Dead traffic lights at a T-junction, a flashed headlight and a pedestrian
It is 5:15 pm on a weekday and you are waiting on the minor arm of a T-junction, intending to turn right onto a busy two-lane main road. The traffic lights at the junction are dead because of a power cut and no police officer is directing traffic. Vehicles on the main road are moving steadily in both directions. A driver approaching from your right in the near lane flashes his headlights and slows to about 15 km/h. Behind you a minibus has stopped so close that you can see its wipers. On the far side of the main road a woman with a small child has stepped off the pavement and is waiting to cross the road you intend to enter. Your view to the left is partly blocked by a parked delivery truck.
1. With the signals dead, what is your position at this junction and to whom must you give way? Explain what changes in your approach.
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A dead signal is not a green light. The junction reverts to the ordinary priority rule: you are on the minor arm, so you give way to traffic already on the main road. Every vehicle on that road has priority over you, in both directions.
What changes:
- Your speed - you approach and wait at a crawl, ready to stop, because other drivers may treat the dark signals as a free-for-all.
- Your observation - you must clear the blocked view to the left with a deliberate second look (creep forward a little) before trusting a gap.
- Your assumption - nobody else's signal, flash or wave gives you a right of way; only a clear road does.
You commit only when the near lane and the far lane are both clear enough for you to complete the turn without anyone having to slow for you.
2. The driver on your right flashes his headlights. What are the possible meanings and what must you still check before moving?
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A flash is ambiguous. It can mean 'I am letting you out', it can mean 'I am here, I am coming', and it can be a warning about something behind you. In a line of traffic it may not even have been meant for you.
What matters is the rest of the traffic. The flashing driver is not the only vehicle on that road. Check:
- His indicators - is he actually slowing to turn into your road, or just lifting off?
- The lane beyond or behind him - is a second vehicle already committed to pass him?
- Your blocked view to the left - has anything appeared while you were watching him?
- The far lane you intend to enter - is it clear for the whole length of your turn?
Rule of thumb: treat a flash as information, never as permission. If you cannot personally see that the road you are entering is clear, you do not move, however helpful the flash was meant to be.
3. The woman with the child is waiting to cross the road you are turning into, and the minibus behind you begins to edge out. How does that change your plan?
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The pedestrian changes where your turn ends, not just where it starts. When you enter that road you must be able to stop before the crossing point. A woman with a child may step out once she sees a car turning in - she is reading your intention as 'he is going that way, he will wait'. So your plan becomes: complete the turn only if you can do so and stop short of her, and be ready to give way the moment she moves.
The minibus changes the risk behind you. It is impatient and may try to come round you into the main road. Do not respond by rushing the turn to 'get out of the way' - that pushes you into a gap you have not verified.
Plan: hold position, let the minibus commit or wait, re-check both lanes, turn slowly, stop for the woman and child, and only then pick up speed.