Traffic Q&A: Judge Judy gets law right

Nov. 30--Question: On a recent program of TV's "Judge Judy," a case involved two cars that collided in a parking lot. One was driving through the lot, the other was backing out of a parking space.

Even though a surveillance camera showed the backing car was over halfway out of the space and the other car was going much too fast -- as the driver admitted -- Judge Judy said the passing car had right of way and the backing car should have pulled back into the space and allowed the other to go through.

What does Washington law say about this?

-- Art K., Allyn

Answer: Your transportation columnist tried to track down this "Judge Judy" episode to verify the details -- and definitely not to squander valuable company time and resources on guilty-pleasure television -- but we were stymied.

The episode ran in mid-November, but channels both official and sketchy (who are you, people who upload random courtroom TV episodes onto personal YouTube channels?) were no help finding the footage.

So we can provide no further context or, regrettably, witticisms from the millionaire Judith Sheindlin about mannerly parking-lot conduct.

We can, however, report that two Tacoma traffic attorneys find that Judy judged is in accordance with Washington law, at least in this case.

Start the reasoning with the big picture: A store parking lot is, technically, private property, but as it's generally open to all comers, laws of vehicular behavior and liability largely work the same there as on a city street.

Attorney Martin Duenhoelter said state law defines as a highway "every way or place in the state of Washington open as a matter of right to public vehicular travel," which puts store parking lots under the governance of the state traffic code.

This means the same rules of right of way that apply elsewhere come into play out front of the Safeway or around the Tacoma Mall. In another context, this is how people who pass out in a fast-food drive-through get cited for DUI.

After we establish that a parking lot isn't a lawless land, parsing the rest gets mildly tricky.

Although a person admittedly speeding through the lot, and caught on camera doing it, would seem to be negligent, the law gives that person right of way while he's traveling the main corridor, even if he's doing it irresponsibly.

The state statute on the other guy is terse enough to be nice and clear: "The driver of a vehicle shall not back the same unless such movement can be made with safety and without interfering with other traffic."

So the speeding person gets off clean as a hound's tooth when it comes to liability? If that's what Judge Judy ruled, Duenhoelter said, it wasn't wrong.

He wasn't happy about it, though.

"It doesn't make sense," he said, his voice rising. "It shouldn't be that way. If somebody's going 60 in a Target parking lot, chances are he would get cited with negligent driving if he gets the guy pulling out. However, the law is the guy pulling out really has to be watching it."

Attorney Paul Landry agreed with this assessment. The person backing out is required to yield to anything coming through the active traffic lane, he said.

"Of course, if the passing car is going too fast for safe passage of a parking lot, he'll share some blame," Landry wrote in an email. "Insurance companies will fight on this, but it is fairly well settled that the backing driver must wait until the coast is clear, and emerge slowly."

So proceed cautiously out there, especially in busy parking lots during this holiday shopping season. Drive at safe speeds, yield when backing up and never fight over a parking place. It's rare that either party comes out of that blameless, or even particularly happy about humanity.

Derrick Nunnally: 253-597-8693, @dcnunnally

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