Four-Way Stop With a Left-Turning Truck and a Pedestrian
You are westbound on a two-lane residential street at 4:40 p.m. and stop at a four-way stop. A sedan approaching from your right is already stopped, waiting to continue straight. Directly across from you, a pickup arrived a second or two before you did and has its left turn signal on, intending to turn into the street you just came from. As the sedan on your right pulls away, a woman pushing a stroller steps off the curb on your left and starts across in the marked crosswalk. The pickup edges forward, flashes its headlights twice, and waves you through.
1. Assuming the sedan on your right goes first, what is the correct order of movement for you, the pickup, and the pedestrian, and who must yield to whom?
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Order: pedestrian, then you, then the pickup.
- Pedestrian first. She is in a marked crosswalk. A crosswalk is the pedestrian's space; any vehicle movement waits until she has cleared your path. This does not depend on arrival order.
- You before the pickup. Arrival order only settles conflicts between vehicles whose paths do not cross. The pickup is turning left across your lane, and a left-turning driver must yield to oncoming traffic that is close enough to be a hazard. Arriving one or two seconds earlier does not buy the pickup the right to cut across your path.
- The pickup last. It waits for the pedestrian and for you, then completes its turn when the intersection is clear.
Key reasoning: the pickup's headlight flash is a courtesy signal, not a right-of-way transfer. Right-of-way is set by the crosswalk rule and the left-turn rule, neither of which the other driver can waive on your behalf.
2. The pickup driver waves you through. What should you actually do before moving, and why is the wave not permission?
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Before moving, clear the whole intersection yourself:
- Confirm the pedestrian and stroller are past your path. She may pause, turn back, or be followed by a second person.
- Re-check the pickup's wheels, not the driver's hand. A waved hand can coexist with a rolling wheel.
- Sweep left and right again for a vehicle that may be arriving late, a cyclist, or someone passing on the shoulder.
- Make eye contact if you can; if you cannot, assume the other driver has not seen you.
Why the wave is not permission: a wave communicates only that one driver intends to wait. It says nothing about the third and fourth vehicles, the pedestrian, or whether that driver will actually hold still. If you pull out and get hit, "he waved me on" is not a defense - the duty to make sure the way is clear never transfers to another driver. Proceed only on your own observation, and proceed slowly enough to stop if the situation changes.
3. Suppose the same woman crossed 40 feet past the crosswalk, through a gap in the curb, instead of at the marked crossing. Does your obligation change?
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Your duty not to hit her does not change; only the fault allocation might.
- Crosswalk markings and signals decide who has the legal right-of-way and who shares fault. They do not license a driver to proceed into a person standing in the roadway.
- A pedestrian outside a crosswalk is still an unexpected obstacle - and at 4:40 p.m. with the sun low, she and the stroller may be hard to see against the curb.
- If she is crossing illegally, the correct response is to slow or stop and let her clear, then continue. Honking and holding speed to "claim" your right-of-way is how a right-of-way dispute becomes a collision.
Rule of thumb: right-of-way tells you who goes first when paths conflict; it never authorizes you to continue into a hazard you can see.