When I’m driving, and I’m gonna take a left turn, and I roll into an intersection on a green light, just when it turns yellow, I know that I’m gonna have to traverse the intersection before it turns red. Now yes, he did perhaps jump the gun a bit, assuming that the other driver would stop, them having been well back of the intersection when it turned yellow. But the cop is 100% at fault. And we know this because of his aggressive psychological tactics afterwards. Entering an intersection well after the yellow is not driving defensively, especially when the driver is supposed to be so well trained (as all cops claim to be when questioned). Entering an intersection on green, and waiting there to turn left, is just good sense. Particularly in NYC. Those people are crazy, and will block your car just to spite you.
You know what, I do not need to argue this with you. You call up your insurance company and ask them flat out “Hey, if I am turning left at an intersection and the other person is going straight from the opposite direction and we collide…who’s at fault?”
They are going to tell you that YOU ARE…because you were turning left. Moving straight through an intersection has the primary right of way. always. everywhere.
The cop was a jack ass…but many people (not just LEO) are jackasses when behind the wheel. So I will stick to driving defensively TYVM. Like I said…I will take waiting 3 extra minutes for the next green light rather than trying to slide through and run the risk of getting into an accident. Heaven forbid I be cautious and patient.
And given that I have been driving for 28 years now and the only accident I was in was a solo accident when I hit black ice on the highway and slid into the guardrail…seems my methodology has been working just fine.
You do you though. Enjoy your insurance bills.
Thanks. Same. Never been in an accident that was my fault either. I don’t know what you think this dude was supposed to do. He rolled into an intersection on a green. Was he supposed to stop behind the stop line on a green light? In Brooklyn? OK.
At a really, really stale green light? Yeah, you should be prepared to stop on approach to a stale green light. Light turned yellow the instant his front wheels touched the crosswalk, even. And he could’ve deduced his light was imminently changing by taking a glance at the pedestrian countdown timer at his 1 o’clock.
Again, negotiating the intersection this way was 2-out-of-10 sketchiness to me – the cops did way worse – but it wasn’t completely innocuous driving either.
Arizona, in their infinite wisdom, assumes anybody turning left is at fault regardless if the other driver ran a red, excessively speeding, etc.
The plain language of A.R.S. 28-772 imposes an absolute duty to not turn left in front of on-coming traffic unless such movement can be accomplished in a safe manner. The driver turning left “shall” yield. There are no exceptions. There is not a single defense based on the behavior of other drivers. “One making a left turn must do so only when it is safe to do so”. Op. Atty. Gen No. 58-82. The Arizona appellate courts have never allowed a driver turning left to escape their statutory duty of care based on what the on-coming driver was doing. See, Smith v. Johnson, 183 Ariz. 38, 43, 899 P.2d 199, 204 (App. 1995).
In simple terms, then, according to Arizona’s traffic code, when an accident has occurred, and one vehicle was turning left in front of an on-coming vehicle, the vehicle turning left caused the accident. There is no other cause.
Just that statement should be grounds for the officers dismissal.
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