General information, not legal advice. Talk to a licensed attorney in your state.

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Glossary

Right-of-way

The legal right to go first at a crossing, intersection or lane. Traffic laws say who has it; breaking the rule can be evidence of fault.

Last reviewed By the Editorial team 2 min read

General information, not legal advice. Talk to a licensed attorney in your state.

Quick answer

The right-of-way is the legal right to go first, for example through an intersection, across a crosswalk or into a lane. State traffic laws decide who has it in each situation and who must yield.

In a car accident claim#

Many crashes come down to who should have yielded: a driver turning left across oncoming traffic, a car pulling out of a side street, or a driver who did not stop for a pedestrian. When a driver breaks a right-of-way rule, that can be strong evidence of fault, and in some states a traffic-law violation can count as Negligence per se. Breaking a safety law, such as a traffic or trucking rule, that was meant to prevent the kind of harm that happened. In many states it proves negligence or strongly points to it. Glossary.

Having the right-of-way does not excuse carelessness. Texas, for example, requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid colliding with a pedestrian on a roadway, whatever the other rules say. If both drivers made mistakes, the state's fault rule decides how the blame is shared; the fault-rule explainer shows how.

Right-of-way rules for people on foot and on bikes are covered in the guides to pedestrian accidents and bicycle accidents.

The same phrase has a second legal meaning: the right to pass over someone else's land, usually through an easement. That meaning has nothing to do with traffic.

Example#

Questions people ask

Do pedestrians always have the right-of-way?

No. Most states give pedestrians the right-of-way in crosswalks, but a person crossing outside a crosswalk often must yield to cars. Drivers still have a duty to take care to avoid hitting anyone.

Does a ticket for failure to yield prove fault?

Not by itself, but it is evidence an insurer or a court can weigh. The ticket is decided in traffic court, while fault for the claim is decided separately.

Sources

  1. Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute, Right of way — traffic and property meanings; pedestrians and yielding
  2. Texas Legislature, Transportation Code § 552.008 — as of October 2026

Last reviewed October 29, 2026 by the Accident Claim Facts editorial team. Found an error? Tell us.

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