Are people allowed to drive in the left turning lane?

My girlfriend and I were involved in an accident where we turned left out of a restaurant and we hit the side of an oncoming Miata. Now, traffic has been deadlocked on this road that I turned onto. The road has three lanes, eastbound, westbound, and a turning lane. We turned to the east, the car traveled west. The westbound lane has been backed up about 200 feet from a stoplight, but the Miata sped into the turning lane again, 200 feet early and we hit it while trying to make the safe turn. My question is how far before a stoplight is a person allowed to be driving in the left turn lane, and generally, whose fault the accident is. I live in Bentonville, Arkansas, and if an answer may be given, evidence could be required to give to the insurance representatives. thanks in advance.

I live in B'ville and can tell you, people around here abuse the turning lane.

Someone has been cited by the police for the accident. Whoever got the ticket is responsible. By the way you describe it, it was the Miata driver, but it is not clear, since you may have pulled into the turning lane without a clear view of the oncoming traffic and the Miata was unable to stop in time.

Is the turning lane preceded by diagonal orange/yellow stripes? In Ohio, it's illegal to drive over those stripes as they signal the beginning of the turning lane, but they aren't in the lane itself. The double yellow lines curve and point to the entrance to the turning lane. sorry about your misfortune. Good luck.

This is what I found in the drivers manual for the state of AR.
Shared Center Lane
Shared center lanes are reserved for making left turns and may be used by vehicles traveling
in either direction. Marked on the pavement, left turn arrows for traffic in one direction alternate
with left turn arrows for traffic approaching from the opposing direction. These lanes are
marked on each side by hard yellow and dashed yellow lines. In Arkansas it's allowable for
a car making a left turn from an intersecting street or driveway to use a center left turn
lane as part of the maneuver to get access or merge into traffic lanes, except that it isn't permissible
to use the center left turn lane as an acceleration lane.
Also here is the web site if you could like to research it yourself.

asp.state.ar.us/divisions/hp/pdf/dl_study_guide_0704_rev.pdfasp.state.ar.us/divisions/hp/pdf/dl_study_guide_0704_rev.pdf">asp.state.ar.us/divisions/hp/.

Good Luck

Anytime you're turning ONTO a roadway and hit a car ALREADY on that roadway, you're responsible. he's right of way.