PSA: If you witness an accident...please at least stop and give your info

[Andy22]

I will never see another accident and not at least stop and give my information.

I was on my way home Friday and was on an overpass approaching a light and getting into the turn lane to get on the highway when the light turned green and also gave me a green left turn arrow. I preceded to start my left turn when out of no where this woman runs the red-light on her side and hits me nearly head on. I was in the process of turning left so she struck my front right but it turned me all the way around. I was a bit disoriented from the impact but managed to turn my head around and look back at the light to make sure I saw it right and sure enough, the green turn arrow was still lit up.

Of course I expect her to get our of her car and be contrite and apologize but she says "I think I had green". I was livid and and we went back and forth with me yelling that she ran a red light and she knew it. No one so much as slowed down to see if we were ok much less offered to be a witness to what happened. So the cops show up and we are both given tickets for failure to yield and at this point I am just beside myself that this woman can run a red light and get away with it. I am going to put an ad in the paper to see if anyone witnessed but the cops told me it was a long-shot that someone would respond.

The tow-truck driver gave me a ray of hope when he told me that she shouldn't be driving but it didn't last long.

Tow Truck Driver: She shouldn't have been driving.
Me (excitedly): Really...why is that?
TTD: She had cerebral palsy
Me: She does?
TTD: Yeah, ya know, downs syndrome...they're the same thing...she's cock-eyed.
Me: Heart sinks

The moral of this story is to stop and give your information. Even if you are in a hurry and can't wait for the police at least you can say you saw the accident. You could be the only thing standing in the way of a person getting screwed over.

 

[Wapp]

Yield next time.

 

[Krazy4Real]

Wow, that's a tough situation. I would consult with a lawyer and see what your options are.

 

[PingSpike]

"I think I had a green"
"Well thats nice. But I FUCKING KNOW THAT I HAD ONE. So I guess I win."

 

[lokiju]

Call a lawyer?

 

[SunnyD]

After almost getting into what would have been a major highway accident because of a speeding prick near Scranton PA, my wife wanted me to stop. However I would have ended up stopping on the other side of an exit ramp, and there's no way in hell I would have gotten out of my car there.

The look on the guy's face was indeed priceless after he spun into the guard rail with his pretty little car though.

 

[Tweak155]

Pretty sure you making the turn have to yield even if your arrow is green. You would get failure to yield, she would get failure to yield + running a red light.

 

[lozina]

well that's what you get for going through a green light! err...

 

[Andy22]

Originally posted by: lokiju
Call a lawyer?

The insurance company is going to go to the location and do a field report on the lights. The woman even told me that she would go along with a witness if one came forward. That tells me she freaking KNOWS she ran that red light!

 

[purbeast0]

same exact type of accident happened to my fiance 2 septembers ago, with the same results

 

[PottedMeat]

Originally posted by: Tweak155
Pretty sure you making the turn have to yield even if your arrow is green. You would get failure to yield, she would get failure to yield + running a red light.

Why would he get failure to yield when the left turn arrow is green? She would have a red light.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

I was once parked on the side of the highway briefly and got cited for improper parking so no I won't ever be stopping to help anyone.

 

[Tweak155]

Originally posted by: PottedMeat

Originally posted by: Tweak155
Pretty sure you making the turn have to yield even if your arrow is green. You would get failure to yield, she would get failure to yield + running a red light.

Why would he get failure to yield when the left turn arrow is green? She would have a red light.

Because making a left turn at an intersection requires to look for oncoming traffic.

Logically, what if the light was in fact showing her green due to some error? Always have to yield to oncoming traffic when turning.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Tweak155
Pretty sure you making the turn have to yield even if your arrow is green. You would get failure to yield, she would get failure to yield + running a red light.

To whom must he yield? If he has a green arrow, that means that no one has any business crossing his path. There is no one to yield to. It's the whole point of the green arrow.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: Tweak155
Pretty sure you making the turn have to yield even if your arrow is green. You would get failure to yield, she would get failure to yield + running a red light.

Yup.

My dear mother got cited for this in early 2007 when some prick ran a red light while she was halfway into her left turn and SHE got cited, HE got NOTHING.

