Road Rules Semi-Rage - Cutting Corners on Left Turns [View all]
Yesterday evening about 6 PM, I drove the four blocks to a local restaurant to pick up "Three gyros, two fries." All residential streets. As I approached the last right turn onto the street the restaurant is on, a driver turned left from that street and almost hit me. There's a stop sign on that corner, so I was almost stopped, going no more than 5 MPH.
Why? I was as far right on the intersecting street as was possible and well to the right of the center line, if there were a center line. What almost caused that accident was yet another driver cutting the corner to turn left.
Cutting corners on left turns is a really, really frequent cause of accidents. While it lets the turning driver go a little bit faster, there's always the chance that someone will be approaching that intersection in the right lane.
In my case, the offending driver wasn't on a cell phone, and swerved just in time to avoid hitting my car. I could do nothing to avoid the driver. There was no room to my right and I was almost at the stop sign.
Please! If you're turning left where there is no stop sign for your direction of travel, please do not cut the corner. Just slow down, and make a proper turn. It might delay you five seconds, but if you hit a car on the intersecting street, it's going to delay you a helluva lot more.
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