Wanted: Official police answer for a roundabout situation

[Mtz]

I hope some members from across the world will ask the police from their country to give an official answer about this situation and post here the official answer (covering the sensitive data):



Who is wrong? Green or yellow car? (I think this should be asked to the police)

I made also a poll because if people will write here their ideas, the thread will be full of contradictions and my goal is to have many official statements from different countries.
In my country the police and judge was using both versions and sometimes declared guilty the green, sometimes the yellow. This story is very old and repeated forever.
Recently the law was modified but I think it is against to other countries laws. So if you will come in Romania with your car you will have big chances to make an accident inside a roundabout. I know almost nobody will go with his car in Romania and this is another example why they should not go.

 

[Dashmellow]

 

[kamkar]

I would say yellow, CUZ here you only take the Right lane if you exit at the first road, if you need to go further around the roundabout you need to keep left as the green car also do.
EDIT: so by Danish rules, the green car are also in the wrong it should have been in the Right lane on the approach, as it is going strait in the roundabout.
So for sure a 50/50 split if it was here, both are in the wrong ( lane )
Still there might be issues as you still have to make sure you can safely turn ( out of the roundabout ) so here that would probably end up as a 50 / 50 split, just as it is every time someone crash at a 4 way stop here.
Also if taking the first exit entering a roundabout, you must be indicating when entering the roundabout just as if you was turning right in a intersection.
Of course if the 2 cars was side by side then the green car would not be able to see the yellow car do not intend to turn right at the first exit, and so be aware of something might be up.

Actually i have been thinking for many decades.
If the indicator light on a car flash the side it is turning to, the other side should also come on but SOLID and so from the other side you can see this car is turning ( right ) even if you are to the left of it and can not see the right indicators.
So in this situation the green car would be able to see the yellow car was about to do nothing.

Somehow i feel like i should look up the Danish roundabout rules.

 

[kamkar]

Okay so i looked, you can keep right in a 2 lane roundabout just like yellow, but if you are going left in the roundabout you keep left on the approach, and actually also indicate left, this way other cars can see you are going " all the way "

If like yellow do, well when you pass the #1 exit you dont take, you have to indicate right as you pass that, so people can see you go right on the next exit.

Danish speech but OK GFX.

So in essence the Right lane on the approach are if you go right first time or go strait thru roundabout, the left lane on the approach are for if you go left or do a 180 and exit the same way you came from.

 

[kamkar]

My video indicate that you can exit left to both lanes, i assume it would be stupid to do that to the Right hand lane if there is a car there.
But again you always have to make sure you can do something, mo matter how entitled the traffic code make you to do so.
I would exit left in the Left lane, then once out of roundabout i can pull over when it is safe and convenient,,,,, and so make room for all the BMW / Audi and Mercedes drivers to force ahead wit the speed limits not applying to them.


Edit: i feel safe now if i was to drive on American roads, though there is still that matter of right on red in some states, guess ill just have to google as i proceed west across the prairie so as not to bother the living hell out of the locals.

 

[Dashmellow]

One part of my hometown is set to get a whole series of new roundabouts in the coming years to replace a series of traffic intersections along a stretch of road in a commercial district, but at the one that is already there people do the craziest things.
Sometime drivers are impatient, selfish and reckless so they just barge their way into the circle right in front of oncoming cars. We get a lot of out-of-state tourists in town and indeed the roundabout is literally a few hundred yards from an interstate highway on one side and the border of neighboring New Hampshire on the other side so we get a lot of people from other places who have no clue how to use a roundabout. And the roundabout is really kind of small and there are a lot of huge tractor-trailers and logging trucks that come through all the time and they usually take up both lanes and crowd out every other vehicle on their path through the circle and you never know if they are turning or not.

The thing is that all-in-all the whole thing works pretty well and is more efficient than the old intersection that used to be there. The main issue is that it is too small to handle all the traffic that comes through but there was only so much room for the thing when they installed it.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Yo MTZ,
I voted yellow is wrong.
As far as getting an official answer from the Police;
In my home state the Police are not infallible, and it's often lawyers have the final word in cases like these.

Speaking from my personal experience I was involved in a motorcycle vs. car collision in 1999.
I was riding my motorcycle, and a car turned left in front of me.
I hit the car, and I was ejected.
I broke my wrist, and ankle, and my brand new $10,000 motorcycle was totaled, (1999 Honda CBR900RR aka Fireblade) .

The official Police report said I was at fault because I was speeding based on the skid marks from my tires.
I hired a motorcycle lawyer that specialized in these cases, (Pat Riley).
After a few weeks the lawyer got the car driver's insurance company to pay for all my medical bills, and replace my $10,000 motorcycle, and a little extra for lost wages due to injuries.
-Chuck

 

[lacibaci]

Seems to me that both cars were in wrong lanes on approach to the roundabout. In this situation, I would say the green car should yield since it is turning...
@Dashmellow video above actually mentions this by saying "don't turn right if you are in the left lane..."

