Knowing the area, I wasn't surprised that it was a situation where someone taking a lefthand turn into Funspot from the Southbound lane was waiving the driver out of the parking lot onto the main road. In fact, before reading the story, my wife and I surmised that the person in the lefthand lane turning into Funspot was giving the other driver the "waive."
I have a different take. If there was a blame pie, so to speak, I blame the person waiving the driver onto the road almost as much as the driver who caused the accident. In the situation in which you are on the receiving end of the "waive," the human response is to act quickly, trying not to disappoint the person waiving you onto the road, not realizing that someone may be in the travel lane next to the lefthand turn lane going fairly fast, even at the speed limit. You look quickly left and right and go, not really focusing who is behind the waiver. Clearly, some level of fault lies with the person who merged onto the main road, but I have been in similar situations in which you get flustered and want to act quickly.
I noticed that the "waive" was big in Rhode Island when I lived there, not so much in NH. The lesson learned is to let traffic patterns follow their natural order. If you are in the lefthand turn lane on a main road and someone is coming from a secondary road to the main road, the person taking the lefthand turn moves first, with the person merging onto the main road going afterwards. Stop trying to be overly generous by waiving the person on before you. You are not being nice or kind, just screwing up traffic.
As an FYI, I live in SD/LB and face this situation routinely. I usually end up pissing off the person waiving me to go, since I don't go.
That said, the ultimate responsibility lies with the person who caused the accident. He learned the hard way not to fall for the "waive."
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