For some Arizonians, a “fresh” red light means you’ve still got a couple of seconds to drive through.
Redditor and presumed Phoenix, AZ resident /u/medjay_solve shared dashcam footage to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing a driver in a Honda Civic going through an intersection a good three seconds after his light turned red!
As mentioned in the title, it ends up exactly as you’d imagine, a collision and headache for both involved.
The Reddit thread can be found here, the video is below and, just in case imgur goes down (mirror here.)
The accident happened at a bog-standard intersection at Glendale Ave and 7th St (exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
There’s a lot going on here.
Keen eyes will notice there’s already an accident playing out prior to OP getting hit.
This intersection probably sees a lot of accidents for some reason.
Anyway, as other Redditors have pointed out, we see the driver in the Blue Honda Civic change lane into the dedicated turn lane.
Perhaps they did that specifically to run the red light.
If you count, the Civic driver does indeed go through the intersection a good three seconds after it turns red.
The yellow light was long enough so, any driver in that situation had ample warning they’ll need to stop soon.
Although it was arguably avoidable on OP’s part, the chances of him dodging that Civic were not good.
To those saying that OP ran the red light, too, it’s not so black and white.
He clearly enters the intersection when the light is yellow and, according to The Brian D Sloan and the Arizona driver’s manual.
“It is not illegal to deliberately drive through a yellow light in the state of Arizona. As long as the vehicle crosses the intersection or the limit line before the light turns red, the law is not broken.”
OP gave an updated earlier today saying,
“The police were there on the scene and seen what happened. They said the guy ran the red light. And I didn’t. My insurance company and his insurance company said the same thing when I sent them the video.”
Thankfully, police were already there to back OP up.
But, if you need another reminder to get a dashcam, this is that.
Because the exact same incident can end up differently, especially if the other driver is a dee eye see kay like this Redditor in the comments.
“I was in the exact same kind of accident, except she straight on t boned me, “/u/Lats-N-Nats commented.” 2 years after the fact I get served papers that she’s suing ME.”
