Simultaneous Arrivals at a Four-Way Stop
At 7:52 a.m. you approach a four-way stop in a residential area posted 25 mph. You are northbound, signaling a left turn into a school driveway. A sedan eastbound reaches its stop line at what looks like the same instant you do; you genuinely cannot tell who stopped first. A southbound SUV stopped about four seconds earlier and is only now moving straight through, accelerating slowly. No crossing guard is present, but a parent with a stroller is stepping off the curb on your right, walking north across the east leg of the intersection. A cyclist behind you is already unclipped with a foot down. As you brake, your phone slides off the passenger seat and lands near the brake pedal.
1. Rank who goes first and explain the rule you are using when you cannot tell who arrived first.
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Start with the pedestrian: someone in a crosswalk has priority over every vehicle at the intersection, so the parent with the stroller crossing the east leg freezes the eastbound sedan's move regardless of arrival order. Next, the southbound SUV. It stopped roughly four seconds before either of you and is already lawfully in the intersection proceeding straight, so it clears first. Now the tie between you and the eastbound sedan. When two vehicles arrive at a stop at approximately the same time, the driver on the left yields to the driver on the right - that is you yielding to the eastbound car, which is to your right. So the sequence is pedestrian, southbound SUV, eastbound sedan, you. "I can't tell who was first" is not a reason to guess; the tie-breaker exists precisely for ambiguous arrivals.
2. You are turning left. Beyond the arrival order, what extra obligation do you owe the southbound SUV?
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A left turn layers a separate yield on top of the four-way-stop ordering. Even if you had arrived first and the SUV had arrived later, a driver turning left must yield to oncoming traffic that is going straight or turning right, because that traffic's path does not cross the same conflict. The SUV is southbound and proceeding straight, so it is directly oncoming to your left turn and gets to clear first on that ground as well as on arrival order. Practically, this means you should not roll into the intersection and wait mid-turn blocking the southbound lane; wait behind the limit line until the SUV is through, then take your gap. And do not accept a courtesy wave from the SUV driver - a waived right-of-way does not protect you from the eastbound sedan or from a vehicle you have not seen, and the driver waving may not have checked.
3. The phone lands by the brake pedal while the cyclist and the sedan are both waiting. What do you do, and why is this not a minor detail?
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Stop completely first - at the limit line, behind the crosswalk, with the pedestrian's path clear - and leave the phone where it is until you are parked. Reaching down while braking into a stop with a cyclist behind you, a pedestrian to your right, and a car to your right-front is how pedal confusion happens: your eyes leave the crosswalk, your upper body rotates, and your right foot searches for a pedal you cannot see. The cyclist behind has already committed to a trackstand and cannot stop faster than you can; a lurch forward at 25 mph residential speed is enough to put you into the crosswalk the parent is using. The correct order is brake, stop, secure the phone once lawfully parked. Distraction is not an excuse for failing to yield - the standard is what a reasonable driver would do, and reaching for a phone at a stop sign is not it.