well I am sorry to hear you totalled your car.
I will say though from your description of the accident you are going to be at fault. First off in the state of california you cannot swing to the right to make a left that would be considered an illegal action in any Policemans eyes. second off if the guy was behind you but you managed to have him broadside you while making a left you are indeed at fault. Its called failing to yield to oncoming traffic. Now if you have a good lawyer(read slimy) then he might be able to get you to only partial negligence due to the other parties speed . If the cops gave the other party a speeding ticket.
I was in an accident in San Francisco several years ago where a nun(yes a nun ) turned left right after the light changed at an intersection in front of me. The light had changed and I went and all of a sudden she was going left in front of me . Now in San Francisco cops don't come to make accident reports unless someone is injured. So it was up to the insurance companies and the San Francisco Archdiocese had a powerful lawfirm behind them so I wound up with them paying 80% of damages to my car. that is about as lucky as you would get in this situation. i.e. you may not have to pay the other party as much . Which is why we have insurance companies to fight for us.
sorry to hear about your accident but I think you may have to chalk it up to a lesson learned the hardway, which sucks. <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='
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