Our firm very frequently receives calls from potential clients who have been injured in “lane change” collisions. These are incidents where two vehicles are traveling in the same direction with an empty traffic lane between. When both vehicles try to move to the empty lane at the same time, collisions can occur.
Many people do not know the law in Texas regarding lane changes under these circumstances. Here is a quote from the Texas Transportation Code:
§ 545.061. DRIVING ON MULTIPLE-LANE ROADWAY. On a roadway divided into three or more lanes and providing for one-way movement of traffic, an operator entering a lane of traffic from a lane to the right shall yield the right-of-way to a vehicle entering the same lane of traffic from a lane to the left.
In plain language, this means if two cars try to merge into an empty lane between them, the car in the right-hand lane must let the car in the left-hand lane merge into the empty lane first.
