Who Has the Right of Way at a Four-Way Stop in Massachusetts?

At a four-way stop in Massachusetts, the first vehicle to come to a full stop goes first, and when two vehicles stop at the same time the driver on the left yields to the driver on the right. A driver turning left yields to a vehicle coming straight through from the opposite side. Those rules come from two short statutes, M.G.L. c. 89, sec. 8 and sec. 9, and from the Registry of Motor Vehicles Driver’s Manual, and they matter most after a crash, when two drivers each say they stopped first.

If you were hurt in a crash at a stop sign and want to talk through what comes next, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is free. This page is general information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice about your situation.

A few terms are used throughout. The right of way is the legal priority to go first; the law never hands it to anyone outright, it tells the other driver to yield. A four-way stop, also signed all-way stop, is an intersection where every approach has a stop sign. An immediate hazard is the statute’s phrase for a vehicle close enough that pulling out would risk a collision. An at-fault determination is an insurer’s finding that its driver was more than 50 percent responsible for a crash. Comparative negligence is the rule a court uses to divide fault between drivers by percentage.

The Rule in Five Steps

1. Stop completely. Every vehicle stops at the stop line. If there is no line, stop before the crosswalk. If there is neither, stop at the point nearest the intersecting road where you can see traffic coming.
2. Yield to anyone already in the intersection. That includes a vehicle, a bicycle and a pedestrian in the crosswalk.
3. Go in the order you stopped. The vehicle that stopped before you goes before you.
4. In a tie, the driver on the left yields. If you and the driver to your right stopped at the same moment, the driver on the right goes first.
5. Turning left, yield to oncoming traffic. If you and the driver facing you stopped together and you are turning left across their path, they go first.

One rule sits under all five: having the right of way is not permission to drive into someone who is not yielding.

Where the Rule Comes From

People expect to find a statute that says “first come, first served.” Massachusetts does not have one in those words. The rule is assembled from three sources, and knowing which part comes from where matters when an insurer or a court has to decide who broke it.

The stop itself: M.G.L. c. 89, sec. 9. The statute requires every driver approaching a stop sign to stop “at a clearly marked stop line, but if none, before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection, or, if none, then at the point nearest the intersecting roadway where the driver has a view of approaching traffic on the intersecting roadway before entering it.” It then says what happens next: “After having stopped, the driver shall yield the right of way to any vehicle in the intersection or approaching on another roadway so closely as to constitute an immediate hazard.” The fine is “not to exceed $150 for each offense.”

Read closely, sec. 9 does not mention four-way stops at all. It tells each driver to stop and then to yield to a vehicle that is already in the intersection. At an all-way stop that produces the order-of-arrival rule on its own terms: whoever stopped first and pulled out first is “in the intersection,” and everyone else must yield to them.

The tie: M.G.L. c. 89, sec. 8. This is the right-hand rule: “When two vehicles approach or enter an intersection of any ways… at approximately the same instant, the operator of the vehicle on the left shall yield the right-of-way to the vehicle on the right.” The same section contains the left-turn rule. A driver “intending to turn left, in an intersection, across the path or lane of vehicles approaching from the opposite direction shall, before turning, yield the right-of-way until such time as the left turn can be made with reasonable safety.”

There is a wrinkle that most summaries skip. Section 8 says its rules “shall not apply when an operator is otherwise directed by a police officer, or by a traffic regulating sign, device or signal.” A stop sign is a traffic regulating sign. So the section that supplies the right-hand rule is written first for intersections with no signs, and it is the Driver’s Manual that carries the rule over to a tie at an all-way stop.

The Driver’s Manual. The Registry’s manual addresses the four-way stop directly. It tells drivers to yield to a vehicle that has already come to a full stop, and to a vehicle directly to the right that stopped at the same time. Its summary is nine words long: “The first to stop is the next to go.” It also says that if an all-way plaque is added to a stop sign, all traffic coming to the intersection must stop, and that a stop sign applies to each vehicle that comes to it. Following the car ahead through on its turn is not a stop.

On state highways the highway regulation, 720 CMR 9.06(13), repeats the sec. 9 language.

