Turns

A conversation that I had this week highlights a dangerous situation that is well worth discussing, vehicles making right turns across cycle lanes. Drivers may not understand the duties required of them as many of us are only starting to experience driving alongside cycle lanes.

The case of Stempowicz v Dobbs involves a collision at the intersection of Veterans Memorial Parkway and Langford Parkway in Langford. The traffic light was green for the opposing drivers, one turning left and one driving straight through. Justice Morley decides which driver was the immediate hazard.

A Courtenay resident is upset with drivers that turn left from the Island Highway onto Ryan Road and fail to enter the first available lane. He identifies this as a problem for drivers traveling in the opposite direction on the highway wanting to turn right onto Ryan Road. Who would be liable he wonders if the right turn vehicle failed to yield as directed by the sign and collided with a vehicle that had made the left turn into the curb lane instead of the lane next to the center line.

A driver from Rutland e-mailed with a concern regarding the intersection of Nickel Road and Highway 33. Highway 33 is five lanes wide with a two way left turn lane in the middle and Nickel Road is a two lane residential street. She regularly stops and waits to turn left off of Highway 33 onto Nickel Road and is horrified when through traffic on the highway stops to allow her to make the turn.

This case decides the liability for a collision at the intersection of 184th Street and 40th Avenue in Surrey. Was the collision caused by a driver cutting corners or a driver failing to stop at the stop sign? Madam Justice Forth makes the decision.

Part of Parachute Canada's Vision Zero Collection is an explanation of centerline hardening strategies that are intended to make intersections safer for pedestrians by reducing the turning radius for motor vehicles. The use of physical objects such as bollards, delineators or rubber curbs encourage drivers to make left turns at slower speeds.

A reader writes to me describing an intersection where collisions occur regularly, some resulting in fatalities. He has observed that the opposing left turn lanes in one direction don't line up directly across from each other but are offset by a few feet. The result is that through traffic in one direction is more obscured by standing vehicles than it is in the other. To complicate matters, one direction has a protected left turn signal and the other direction does not.

The case of Siegrist v Wiens takes place on Highway 1 near Canoe. 17 year old Kenton Wiens was driving a farm tractor pulling a hay wagon loaded with large round bales southbound. Helen Siegrist was following behind in a Nissan Sentra. When oncoming traffic cleared, Mrs. Siegrist attempted to pass Mr. Wiens.

When I was relatively new to police work I was patrolling behind a car that had stopped at a red light with the left turn signal blinking. The next thing I knew, this car had turned left against the red light! Well, on went the lights and siren and I chased down this alleged red light runner. This would be an easy ticket, or so I thought.

The case of DeHeer v Mamdooh involves a collision that took place at the intersection of Pinetree Way and Anson Avenue in Coquitlam. Anthony DeHeer was driving on Anson Avenue and turned right onto Pinetree Way, traveling in the direction of the Lougheed Highway. Pejman Mamdooh was driving southbound on Pinetree Way, also traveling in the direction of the Lougheed Highway. The two collided.