Ken was the first officer to arrive at the accident. It was a classic left turn crash in the middle of the intersection at Highways 27 and 16, the busiest corner in Kerrville.
Judging from the damage as he pulled up, Ken could see this was going to be a bad one, a near head-on collision. Steam was spurting from two torn radiators. Water and other fluids were running from beneath both vehicles. Traffic would be tied up for hours as paramedics and wreckers did their jobs.
While rear end collisions may be more common, left turn accidents usually occur at higher speeds and account for more injuries. Approximately one in four traffic accidents in the US is a left turn collision.
The driver of the car turning left must multi-task. You have to shuffle attention between a traffic control device, usually a traffic light hanging above the intersection, and oncoming traffic. You have to turn the steering wheel to execute the turn correctly, neither oversteering nor understeering, and work the accelerator while moving through the turn and out of it.
Add to that mix the usual distractions a driver contends with – kids in the back seat, frozen groceries from the store, a meal to cook, thoughts of meetings, errands, evening activities, etc. And then there is the diversion of a phone – calls, texts, watching the traffic app, etc. Juggling the operation of a vehicle with the interference of non-driving related thoughts is a proverbial “recipe for disaster.”
Back to the accident Ken pulled up to that day. People were starting to get out of one of the cars. Ken stopped his patrol unit with overhead lights flashing to alert approaching drivers.
He ran to the first car’s occupants who were milling around and learned that apparently none of them had suffered serious injuries. Then he looked to the other vehicle. The driver was still seated in his car, his hands firmly grasping the wheel at the 10:00 and 2:00 positions while he stared straight ahead without moving.
Ken hurried over to the second vehicle and leaned down to the shattered driver’s door window. The driver sat as if paralyzed. “Are you all right, sir?” Ken asked.
The driver turned his head to look blankly at Ken. “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “I need to talk to my attorney.”
He, too, had survived the crash without major injury. At debriefing that day, we all got a laugh out of his first comment to Ken.
The left turn accident is perhaps the most likely threat of serious injury we face on a daily basis. Plan your trips to avoid unprotected left turns. When you do have to make a left turn, tune out all other distractions and focus intently on your driving and oncoming traffic. When you approach an intersection to go straight, watch ahead for other vehicles turning left directly in front of you.
When stopped at a red light and it turns green, check in all directions before taking your foot off the brake. At every intersection, cross traffic and especially left turns can be deadly.