Who Goes First: Common Situations

Situation	Who goes first	Where it comes from
Another vehicle stopped before you	The vehicle that stopped first	c. 89, sec. 9; Driver’s Manual
You and the vehicle on your right stopped together	The vehicle on the right	c. 89, sec. 8; Driver’s Manual
You and the oncoming vehicle stopped together, both going straight	Both may go; the paths do not cross	No conflict to resolve
You and the oncoming vehicle stopped together, you are turning left	The oncoming vehicle	c. 89, sec. 8
A pedestrian is in the marked crosswalk on your half of the road, or within 10 feet of it	The pedestrian	c. 89, sec. 11
A bicycle reached its stop sign before you	The bicycle	c. 85, sec. 11B; c. 89, sec. 9
An ambulance, fire or police vehicle on an emergency call	The emergency vehicle, after it comes to a full stop	c. 89, sec. 7B
Four vehicles arrive at once	No statute settles it; someone must yield	Driver’s Manual advice: give way to the right if in doubt

Three of those rows deserve a sentence more.

Pedestrians. Under c. 89, sec. 11, where there is no working traffic signal a driver must yield to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk who is on the driver’s half of the road or within 10 feet of it. The fine is up to $200. Your turn at the stop sign does not start until the crosswalk in front of you is clear.

Bicycles. Under c. 85, sec. 11B, a person riding a bicycle is “subject to the traffic laws and regulations of the commonwealth.” A cyclist must stop at the sign, and a cyclist who stopped first has the same priority as a car that stopped first.

Emergency vehicles. Section 7B lets the driver of an ambulance, fire or police vehicle on an emergency call go through an intersection against a sign, but only “if he first brings such vehicle to a full stop and then proceeds with caution and due regard for the safety of persons and property.”

One oddity for completeness: on state highways, 720 CMR 9.06(24)(c) provides that at an isolated stop sign only the first vehicle in a funeral or other procession is required to stop.

Four-Way Stop, Two-Way Stop and No Signs at All

The same corner can work three different ways depending on the signs.

	Four-way (all-way) stop	Two-way stop	No signs or signals
Who must stop	Every driver	Only drivers facing a stop sign	No one, but slow down
Who goes first	The first to stop; in a tie, the driver on the right	Traffic on the road without signs	In a tie, the driver on the right
Main statute	c. 89, sec. 9, with sec. 8 for ties	c. 89, sec. 9	c. 89, sec. 8
Usual mistake	Assuming the other driver saw you stop first	Assuming the cross street also has a stop sign	Assuming the wider road has priority

The two-way stop is where the phrase “immediate hazard” does its work. A driver at a stop sign on a side street must wait for any cross traffic close enough to be a danger, however long that takes, because the cross traffic has no sign and is not going to stop. A driver who treats a two-way stop as a four-way stop, and pulls out expecting the other car to take its turn, has failed to yield.

What the Crash Records Show

MassDOT crash records do not separate all-way stops from two-way stops, but they do record the type of junction and the traffic control at it. From 2022 through 2024:

• 67,875 crashes happened at four-way intersections, 16.75 percent of the 405,242 crashes in the state.
• 20,113 of those were at stop signs, 29.63 percent. Traffic signals controlled 37,968 (55.94 percent) and 7,677 (11.31 percent) had no controls at all.
• Seven in ten stop-sign crashes at four-way intersections were angle crashes: 13,912, or 69.17 percent. An angle crash is the side impact that happens when two vehicles on crossing roads are in the intersection together, which is the crash the right-of-way rules exist to prevent.
• More of them hurt someone. 6,175 involved a non-fatal injury, 30.70 percent, against 27.33 percent at four-way intersections with signals and 22.89 percent for all Massachusetts crashes. Twenty were fatal.
• The count is steady: 7,045 in 2022, 6,532 in 2023 and 6,536 in 2024.

By community, New Bedford recorded the most stop-sign crashes at four-way intersections, 1,664, which is 15.0 percent of every crash recorded in the city. Boston recorded 1,179, Fall River 891, Worcester 816, Brockton 778, Lowell 672, Lawrence 653 and Springfield 607. The traffic control entry is a field an officer fills in on each report, and departments differ in how carefully they complete it, so these are counts of what was recorded and not a ranking of dangerous cities. The Massachusetts intersection crash data page has the junction figures by community, and local numbers are in the New Bedford crash report and the Massachusetts crash report.

