My first thought was to fight it. If it was a marked single lane one way street and the same thing happened, I don't think any reasonable person would argue that a car going the wrong way on that one way street actually had the right of way.

However, on further thought I think the fault was set correctly, but for the wrong reason. I can't see the pic that you shared, but you described the lane markings including two yellow lines between SB and NB traffic. In most jurisdictions, it is illegal to cross a double solid yellow line in any manner. That is why they never continue double solids through intersections. As soon as he crossed those lines, he was at fault for the crash. The other party should also have been ticketed, but the argument that your son shouldn't have had to expect a vehicle going the wrong way is no longer valid because your son did not have a legal right to be crossing their.

If I am understanding your description wrong, or if the local traffic laws allow for the crossing of double solid lines, then the above may be wrong and I would go back to my first point.

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Starting from scratch...

I had some thoughts similar to yours on the double yellow lines. "Mr. Tsunami" used to be a cop in southeastern PA. He says there is no law that says a driver can't cross a double yellow; these are just safety markings on the street.

We also wondered if there was something missing from the story b/c we can't understand how the OP's son's car was totalled. That amount of damage makes it seem the southbound car must have been moving at a high rate of speed.

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

I did say some jurisdictions, not all. I used to be a cop too. I know for sure that two Canadian provinces have laws stating you can not cross a double solid yellow line, either to pass another vehicle or to get across the road. It would totally depend on the specific laws in the location where this happened.

Thinking more about it, the car that hit him was on the wrong side of the double yellow as well, but without seeing that stretch of road, its impossible to know if he crossed on the solid or if he crossed on a break in the line and just didn't continue his turn where he should have. Lots of technicalities that are impossible to know for certain without seeing the actual location.

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Starting from scratch...

This seems to vary state-to-state. I recently looked into this because a coworker was telling me that it was illegal to make a left turn into our workplace from the main road, crossing a double yellow (coworker was wrong). In some states it is illegal to cross a double yellow to pass another vehicle, in other states the double yellow is merely advisory. In almost all states (that I looked at) it is legal to make a left turn across a double yellow into a driveway or parking lot.

One other factor to be aware of is that in most states it is illegal to cross a double double yellow, that is, a hatched area surrounded by double yellow. That seems to be widely ignored, at least at my local coffee shop.