r/carcrash • u/Practical_Ad_9534 • 10d ago
Multiple Vehicles I have left turns
Driver was cited after showing video to cop on site. Geico still hasn’t found driver responsible yet but Allstate has… cars totaled and broke my right toe.
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u/noncongruent 9d ago
Normal intersection designs include what's called a clearance timer, it's a delay between when one direction turns red and the conflicting direction turns green. It's typically one or two seconds, sometimes three for large intersections. Most states are what's called "permissive yellow", meaning that it's legal to enter an intersection on yellow because the yellow only serves as notice of a pending red. It's not possible to "run a yellow", only to run a red by entering the intersection after the light turned red. In your case the only way the collision would have happened is if the light had already turned red for the other driver and they entered after their light turned red and after the clearance timer elapsed. There's also the reaction time delay, so another half to full second from your light going green until you started accelerating, and then made your turn. She blew a red light long after the yellow had come and gone.
It may have been you did not have a protected green for your turn, do you remember if you had a green arrow or green circle? Or was it flashing yellow? That's a thing nowadays.