Failure To Yield to “Right of Way”
Oregon does not hand anyone a permanent right of way. The statutes say who must yield. When a driver, a cyclist, or a pedestrian ignores that duty, the crash is often violent and fast: a T-bone at an intersection, a pedestrian in a crosswalk, a merge that never should have been forced.
Failure to yield and running signals sit behind a large share of serious wrecks in this state. In 2023, 587 people were killed on Oregon roads. In 2024, 539 were killed. People walking and riding take a heavy share of those deaths. State safety data has found failure to yield in about 41 percent of fatal and serious pedestrian crashes and about 54 percent of those involving people on bikes.
If you were hurt because someone did not yield, the ticket is not the whole case. We use the statute, the scene, and the medical record to show how the crash happened and what it did to your life.
You pay nothing unless we win your case.
Roundabouts
Yield to vehicles already circulating. If there is an inside lane, yield to a vehicle ahead and to your left that is lawfully exiting.
Under ORS 811.292, a driver on a multi-lane circulatory road fails to yield if they overtake or pass a commercial motor vehicle, or if they do not yield to a second vehicle that is already exiting from a position ahead and to the left. These wrecks happen when someone treats a roundabout like a four-way they can bull through.
Uncontrolled Intersections
At an intersection with no stop sign, yield sign, or signal, ORS 811.275 requires you to look out for and yield to the driver on your right who is approaching the same point at the same time. It does not matter who nosed in first.
A driver who enters at an unlawful speed forfeits any right of way they would otherwise have. Speed, lookout, and control all belong in the analysis. The law does not reward the person who got there fastest.
Every intersection is a crosswalk for a person on foot, marked or not. If pedestrians are in your lane or the lane next to you, you must stop and stay stopped until they are clear. A person on foot loses these collisions. Studies have long shown that a pedestrian struck at about 40 miles per hour faces a very high risk of death. That is why a “I did not see them” story is not a defense. The duty was to look.
Uncontrolled T Intersections
If your road ends at a T with no signs or signals, you yield to traffic on the through road. That is ORS 811.277. The through traffic does not stop for you because you arrived first. Drivers who roll out of a side street onto a busier road are a common source of broadside injuries.
Merging Onto a Highway
When you use an acceleration lane to enter a freeway or other arterial, ORS 811.285 requires you to yield to vehicles already on that road. Forcing the merge and making highway traffic brake is the violation. These crashes produce high-speed rear-end and sideswipe injuries, including wrecks with trucks that cannot stop on a short gap.
Transit Buses Re-entering Traffic
Under ORS 811.167, you must yield to a transit bus when a yield sign is displayed on the back of the bus, you are overtaking it from the rear, and the bus has stopped to load or unload and is signaling to come back into your lane. A bus pulling out is slow and large. The duty is on the overtaking driver to let it in.
Entering From a Driveway, Alley, or Private Road
ORS 811.280 covers the driver about to enter or cross a roadway from a private road, driveway, alley, or any place that is not another roadway. That driver must yield to traffic already on the road being entered. Pulling out in front of a car or a bicycle creates an immediate hazard. Parking-lot and alley pullouts produce the same pattern: someone looks left, not right, and goes.
How These Statutes Help Your Injury Claim
A citation helps. It does not decide the civil case by itself. We still prove how the crash happened and what it did to you. The yield statutes give the jury a clear duty. Combined with scene photos, vehicle damage, witness statements, and medical records, they make it much harder for an insurer to call this a shared mystery.
Related reading:
- Failure to Properly Signal in Oregon
- Improper Passing of a Vehicle in Oregon
- Oregon auto accident claims
- Bicycle injury claims
- Pedestrian injury claims
Compensation can include medical bills, future care, lost wages, diminished earning capacity, and pain and suffering. Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer. Do not settle while you are still in the first stretch of treatment.
What You Should Do Now
- Get medical care and follow through
- Photograph the intersection, signs, and vehicle positions
- Get the police report number and witness names
- Open PIP if an auto policy applies
- Call us before you sign a release
We Handle These Intersection Cases Across Oregon
At Dwyer Williams Cherkoss, we have spent decades representing people hurt when another driver refused to yield. We know the statutes. We also know how adjusters try to split blame at an intersection that had no lights.
If you or someone you love was injured because a driver, a cyclist, or another road user failed to yield, reach out. We offer free consultations, and we only get paid if we win for you. You focus on healing. We will focus on the right-of-way, the proof, and the compensation the crash caused.
You pay nothing unless we win your case.
