What are those curved tire marks telling everyone after a crash? They are the arcing streaks a vehicle leaves when it is moving forward but also sliding sideways, usually because the driver entered a turn too fast or made a sudden steering move and the tires lost full traction. Unlike straight skid marks, yaw marks are typically curved and may show faint striations running across the mark. For accident reconstruction, they can help show a vehicle's path, speed, direction, and whether the driver still had some rolling motion before impact.

That matters immediately because yaw marks can disappear fast from traffic, rain, street cleaning, or repairs. On Oahu, where heavy traffic is packed onto a 44-mile-long island, those marks may be gone within hours. Photos, measurements, dashcam footage, and the police report can preserve evidence that later supports or challenges liability. If no one documents them quickly, an insurer may argue the crash happened differently.

For an injury claim, yaw marks can help prove unsafe speed, evasive action, lane departure, or loss of control. In Hawaii auto cases, that can affect whether an injured person stays within the state's no-fault system or can pursue a personal injury claim under the Hawaii Motor Vehicle Insurance Law, Haw. Rev. Stat. Chapter 431:10C (2024), including the threshold for serious injury or more than $5,000 in medical-rehabilitative expenses.