Last week’s article was about moving into the intersection on a green light if you are turning left at the intersection, even if there is a string of oncoming traffic. Today’s article deals with a very important consideration all drivers should be aware of whenever they must wait for oncoming traffic or pedestrians while waiting to complete their left turn — KEEP YOUR WHEELS STRAIGHT until you are able to make your turn. If you always do this, should you get hit from behind, the force would send your vehicle straight ahead, and not into oncoming traffic.

For most drivers this probably is obvious, but not to everyone. I see drivers at intersections, drivers in two-way-left-turn lanes, and drivers on two-lane streets and roads waiting for a break in oncoming traffic to make their intended left turn but with their front wheels turned in the direction they want to go. What a dangerous practice! What would happen if they get rear-ended? The force of the collision would drive their vehicle into the oncoming lane and likely into a head-on or T-bone crash.

Don’t think this is a real danger? Read on, and think about the following two true real life stories, thanks to a recently retired official from the state Department of Transportation in Albany that provided me with the details of just what can happen.

The first real life example was in a 30 mph speed zone in a village in western New York, very similar in size to Malone. A new store had just opened with a new driveway on the south side of the state highway. A woman was stopped in the travel lane waiting to turn left into this store; her wheels were also turned left when she got rear ended, knocking her into the path of an oncoming tractor trailer truck. The woman’s mother was seated in the front passenger seat and was killed. The driver survived.

The second incident was also in western New York. A woman had left for work and was headed north on a rural 55 mph state highway. She was stopped in a left turn lane waiting for a gap in traffic. A man also driving north on the same highway became distracted and drifted into the left turn lane. He rear-ended the stopped car at a high speed. A call went out on the police scanner, which the women’s husband was listening to at home. He thought “hmmm, my wife drives through that intersection on her way to work, and she should be there right about now.” Tragically, she was propelled into the path of a loaded dump truck and did not survive.

It is so hard to imagine the trauma felt by the drivers of all vehicles involved – the one turning, the one rear-ending that car, or the one coming the other way. While these two crashes involved trucks, it could just as easily have been one of us in a regular passenger vehicle that hit one of these unfortunate drivers who got rear-ended.

The crash type could be a head-on or if the wheels are turned enough, as in the first case, almost a T-bone. In both of these true-life stories, had the drivers waiting to make the left turn kept their front wheels straight, they would have been propelled ahead rather than to the left into oncoming traffic. They may have been injured but a crash from behind that propels you straight rather than into oncoming traffic is more likely survivable. To everyone, if you are guilty of this, please stop now. And, if you are riding with someone that does it, say something.