Answer Capsule

At a four-way stop in Massachusetts every driver must stop, and vehicles then go in the order they stopped. If two stop at the same time, the driver on the left yields to the driver on the right, and a driver turning left yields to an oncoming vehicle going straight. The duty to stop and then yield to “any vehicle in the intersection or approaching… so closely as to constitute an immediate hazard” is in M.G.L. c. 89, sec. 9, which carries a fine of up to $150. The right-hand rule and the left-turn rule are in c. 89, sec. 8, and the Registry’s Driver’s Manual applies them to all-way stops. After a crash, an insurer presumes a driver more than 50 percent at fault under 211 CMR 74.04 for failing to obey a sign or to proceed with due caution from it, and a court divides fault by percentage under c. 231, sec. 85. MassDOT recorded 20,113 crashes at stop signs at four-way intersections from 2022 through 2024, 69 percent of them angle crashes.

The Ticket: What a Stop Sign Citation Does and Does Not Do

A stop sign violation under c. 89, sec. 9 is a civil motor vehicle infraction with a fine of up to $150. Under c. 90C, sec. 3, the driver has twenty days from the date of the citation to pay it or to request a noncriminal hearing before a magistrate of the district court.

The part of sec. 3 that matters after a crash is easy to miss. Paying the citation “shall not be admissible as an admission of guilt, responsibility or negligence in any criminal or civil proceeding.” A driver who simply pays the ticket has not conceded the injury case, and the injured person cannot wave the paid ticket at a jury as proof.

The same sentence has a second half. Payment “shall be an admission of responsibility and shall operate as a conviction” for the Registrar’s purposes and “for purposes of the safe driver insurance plan.” So the paid ticket counts on the driving record and for insurance rating even though it is not evidence of negligence in court. How long that lasts is covered in how long an accident stays on your insurance in Massachusetts.

No ticket is required for a driver to be found at fault. The insurer’s standards and a court’s negligence question are both decided on the evidence, with or without a citation to either driver.

Who Is at Fault After a Four-Way Stop Crash

Two different decision-makers answer this question, and they use different rules.

The insurer. Massachusetts insurers apply the Standards of Fault in 211 CMR 74.04. If one of them fits, the driver is presumed more than 50 percent at fault “unless a showing to the contrary is demonstrated by the evidence.” Four apply at a stop sign:

• Standard (08), failure to proceed with due caution from a traffic control signal or sign. It covers a driver who “fails to obey a traffic control signal or sign, or fails to proceed with due caution from a traffic control signal or sign, and thereafter collides with another vehicle.” The second half is the one that catches drivers at four-way stops. A driver who did stop, and then pulled out of turn, did not run the sign but did fail to proceed with due caution from it.
• Standard (15), left turn. A driver making a left turn across the path of a vehicle moving in the opposite direction who then collides with it.
• Standard (20), failure to obey the rules for driving. A driver who violates a provision of chapters 85, 89 or 90 and then collides with another vehicle.
• Standard (11), uncontrolled intersection. Where there are no signs at all, the presumption falls on the driver who entered from the left when both entered together, or who entered later than the other vehicle.

An at-fault determination can be appealed, and the presumption can be rebutted with evidence. The guide to how fault is determined explains that process.

The court. In an injury claim, the question is negligence, and the answer is a percentage. Under c. 231, sec. 85, an injured person recovers as long as their own negligence “was not greater than the total amount of negligence attributable to the person or persons against whom recovery is sought,” with damages “diminished in proportion” to their share. The same section says a plaintiff’s violation of a criminal statute, ordinance or regulation “shall be considered as evidence of negligence” but does not by itself bar recovery.

That is why having the right of way does not end the case. A driver who stopped first and then drove into the side of a car that was plainly rolling through may be assigned part of the fault for not avoiding a collision that could be seen coming. A driver who was second to stop but was struck by someone doing well over the limit through the intersection may carry little or none. The comparative negligence guide walks through how the percentages change the money, and who is at fault in an intersection accident covers signals, left turns and rotaries.

Whatever the fault split, the first medical bills are paid by Personal Injury Protection. Under c. 90, sec. 34A, PIP pays up to at least $8,000 “without regard to negligence or gross negligence or fault of any kind.” See how no-fault works in Massachusetts.

Proving Who Stopped First

A four-way stop crash is usually one driver’s word against the other’s. The evidence that breaks the tie is physical, and most of it disappears within days.

