Accident Scenario

[Scruit]

This happened to me this morning. We didn't collide but came close... I can post the dashcam video if you are interested...

See attachment for diagram.

The Green car is waiting to turn left from the southbound lane to the eastbound lane, and is waiting for oncoming traffic to clear.

The Yellow car is also waiting to turn left, and is behind the green car.

The Red car is waiting the line of traffic to head north. The traffic is backed up and the red car is blocking the intersection.

The Blue car is heading north, sees a green light but is waiting behind the line because the intersection is blocked by the red car.

The cars in front of the red car drive forward, clearing the way for the red car to move forward. The blue car drives into the intersection. The red car does nto move forward, and instead activated his 4-ways to indictae that he has broken down.

This is the start position in the diagram.


Now, the blue car backs up about one carlength and then attempts to pass the disabled red car on the right, cutting over the lanes appraoching from the east (no cars there).

At the same time, the yellow car makes his left turn in front of the disabled red car.

The green car and red car do not move.

The yellow and blue cars collide. This is our end position in the diagram.

(in actual fact the blue car was forced to stop to allow the yellow car to complete it's maneuver, but we're pretending here.)


This seems a pretty complex situation. Given the red car beaking down in the middle of the intersection a lot of the normal rules are suspended. Still, the red car, commited no driving infraction that contributed to the accident. Nor did the green car. The blue car passed the stalled red car on the right and maybe even 'left the roadway'. The yellow car made an unsafe left turn (he should have waited for the green car) and also failed to yield to the blue car - normally the blue car would not be expected to yield to the yellow car.

So, who woudl you ticket, for what? What would you list as contributing factors in the accident? And what advice would you give the involved drivers to avoid this incident in the future?

[tenfour]

since Im not a police officer, yet and I dont know the traffic statutes Ill just give my outside opinion.


I would put the yellow car at fault. Given normal conditions when traffic was flowing the yellow car would have to wait for the oncoming traffic before making a turn, so Im assuming he made an illegal turn. Im not sure what kind of ticket he/she would recieve for something like this? I would tell him/her to next time wait for the oncoming traffic and watch a little closer Im not sure how big the red vehicle was if you could see through or around it. Deffinetly once it's clear to turn slow down and be cautious.

The red car, well couldn't help it I guess so what was he/she supposed to do besides turn the four ways on and let traffic pass.

The blue car was just driving around the stalled vehicle I dont think theres anything wrong with that? And I suppose everyone behind the blue car would do the same. For the future I guess I would tell that driver even though it wasnt really his/her fault to be cautious when passing the stalled vehicle because you never know when someone is going to dart out like the yellow car.

The green car I guess Im not sure if or how it was really even involved so I dont know.

You have the dashcam vid, Id like to see it.

[Strijder]

I'm not an officer, but if I were I'd ticket both the blue and yellow cars... the blue car had a lane to his left to use for passing instead of passing outside the normal traffic lanes on the right; the yellow car didn't yield to oncoming traffic nor did he wait for the green car to turn. Not sure what exact violations those translate into

[Seand442]

Both yellow and blue cars would be cited for unsafe lane usage. If the reason red ran out of gas, i would be tempted to cite him for stopping in the roadway. While it may seem complicated, it is actually quite simple. If people wern't in such a damn hurry to go everywhere, this entire situation could be avoided. If the red car is completely blocking the traffic lane, green and yellow could go straightand lue could go right.. Or just wait until the light changes again, and try to help red out of the intersection.

There is nothing wrong with driving around a stalled vehicle if you are not breaking any laws in doing so. I know in AZ you would definitely be getting a ticket.

Remember, patience is good and somtimes help out a fellow motorist even if he is too stupid to read his gas gauge.

[tenfour]

I'm not an officer, but if I were I'd ticket both the blue and yellow cars... the blue car had a lane to his left to use for passing instead of passing outside the normal traffic lanes on the right; the yellow car didn't yield to oncoming traffic nor did he wait for the green car to turn. Not sure what exact violations those translate into

Thats a good point I didnt even notice that. I was going to mention the fact that maybe there were cars traveling down the left lane, but obviously not because the yellow car was making the turn. Although maybe there were cars coming down the left lane and thats why the yellow car got impatient and tried making the turn where he then collided with the blue car.

[Scruit]

There was a car in the left lane level with the blue car, waving the green car through... :rolleyes:

[Joeyd6]

Yellow Car: VTL 1142- Fail to Yield To Traffic Stopped In A Intersection (If making a left turn in an intersection and traffic is in the intersection, you cannot make your turn until the intersection is free of vehicles.)
Blue: VTL 1122- Failure To Overtake A Vehicle On the Left (When passing in NY a parked or moving vehicle you must do such on the left.)
--->Yellow shoudl have followed green in NY. In NY green did the right thing.

[tenfour]

Yellow Car: VTL 1142- Fail to Yield To Traffic Stopped In A Intersection (If making a left turn in an intersection and traffic is in the intersection, you cannot make your turn until the intersection is free of vehicles.)
.

So...your supposed to sit there with your turn signal on and cars behind you until the tow truck comes or someone pushes the car out of the way?

That seems odd.

[Scruit]

That's what I mean about some of the normal rules no longer applying... For example if a vehicle is broken down in a two-lane road and the only way to pass is to cross the doulbe-yellow centerline... Do you deserve a ticket for that? or should you, and all the traffic behind you, wait an hour or so for the tow truck? :confused:

[Joeyd6]

So...your supposed to sit there with your turn signal on and cars behind you until the tow truck comes or someone pushes the car out of the way?

That seems odd.

In this case I could testify it was not prudent to make the turn in the location they did. As a s reult of the position of the vehicles, here in NY by VTL the driver should have turned after the car instead of "cutting" the intersection early if the drawing is correct. Nobody would expect them them to wait an hour....but cutting the intersection is another charge here....maybe that would be more appropiate. This is just one of those deals where two people who should of thought better met in the same place. The more I think the more I come up with more crap to possibley go with.....it is like a chinese finger cuff. The more you pull the more work you put into it the worse off you are!