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Show Left signal, a bad law By SHERRI EINFELDT Did you know that Utah's left hand turn traffic law is, according to some law enforcement officers, one of the worst on our state's books? Some officers cringe when they arrive ar-rive at the scene of a left hand turn accident that they must investigate. Why? Because the traffic code is so poorly written that most cases are never equitably and justly resolved. It says that a driver attempting at-tempting to make a left hand turn I must yield to ' lawful" oncoming I traffic. That means that if another I driver fails to yield to you and hits I you, even if heshe receives the j ticket, it can become a nightmare in I court. I All the offending driver has to do f is claim you were "unlawful" in i some w ay (i.e. , speedin g , no headlights, DUI, running red lights, etc.). If the defendant can create a reasonable doubt in the judge's mind, he gets off and owes nothing for the damage and injury he caused. caus-ed. Most people assume that a left hand turn driver has the responsibility respon-sibility to yield to oncoming cars no matter what, rather than take chances and risk lives. That's as it should be. But because this traffic law has never been properly written, many offenders get off. This law causes more injustices in court tli an nearly any other traffic law. Law enforcement officers would like to see it corrected, as would, I'm sure, anyone who has ever been "burned" by it. So why don't we all write a quick note to our state representatives and ask that they sponsor legislation to fix this traffic code and alleviate the problem. With the efforts of many concerned con-cerned citizens, this law could be improved for the benefit of all Utah drivers. |