Originally posted by: mugs
To whom must he yield? If he has a green arrow, that means that no one has any business crossing his path. There is no one to yield to. It's the whole point of the green arrow.

On the contrary, you'd be surprised that most city traffic laws state that making a left turn requires that you yield to oncoming traffic, regardless of the traffic signal. You are crossing the path of the traffic heading in the other direction, even though they have been signaled to stop. "Oncoming Traffic" is a term that encompasses ALL traffic in lanes of the opposite direction, regardless of whether they are moving or not, what signal they have, who's driving, etc.

 

[MrPickins]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Tweak155
Pretty sure you making the turn have to yield even if your arrow is green. You would get failure to yield, she would get failure to yield + running a red light.

To whom must he yield? If he has a green arrow, that means that no one has any business crossing his path. There is no one to yield to. It's the whole point of the green arrow.

QFT.

Tweak, you are confused. Green arrow mean the turn is protected, and cars in that lane have right of way.

 

[Tweak155]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Tweak155
Pretty sure you making the turn have to yield even if your arrow is green. You would get failure to yield, she would get failure to yield + running a red light.

To whom must he yield? If he has a green arrow, that means that no one has any business crossing his path. There is no one to yield to. It's the whole point of the green arrow.

He is crossing a lane of travel which requires yielding.

The laws are more for safety than for who is right and who is wrong - which you are arguing.

Is not using a blinker to change lanes illegal if no cars are around?

 

[Tweak155]

Originally posted by: MrPickins

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Tweak155
Pretty sure you making the turn have to yield even if your arrow is green. You would get failure to yield, she would get failure to yield + running a red light.

To whom must he yield? If he has a green arrow, that means that no one has any business crossing his path. There is no one to yield to. It's the whole point of the green arrow.

QFT.

Tweak, you are confused. Green arrow mean the turn is protected, and cars in that lane have right of way.

No. Read my response as well as Injury's.

 

[Insane3D]

It's funny I see this thread today...

Last night on my way home from work, there was a pretty bad head on crash between an late 90's escort, and a minivan. Both cars ended up side by side, facing the same way, in a snowbank. There was snow and car parts all across the road, both cars were messed up bad, and both drivers looked hurt. I missed the actual accident by a second or two, and there was one guy standing there calling the police.

I pulled over and immediately went to check on the vehicle occupants. Both vehicles were only occupied by the driver. The guy who was there first and called seemed to be more interested in taking cell phone pictures of the accident because it was "cool" and sending them to the local news channel. I went over and checked on the driver of the escort who was injured fairly bad. He was bleeding from his head and face, and was moaning about his legs hurting. He kept wanting to try and move and stretch them out and I kept telling him that I knew it hurt but it was really best to not move and wait for the ambulance. I went over and checked on the driver of the minivan, and he was pretty dazed, but he didn't have any outward injuries, had his seatbelt on, and seemed in better shape.

I went back to kind of sit with the guy in the escort because he was hurt much worse and was kind of freaking out. He was saying he was f***ed because he didn't have insurance, and he was just going to get groceries. I tried my best to keep him calm and just talk to him. Also, it was only about 4F out at the time, and he was freezing to death. I kept asking if anyone had a blanket, but no one did. I also took a sec to clear some of the larger debris out of the road because people were just running over it like dumbasses as they gawked at the accident, but didn't offer any help. Finally a officer arrived, and asked me if I was involved, which I said I wasn't, and he went to check on the drivers. I don't know if he was disoriented, new or what, but he seemed to sort of not really know what to do. He was asking them if they remembered what happened, not anything about how hurt they were and such. At this point I finally asked the officer if he had a blanket because it was like 5 degrees out and the poor guy was freezing. He said he did and I followed him to his trunk to get the blanket from him. I came back, unfolded it, and covered the guy.

I felt real bad for the guy. He was asking me if he was bleeding from the head too, and I told him he was, but it was a small cut above his eye that looked like it had stopped, or was stopping. It looked like he actually had a chunk of windshield in the cut, but I didn't tell him that. From what I can tell he didn't have his seatbelt on and smacked his face on the windshield despite the airbag. He even asked if the blanket was mine because he felt bad he was going to get blood on it.

