back to one driver disregarding a traffic control, whether that means running a red light, blowing through a stop sign, or misjudging when it was safe to proceed. Common causes we see in Buffalo and across Western New York include:
- Running a red light or turning left in front of oncoming traffic without a clear gap;
- Failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign before entering an intersection;
- Misjudging a yellow light and accelerating through an intersection instead of stopping;
- Distracted driving, such as looking at a phone, can cause a driver to miss a signal change entirely; and
- Speeding through an intersection at a rate that leaves no time to react to cross traffic.
New York law is specific about who has the right of way at these intersections, and that specificity is exactly why fault disputes are winnable with the right evidence. A driver facing a green light may proceed, but must yield to any other traffic that is already lawfully within the intersection at that moment. A driver approaching a stop sign must come to a complete stop and then yield to any vehicle already in the intersection or approaching so closely that it presents an immediate hazard.
These rules exist precisely because two drivers can each be moving lawfully one second and colliding the next, and the law places the duty to yield on a specific party once those conditions are met. One of our Buffalo T-bone accident lawyers can address any questions you have about right-of-way rules or your case.
Here Is the Evidence Most People Do Not Know Exists
Both drivers in a T-bone crash usually insist they had the right of way, and without something more concrete than two conflicting statements, an insurance adjuster is often left to guess. What most injured people do not realize is that their own vehicle, and the other driver’s vehicle, may already have the answer stored inside it.
Most vehicles sold in New York today are equipped with an event data recorder, commonly called a black box, that captures vehicle speed, steering input, and brake performance, including whether the brakes were applied before a crash. That data can show whether a driver was braking, accelerating, or steering in the seconds before impact, which often settles a right-of-way dispute far more convincingly than either driver’s memory of the event.
The catch is that this data is not simply available upon request. State law restricts who may retrieve it, and in most cases, it may be downloaded only with the owner’s consent or pursuant to an order from a court or another authority with jurisdiction to issue such an order. When the vehicle in question belongs to the other driver, obtaining that data usually requires formal legal action, and it can become difficult to access if no one moves quickly to request it.
Traffic camera footage and nearby business security recordings face a similar problem: most systems overwrite old footage within days or weeks. Knowing this evidence exists, and moving fast enough to secure it, is often the difference between a fault dispute that drags on for months and one that resolves clearly and quickly.
How Does Fault Affect What You Can Recover?
New York law now requires injured people to be especially careful about how fault gets assigned in a T-bone case. In a personal injury claim connected to a motor vehicle accident, if you are found more at fault than the other driver, or more at fault than the combined fault of everyone you are pursuing a claim against, you are barred from recovering anything at all. If your share of fault is 50% or less, you can still recover, but your damages are reduced in proportion to your percentage of fault.
This is exactly why the evidence described above matters so much in a T-bone case. When two drivers each claim they had the right of way, an insurance company has every incentive to argue that you were the one who caused the crash, particularly since doing so could eliminate your right to recover anything under the current law.
What Should You Do After a T-Bone Accident?
The steps you take in the days after a T-bone crash can directly affect whether the evidence that proves fault is still available when your case needs it. Some of the most important steps include:
- Report the crash to the police immediately. An officer’s report often includes early observations about vehicle positions and damage that can support your version of events later.
- Seek medical attention promptly. Side-impact injuries are not always obvious right away, and a documented diagnosis close to the date of the crash strengthens your claim.
- Photograph the intersection, signals, and vehicle damage. Details like signal timing, skid marks, and the point of impact on each vehicle can matter later, even if they seem minor now.
- Avoid discussing fault with the other driver or their insurer. Anything you say can be used to argue you share more responsibility for the crash than you actually do.
- Contact a side impact collision lawyer in Buffalo. Black box data, traffic camera footage, and witness memories all have a limited shelf life, but an attorney can move quickly to preserve them.
These steps will help us build a strong claim on your behalf.
Why Contact a Buffalo T-Bone Accident Lawyer at New York Auto Law?
New York Auto Law focuses exclusively on car, truck, and motorcycle crashes, which means every case we take on receives the full attention of a team, rather than being spread across unrelated areas of law. That focus matters most in cases like T-bone crashes, where fault disputes are common and the evidence that resolves them, event data recorder information, traffic camera footage, and crash-scene documentation, can vanish quickly if no one acts fast enough to preserve it.
When you call, you talk to the people actually working on your case, not a rotating staff repeating your file number back to you. We also work with clients in Spanish as well as English, so understanding your own case is never dependent on which language you speak most comfortably. If you were hurt in a T-bone crash and the other driver is disputing fault, reach out to New York Auto Law for a free consultation, and let us begin gathering the evidence needed to hold the right people accountable.
Legal References Used to Inform This Page:
To ensure the accuracy and clarity of this page, we referenced official legal and other resources during the content development process:
- Traffic-control signal indications, N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 1111 (2014).
- Vehicle entering stop or yield intersection, N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 1142 (2014).
- Vehicle data recording devices, N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 416-b (2014).
- Damages recoverable when contributory negligence or assumption of risk is established, N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 1411 (2026).
Michael Greenspan has been deeply involved in the affairs of his community for his entire professional career. Mike has been a certified high school track and field official since 1992 and has officiated at prestigious invitational meets as well as the New York State Championships. Additionally, Mike has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Glenn D. Loucks Games at his alma mater, White Plains High School since 1991 and as a member of the Board of Directors of the JCC-Rockland.