Boredom and random traffic law

21 Aug 2008  around evening time  Matt Winckler

Just FYI, today was about the most boring day of instruction yet here at police academy. Four hours of EVOC and four hours of Firearms training turned out to be significantly less interesting than advertised. It seems that first we must slog through a ream of “driving for idiots” and firearms safety coursework in the classroom before ever getting outside to do something interesting. The latter case I’m okay with, but this morning’s EVOC material consisted largely of the stuff that virtually everyone should have picked up in driver’s ed class when they were 15. At least the instructors admitted that they knew it was extremely dry and that they were just obligated by the state to go through it. They promised that the actual driving course (in three weeks) will be the most entertaining thing we do at the academy. We get two days of daylight driving and one night of driving in darkness, including at least two pursuit actions.

On a random note, I learned a surprising thing about traffic signals at intersections. You know the folks you see burning through an intersection just as the light turns red? Turns out that it is entirely legal to “run the red light” if, at the time the light turns red, the front of your vehicle is crossing into the “intersection control zone” (in the city, typically marked by the stop line or crosswalk border). For a representation, here is some ASCII.

          |   '   |
          |   '   |
          |   '   |
          +-------+
          |||||||||
          +-------+
_________/    RED  \__________
      |-|GRN        |-|B#
- - - |-|           |-| - - -
______|-|           |-|_______
         \         /
          +-------+
          |||||||||
          +-----A-+
          |   ' # |
          |   '   |
          |   '   |

Suppose that this skillfully-drawn illustration represents the intersection at the exact instant the light turned from yellow to red. Vehicle A is traveling northbound into the intersection and its front bumper has just crossed the line into the crosswalk. It is technically legal for car A to proceed all the way through the intersection despite the light being red. Amazing!

Further suppose that Vehicle B isn’t paying attention, sees the green light, proceeds into the intersection, and collides with Vehicle A on its way through. Whose fault is it? Vehicle B, for failure to yield the right of way. Astounding! (If you don’t believe me, see RCW 46.04.240 and RCW 46.61.055(3)(a).)

I’m full of fascinating traffic law tidbits this week, so here’s another one. You know how sometimes a vehicle will be turning left on a two-lane road and will hold up traffic, and then inevitably some jerks who are too impatient to wait for the left turn will swerve around to pass the turning vehicle on the right? Well, I always thought they were impatient jerks, but it turns out the law is on their side, at least some of the time. It’s legal to pass a vehicle making such a left turn “under conditions permitting such movement in safety. Such movement shall not be made by driving off the roadway.” (RCW 46.61.115(1)(a) and (2).)

One thing I’m appreciating already from my time here is my increased ability to navigate and understand the RCW, even though it remains feeble and needs much more exercise. There are some pretty interesting laws on the books. One of my favorites so far is RCW 46.61.665. (And it’s also “prima facie evidence of reckless driving“, a gross misdemeanor!)

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 20:10 and is filed under Police, Police Academy, Police Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.