Nothing saying you have to go at red lights?
Stopped at red light at inter section. Across the street is a white car that is also stopped at red light. Light turns green. The white car across the street starts to go. I still have some habit...
Forum Discussion
D.E.Bishop wrote:fitznj wrote:
From what I remember from driver ed. a green light is NOT as carte blanche to enter/cross the intersection. A green light means " enter the intersection only if it's safe to do so"; So in your scenario, the white car is equally at fault as it entered the intersection despite the fact that it was not safe.
You on the other hand did not enter the intersection as you deemed it unsafe. Looking both way when the light turns green is prudent.
I agree with everything except the law in CA is that when the traffic signal turns green, you the driver who has just received the green light has the Right Of Way and would not be at fault. And there is a section of the code which defines Right Of Way. It is a legal thing not a suggestion.
Actually, I had this happen to me years ago in California. I was on a 6 lane road (3 per direction) at an intersection. Our light turned green. The car to my right went through the intersection, I started through the intersection, the car to my left was a slower start and still behind me. A car came from the road on the left, drove through their red light, and hit my car hard enough to turn it 90 degrees (so I was now facing the direction they were going).
The cop who came out declared that I "jumped the green light" and that the teenage boys driving daddy's trans am had had the right of way. He agreed with their statement that they were driving through the intersection very very slowly as to miss all the potholes in the road and he completely disregarded the 6+ witnesses who had left their information stating that the boys had been racing through a red light. He claimed that I (and other witnesses) had lied about the car on my right having already driven through the intersection when I was hit "because why didn't he stop then" (well, because the car had already passed when the accident occurred didn't agree with his logic).
The cop could not explain how my car was hit on the front left panel just in front of the driver's door and turned 90 degrees if the boy was driving "very very slowly to miss the potholes" and how, if I was the one speeding through the intersection, the trans am was hit directly in the front of the car (not the side).
I learned that day that your right of way is subject to others - regardless of the facts - and you are better off trying to avoid a crash than simply determining you have the right of way if one happens.
