column 6/16/13 Ask Policemandan: Q: I go to work way early some days like at 2:30 or 3:00 a.m. and there is a set of lights in that just won’t change from red to green. I have actually sat for 5 minutes waiting. I have found that if I back over the sensors and pull forward 4 or 5 times it will change, is it ever alright to put on my emergency flashers and just go through them slowly? There is no traffic at all. -Scott A: This one falls under the tree in the forest question. This one, though, would be if there weren’t any witnesses were you actually breaking the law? The answer of course is “yes”, you would be violating the law to go through a red light in a vehicle even if the light was not functioning properly. If you were on a motorcycle then you could proceed through the red light but only after one cycle of the traffic signal. If the motorcycle was the only vehicle there then there might be a problem if the lights did not cycle through. If nobody is there and the lights are triggered by your vehicle then I would suggest driving back and forth until the lights get triggered by your vehicle. I have had to do that at a few lights in order to get them to recognize me (besides traffic lights don’t read the newspaper to know who I am anyway). I can tell you that if you got a ticket and went to court you could throw yourself at the mercy of the judge and hope that he or she also had to wait at that light. You can also call the Idaho Department of Transportation and advise them of the light; it might just need an adjustment. Q: Correct me if I’m wrong, but as I understand it, center lanes marked for left turns can’t be used a merge lane. Why don’t the police do a better job enforcing the law concerning the lane, or at least trying to educate drivers that they have to wait until traffic clears in both directions before attempting a left turn onto the roadway? -Kevin A: I don’t need to correct you because you are right about center lane marked for left or right turns. The lanes can be driven on but the driver can’t use that lane to continue to drive on until they can merge into traffic. The reason more people are not stopped, in my opinion, is that it is usually never a factor unless somebody causes a crash. It could also be that if an officer does not witness the vehicle from the time it pulled out that officer might think the vehicle is turning left. Vehicles turning left and driving onto a left hand turn need to be aware if a vehicle has pulled into that lane to turn. The easiest rule to think of here is that if you are turning left from a parking lot, driveway or alley, then you must yield to both directional traffic flows. Officer down: Glad to report that at time of submission no officers were killed in the line of duty. “Happy Fathers Day indeed.”
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:42:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015