The Most Crucial Intersection-Related Mistakes That Drivers Make

If you look at where many car accidents occur, you might notice something. Many of them take place in and around intersections. You might wonder why that happens. 

You can always contact an intersection accident lawyer if you need one. Such an individual will probably have a lot of experience with these types of collisions. If you know what intersection-related mistakes drivers make, though, then perhaps you can avoid getting into a situation where you’ll need an attorney.

Let’s talk about some of the worst intersection-related mistakes and behaviors that often cause accidents. 

Trying to Drive Through a Yellow Light

If you see that a light’s turning from green to yellow when you’re approaching an intersection, then you can usually go forward with no issues. If you make it through the intersection when the light’s still yellow, then you did nothing wrong, and the cops shouldn’t ticket you. 

However, maybe you’re approaching an intersection with a yellow light facing your lane of traffic. The light goes from green to yellow when you’re still a few cars back.

In such a situation, it’s probably best that you stop when you get to the intersection rather than pressing down on the gas pedal and trying to make it through. If the light turns from yellow to red while you’re still in the intersection, then you just ran a red light. 

If the police notice you doing it, they might see it that same way as well. They can pull you over and ticket you. That’s not the worst thing that might happen, though.

If you run a red light, and you have someone who’s anxious to go forward on either your left or right, they might press down on the gas the second their light turns green, not realizing that you didn’t clear the intersection yet.

If that happens, they can hit your vehicle broadside, forming the capital letter T. The police call that a T-bone collision.

If that happens, then you might sustain some serious injuries or even die. If the vehicle that hits you strikes your passenger side door, they can badly injure or kill your front seat passenger instead.     

Making a Right Turn When It’s Not Safe to Do So

You might also see a driver make a right turn on red at an intersection when it’s not safe to do so. In many instances, if you have a red light while sitting at an intersection, you can legally turn right. However, that does not mean you have the right of way.

You need to look to your left to see whether there’s anyone coming. If there’s a car coming, you need to wait for them before you make your right turn.

If you try to turn right without looking to the left to see whether anyone’s coming, then a vehicle might hit you. If they do, that’s your fault, since you should have looked to your left to check for oncoming traffic.

You might also have a situation where you can’t legally turn right on red at that particular intersection, even if you can normally do it legally in that state. If that’s the case, you should see a posted sign telling you explicitly that you can’t turn right on a red light. 

If you ignore that sign, though, and you turn right anyway, a car might hit your vehicle. Once again, that would be your fault, since you ignored the posted sign.

Trying to Make a Left Turn and Not Understanding the Related Rules

Many car accidents happen in intersections because you have a driver who didn’t know or who doesn’t want to follow the rules about turning left. Say that you have a driver who progresses partway into the intersection with their left turn signal on. Since they’re in the intersection, they’ve now committed to turning left. 

They’re supposed to wait for a green arrow in their favor that tells them they can safely turn left and that they have the right of way. That green arrow means cars coming from the other side of the intersection must wait, as they will have a red.

If the driver turning left doesn’t wait for a green arrow, though, and they try to turn left on a solid green, then they don’t have the right of way. The drivers coming from the other direction do. 

This rookie driving mistake can cause a devastating accident if the driver going straight through the intersection at a decent rate of speed hits the driver turning left. That’s why, if you’re trying to turn left at a four-way intersection, you must either wait for the green arrow or wait till there’s no one coming from the other direction before you can safely go.  

Not Understanding the Rules Regarding Flashing Lights

There’s one additional intersection driving behavior that causes a lot of accidents. You might have a driver who approaches the intersection when there’s red or yellow lights flashing. This often happens late at night.

Typically, the city or town will program one set of traffic lights in a four-way intersection so that they flash yellow. The ones facing traffic trying to cross that intersection from the left and right will flash red.

If you approach an intersection with yellow lights flashing, that means you have the right of way, and you can go. You should do so cautiously, but you don’t have to come to a complete stop. 

The drivers coming to the intersection on either side who have the flashing red need to treat that like a stop sign. They have to come to a complete stop and look both ways to make sure they’re in the clear before they drive forward.

If you have a drunk driver or someone who doesn’t know those rules, though, then they might try to go through a flashing red light without stopping fully. It’s another activity that often causes a serious car accident in an intersection.