Anyway, by this time the rest of the cavalry started arriving and I got out of the way. I stood on the other side of the road until they had got them out of the vehicles and transported them, and then offered my information and what I did see to one of the officers even though I didn't see the accident take place. I also pointed out there was a spare tire from one of the other vehicles on the other side of the road in case they needed that for their investigation. It was pretty cold standing out there for about 20 minutes in my sweatshirt in single digit temps, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. It's really sad that so many people nowadays don't want to "get involved" or help out their fellow citizens in times of need like that. I had never done anything like that in my life before, but I did it without thinking because I would want someone to do the same for me if I was ever in that situation. It really was that simple...

 

[Whisper]

Originally posted by: Tweak155

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Tweak155
Pretty sure you making the turn have to yield even if your arrow is green. You would get failure to yield, she would get failure to yield + running a red light.

To whom must he yield? If he has a green arrow, that means that no one has any business crossing his path. There is no one to yield to. It's the whole point of the green arrow.

He is crossing a lane of travel which requires yielding.

The laws are more for safety than for who is right and who is wrong - which you are arguing.

Is not using a blinker to change lanes illegal if no cars are around?

You're correct in that you should look for oncoming vehicles anytime you cross a lane of traffic, even with the green arrow. However, if she really were barreling through the light, there probably isn't much you'd be able to do about it. That being said, whether or not you're legally responsible in this particular situation might vary from state to state.

As far as blinkers, it's a HUGE pet peeve of mine when people don't use them. You (and I use "you" in the generic sense here) may know that you're turning or changing into my lane, but I'm not psychic, so I sure as hell don't. The only thing that's saved me from countless accidents in these situations is assuming that the majority of the people around me either a) have no idea what they're doing, b) are paying absolutely no attention to anything going outside their own vehicle, and/or c) are just complete dicks.

 

[Andy22]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
It's funny I see this thread today...

Good Samaritan story snipped

Nice job man...I wish someone like you had been around Friday night.

 

[Jeff7]

One small bit of info:
Cerebral palsy != Down's Syndrome

 

[Schfifty Five]

Was she going perpendicular or was she just parallel / opposite direction? Like for example, you were going North, was she driving West? or South? Just curious. Not that it matters though because since you had a green arrow, you had the right of way. She should have been 100% at fault.

I don't know of any place in the U.S. that has green arrows as "yield" signs. Green arrows, as far as I know, always mean right of way. A green light that says "yield to oncoming, blah blah blah" is of course a yield light. But arrow = right of way.

 

[mh47g]

If she said she would go along with a withness, pay someone off the street.

 

[Tweak155]

Originally posted by: Whisper

Originally posted by: Tweak155

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Tweak155
Pretty sure you making the turn have to yield even if your arrow is green. You would get failure to yield, she would get failure to yield + running a red light.

To whom must he yield? If he has a green arrow, that means that no one has any business crossing his path. There is no one to yield to. It's the whole point of the green arrow.

He is crossing a lane of travel which requires yielding.

The laws are more for safety than for who is right and who is wrong - which you are arguing.

Is not using a blinker to change lanes illegal if no cars are around?

You're correct in that you should look for oncoming vehicles anytime you cross a lane of traffic, even with the green arrow. However, if she really were barreling through the light, there probably isn't much you'd be able to do about it. That being said, whether or not you're legally responsible in this particular situation might vary from state to state.

As far as blinkers, it's a HUGE pet peeve of mine when people don't use them. You (and I use "you" in the generic sense here) may know that you're turning or changing into my lane, but I'm not psychic, so I sure as hell don't. The only thing that's saved me from countless accidents in these situations is assuming that the majority of the people around me either a) have no idea what they're doing, b) are paying absolutely no attention to anything going outside their own vehicle, and/or c) are just complete dicks.

Being legally responsible for an accident and breaking a law are 2 different things. While it may get wavered in a court of law, this situation presented is a failure to yield.

EDIT:

And I'm in complete agreement on the blinkers.