1. Photograph the vehicles before they are moved, if it is safe. Where each car ended up in the intersection shows how far each had travelled, which shows who entered first.
2. Photograph the damage on both vehicles. Front-end damage on one car and door damage on the other tells an adjuster which car struck which.
3. Photograph the signs from each approach. A stop sign hidden by a branch, a missing all-way plaque or a faded stop line can explain why a driver did not stop where expected.
4. Get names and phone numbers of witnesses. A driver waiting at one of the other stop signs saw the order of arrival better than anyone.
5. Look for cameras the same day. Doorbell cameras and store cameras on the corners may be recorded over quickly. See how to get traffic camera footage after a crash.
6. File the crash report within five days. Under c. 90, sec. 26, a driver in a crash with an injury or more than $1,000 in damage to any one vehicle or other property must report in writing to the Registrar and send a copy to the police department with jurisdiction. Write down the order of arrival in your own words. See how to report a car accident in Massachusetts.
7. Be careful with recorded statements. “I did not see him” is an honest answer that an adjuster may record as an admission that you were not looking. See recorded statements to insurance companies.

A personal injury claim must be filed within three years under c. 260, sec. 2A.

Key terms

• Right of way: the legal priority to proceed first, created by a rule that tells the other driver to yield.
• All-way stop: an intersection with a stop sign on every approach, usually marked with a 4-WAY or ALL WAY plaque.
• Immediate hazard: the phrase in c. 89, sec. 9 for a vehicle approaching so closely that entering the intersection would risk a collision.
• Angle crash: a collision between vehicles travelling on crossing paths, typically the front of one into the side of the other.
• Standards of Fault: the list in 211 CMR 74.04 of situations in which a Massachusetts insurer presumes its driver more than 50 percent at fault.
• Comparative negligence: the rule in c. 231, sec. 85 that reduces an injured person’s damages by their own share of fault and bars recovery only if that share is greater than the other side’s.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Who goes first at a four-way stop in Massachusetts?

A: The first vehicle to come to a complete stop. If two vehicles stop at the same time, the driver on the left yields to the driver on the right. The duty to stop and yield is in M.G.L. c. 89, sec. 9, the right-hand rule is in c. 89, sec. 8, and the Registry’s Driver’s Manual applies both to all-way stops.

Q: What if two cars facing each other stop at the same time?

A: If both are going straight, or both are turning right, their paths do not cross and both may go. If one is turning left, that driver yields to the oncoming vehicle under c. 89, sec. 8, which requires a left-turning driver to wait until the turn “can be made with reasonable safety.”

Q: What if four cars arrive at a four-way stop at once?

A: No Massachusetts statute resolves a four-way tie. Each driver has someone on the right, so the right-hand rule goes in a circle. In practice one driver waves another through. The Driver’s Manual advises making eye contact and giving way to the driver on the right when in doubt.

Q: Is a rolling stop illegal in Massachusetts?

A: Yes. Chapter 89, sec. 9 requires every driver approaching a stop sign to stop at the stop line, the crosswalk or the point with a view of cross traffic. Slowing down without stopping is a violation with a fine of up to $150, and under the insurance Standards of Fault it supports a presumption of more than 50 percent fault if a collision follows.

Q: If the other driver got the ticket, do I automatically win my injury claim?

A: No. A citation is not a finding of negligence, and under c. 90C, sec. 3 payment of a citation is not admissible as an admission of negligence in a civil case. Fault is decided on the evidence of what each driver did, and under c. 231, sec. 85 it can be divided between both drivers.

Q: Can I be partly at fault if I had the right of way?

A: Yes. Massachusetts compares the negligence of both drivers under c. 231, sec. 85. A driver with the right of way who could have avoided the crash with ordinary care may be assigned a share, which reduces the damages. Recovery is barred only if that driver’s share is greater than the other side’s.

Q: Do bicycles have to stop at a four-way stop?

A: Yes. Under c. 85, sec. 11B a person operating a bicycle is subject to the traffic laws of the Commonwealth, including stop signs. A cyclist who stopped first goes first, and a driver must yield to a cyclist already in the intersection.

Q: How common are stop sign crashes at four-way intersections in Massachusetts?

A: MassDOT recorded 20,113 from 2022 through 2024, about 6,700 a year. That is 29.6 percent of all crashes at four-way intersections. Of those, 69.2 percent were angle crashes and 30.7 percent involved a non-fatal injury. The records do not separate all-way stops from two-way stops.

Q: Is Jimmy Knows AI giving me legal advice?

A: No. This page is general information about Massachusetts law for educational purposes. It is not legal advice for your situation and does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your own crash, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS.

Talking to a Lawyer

Stop-sign crashes are argued on small facts: who stopped first, where each car was hit, what a witness at the third stop sign saw. Those facts are easiest to collect in the first week. If you were hurt at a four-way stop and the other driver or an insurer is saying it was your turn to wait, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is free.