 

[kamkar]

Yeah turning or changing lane, you have to make sure it is safe to do so, so the green car are also at fault there and on the placement on the approach.

So i still put my money on a 50 / 50 split, and call both winners, that is if they remember this lesson.

 

[Dashmellow]

In this situation, I would say the green car should yield since it is turning...
@Dashmellow video above actually mentions this by saying "don't turn right if you are in the left lane..."

I agree that the green car should yield. That's what the video says and indeed he would have to in order to avoid an accident. However, the yellow car is in the wrong attempting to turn left from the right lane.

Seems to me that both cars were in wrong lanes on approach to the roundabout.

Here I would disagree. As the guy in the video says, "Like most other intersections, use the left lane to go left and the right lane to go right, and either lane to go straight through." This is also what the road markings are telling the drivers to do.

Both are are not in the wrong lane on approach. The green car is OK because he is following the instructions of the signage and road markings. He could go left or straight through.

"don't turn right if you are in the left lane..."

The green car in @Mtz's example isn't turning right. He's going straight through, so he's following the rules.

As the guy says in the US Department of Transportation FHA video (@1:28 secs) , "Stay in your lane". Don't turn left from the right lane and don't turn right from the left lane."

So, the yellow car in Mtz's example is in the wrong because he is violating the rules of the signage and road markings. He can either go right or straight thorough from the right lane but he isn't supposed to turn left.

 

[Dashmellow]

Edit: i feel safe now if i was to drive on American roads, though there is still that matter of right on red in some states, guess ill just have to google as i proceed west across the prairie so as not to bother the living hell out of the locals.

I live in a state where you are not supposed to turn right on red but I live a few miles from another state where you can turn right on red. The whole thing can get very confusing.

 

[kamkar]

2 lane roundabouts are the odd ones out here in Denmark, for the most its just 1 lane even if the roundabout are sizeable.

I assume that big dot on the US left lane marking is for " go here if you want to do a 180 in the roundabout "

A problem i assume would be many cant cope with the roundabout, so they figure " ill just keep right and get out of the way of people " but thats actually a problem as we see in the OP
I also often see it here when 2 lanes merger to one ( we have 2 systems for this ) there are merger and there are lange change ( lane ending )

So the sign for lane merger look like this, in general it is when the line that separate the 2 lanes stop then you merge.

The other merger sign are this one, that you most often see on motorway On ramps.
Pretty much the same as above + get up to motorway speed to be able to merge safely and not roll into a 110 km/h road doing 80 even if the trucks there are capped at 80 km/h

There actually are a #3 kind or a #2 of the top one here, but there you have stripes on the sign and so it is not a merger but rather a lane change that is happening / you need to do.
Here you being in the ending lane must yield to the traffic in the lanes that continue.

So here the leftmost lane are ending and you need to go right, yielding to any traffic there

This is also one of the places where the much used term in the Danish traffic code are used, and that is the " mutual consideration "

BUT ! often Danes can not be bothered with this and so keep right long before you need to merge, so you can gain a lot of places some times, okay some will give you the stink eye for doing that, but you are actually in the right.
No where in the tr4affic code do it say you have to merge / keep right a mile before a sign, you are only supposed to merge when it is actually time.

This is also where you will see people driving bumper to bumper to sure as hell not letting anyone in between me and the guy in front.

 

[kamkar]

I just whipped up a video demoing people "merging" keeping right well in time, here i only gained a few places keeping left lane, some times in the same place i can gain 10 spots there.
Also its the same god damn thing every day here, they really should do something about rush hour traffic here in town, it is bad ( well for Danish conditions compared to LA its a cakewalk )
coming into town here at the right time and the oncoming lane will be full of cars and you have a 1/2 mile que of cars down the hill.

 

[Mtz]

I agree that the green car should yield.

So, the yellow car in Mtz's example is in the wrong because he is violating the rules of the signage and road markings. He can either go right or straight thorough from the right lane but he isn't supposed to turn left.

This is why I was asking for official reply from police from your country. In Romania both situations are stated in the law.
There was already a rule which remained valid which said that the cars must respect the road markings.
A recent law as added for the situation of the green car which should yield. They introduced the term of lane inside the roundabout so the green car is on his lane and if it want to go straight it is considered that it is leaving its lane so it must yield for the yellow car.

 

[Dashmellow]

This is why I was asking for official reply from police from your country.

The video I posted, "Rules of the Roundabout" is directly from the United States Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration. You can't get more "official" than that in this country. You don't need any reply from the police.

 

[kamkar]

My video are from a driving instructor.