If a Car Hits You While You Are Lane Splitting in California

An adjuster hears “lane splitting” and treats it as a confession. It is not. California is one of the few states that does not prohibit a motorcyclist from riding between rows of traffic. A crash during that ride is still a crash: someone changed lanes, someone was faster than the gap allowed, or both. Riders in Irvine and Costa Mesa hear the same sentence at the scene. “You shouldn’t have been there.” The statute does not say that.

This is general information about lane splitting and fault, not a ruling on a particular freeway gap.

Lane splitting is not illegal in California

Vehicle Code section 21658.1 defines lane splitting as driving a motorcycle that has two wheels in contact with the ground, between rows of stopped or moving vehicles in the same lane, on divided or undivided roads. The section then authorizes the Department of the California Highway Patrol to develop educational guidelines “in a manner that would ensure the safety of the motorcyclist and the drivers and passengers of the surrounding vehicles.” It tells the Highway Patrol whom to consult. It does not set a speed limit for splitting, and it does not say a rider between lanes is negligent.

That is the whole of the statute. Insurers sometimes talk as if a later brochure replaced it. A brochure can be useful. It is not the Vehicle Code. A motorcycle accident claim is still about what each person did, under the same comparative-fault rule that applies when a car turns left across a rider. We describe that left-turn pattern in when a car turns left in front of a motorcycle.

Filtering to the front of stopped traffic at a light is within the ordinary meaning of riding between rows of stopped vehicles. A rider who leaves the lane entirely, rides a shoulder the law does not allow, or weaves across a double line is doing something else. Do not let a carrier rename a legal lane position as a shoulder ride, and do not describe a shoulder ride as lane splitting because the word sounds better. The photographs decide which one it was.

The guidelines do not decide the percentage

The Highway Patrol has published tips. They have included riding at a modest speed difference from surrounding traffic, being more cautious as overall speed rises, and preferring the gap between the far-left lanes rather than splitting beside a freeway merge or a wide truck. Those tips are written as advice to riders who choose to split. They are not adopted in section 21658.1 as offenses.

Negligence per se, the presumption that violating a statute is negligence, runs against a statute, ordinance, or regulation. An educational guideline is not that. A defense lawyer can still argue that a large speed difference, in the actual conditions, was careless. A rider’s lawyer can still argue that the number in a pamphlet is not the law and that the car moved over without looking. Both arguments are about evidence. Neither one is won by waving the pamphlet.

Do not tell the officer a speed you are reconstructing to match a guideline. If you do not know how fast you were going relative to the cars, say so. A precise number you invented at the curb is the number the report will print.

The driver who moves over still has a duty

Vehicle Code section 22107 says a driver shall not turn from a direct course or move right or left on a roadway until the movement can be made with reasonable safety, and only after an appropriate signal. The row of stopped cars is not a wall the driver owns. A motorcycle is allowed to be in the space between those rows. A driver who swings a door, drifts left without a mirror check, or changes lanes into that space has a duty to look for the rider.

The common contact is a mirror, a front corner, or a door. Photograph the mirror, the scrape height, and which side of the motorcycle was hit. A scrape at mirror height on the car’s left front, and damage on the motorcycle’s right, is a different story from a rider who struck the back of a car that never moved. Insurers prefer the second story because it is entirely the rider’s lookout. The metal often says otherwise, and it says it only if someone photographs it before the repair shop wipes the transfer.

Traffic that is stopped is a different environment from traffic moving at freeway speed. The statute covers both. The care required is not the same. A rider who splits a row of stopped cars at a modest pace is not in the same proof position as a rider who splits traffic already moving fast, with a large speed difference, beside a truck. Describe which one it was. “I was lane splitting” without the speed of the surrounding traffic is how the file gets the worse version.

Speed and space are the arguments you will actually hear

Expect four arguments, often in combination:

• You were going too fast for the gap, whatever the cars were doing.
• You were in a blind spot long enough that a careful driver would still have missed you.
• You should have used a different pair of lanes, or not split near an on-ramp.
• The motorcycle is harder to see, so the driver who moved over was reasonable.

The fourth one is not a defense by itself. Difficulty seeing a motorcycle is a reason to look, not a reason the rider assumed the risk of a lane change. The first three are ordinary comparative-fault facts. California does not bar a rider because a share of fault is assigned, even a share over half. The reduction is the percentage, not a forfeit. That rule is the same one we explain for drivers in if you were partly at fault.

A helmet is required for motorcycle riders in California. Not wearing one can be argued on a head-injury claim. It does not decide who moved into the lane. Keep those questions separate when an adjuster tries to blend them.

What to preserve, and what not to say

Get medical care the same day. A “I’m fine” at the shoulder becomes the defense to a back or brain injury a week later. Photograph the scene from both directions so the lanes, the merge, and the traffic are visible. Get names of the drivers who were beside you, not only the one who hit you. Their insurance may matter if more than one car closed the gap. Ask the officer to note that you were between lanes of traffic, not on the shoulder, if that is what happened.

Do not give the other insurer a recorded statement that walks through the Highway Patrol tips as if they were elements of a crime. Do not agree that lane splitting is “technically illegal but cops allow it.” That sentence is false, and it will be quoted. You may tell your own insurer the facts the policy requires you to report. You do not owe anyone a theory of the case.

If the other driver has no insurance, the uninsured-motorist path on your motorcycle policy is a separate question, including any written waiver. A hit-and-run driver who never stops raises the contact and reporting conditions we cover in what to do after a hit-and-run.

Nordean Law treats lane splitting as a legal lane position that still has to be proved safe on the facts, and treats a lane change into a rider as the driver’s own duty. The pamphlet is not the verdict.

Hit while riding between lanes, and the insurer is calling it illegal? Contact Nordean Law or call 888.254.3222. The consultation is free, and you pay nothing unless we win.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Fault in a lane-splitting crash depends on speed, lane position, and what the other driver did.