U-turn accidents: How they happen, and how to prevent them
Photo by Jess Loiterton
If you’ve been driving for a while, you’ve probably done a U-turn at some point. If you’ve never done one, you’ve likely at least seen another driver do one at some juncture. A U-turn sometimes makes sense if you overshoot your destination because you didn’t see it the first time you passed it.
However, when you make a U-turn, you might cause an accident. If that happens, you’re adding to car crash stats in your state. In 2021, Nevada had 192 fatal car crashes, and you can feel sure U-turns played a part in some of them.
Since U-turns cause vehicular collisions sometimes, it makes sense to talk about them. This article will cover how most U-turn accidents happen, as well as what you might do to avoid them.
What does the term “u-turn” mean?
Maybe you don’t know the term “U-turn.” It applies to the action a driver takes when they turn the car in a U-shaped motion. If they execute it correctly, the vehicle does a 180-degree pivot. It ends up facing the other direction, usually while remaining on that same street.
A driver can execute a U-turn at virtually any time. However, that does not mean you should do it in any situation. In fact, in some scenarios executing a U-turn can put you in a lot danger, not to mention any passengers in the car and any drivers or pedestrians around you.
Does a u-turn have legal status in most states?
U-turns do not have legal status in every state. Rather than going through a list of regions where they’re explicitly legal or illegal, suffice it to say that if you want to know whether you can legally do a U-turn, you should look for road signs that indicate whether you can.
On many streets where you might potentially make a U-turn in your car, you will probably see signs indicating that you can execute the maneuver legally or that you can’t. If you see a sign that states you can do a U-turn there, you usually can’t do it until you have a light in your favor. If you can legally execute the maneuver, you’ll normally do so from the far-left lane on a double yellow-lined road.
When the light turns green, you can make a U-turn since the approaching traffic will have a red light. However, if you see the light turn yellow, you should wait till you get the green before executing the U-turn. If you try to do a U-turn when the light turns red, the cars waiting for their turn can legally drive forward.
Since you’re right in front of them, they should see you and slow down long enough for you to finish the maneuver. However, the drivers might honk at you or gesture angrily. You might have a road rage situation where one of the drivers coming toward you becomes irate and does something irrational or dangerous.
How do most u-turn accidents happen?
Most U-turn accidents happen if you try to execute a U-turn on a street or in a situation where you can’t legally do so. Let’s say you’re driving one way down a road. There’s only one lane, and there’s a double yellow line to your immediate left. There’s a single lane on the other side of those yellow lines, and you have traffic going the other direction from you on the other side of it.
In that situation, you can’t legally make a U-turn. If you do, then you will cross the double yellow line. That’s illegal in every state, and if the police see you doing it, they will almost always ticket you.
Such moves also cause a lot of U-turn accidents. If you cross that double yellow line illegally, you can’t always count on the drivers coming from the other direction having fast enough reflexes to swerve out of the way or to slam on the brakes. They might hit you broadside, causing a T-bone collision if you’re still executing the maneuver when they approach at a high rate of speed.
If that happens, you’re probably going to get the worst end of it. If you have a passenger in the seat next to you, they can take the full brunt of the car coming from the opposite direction.
If the other driver hits your car while you’re in the middle of a U-turn and they strike the passenger’s side door, they can easily kill your passenger. A seatbelt and the metal of the door won’t do much to protect a human sitting in the seat beside you if a car coming from the other direction hits you going at 40 miles per hour or more.
What might you do to prevent u-turn accidents?
Preventing U-turn accidents becomes relatively easy if you know the typical traffic laws and follow them. Unless you see signs that explicitly state you can legally make a U-turn at an intersection or somewhere else, you should assume you can’t legally do it.
If you miss your destination and don’t want to drive around the block, you may feel like a U-turn can save you some time. It might, but it may also cause a car accident or earn you a ticket if a traffic cop sees you doing it.
If you’re on a deserted road in the middle of the night and make a U-turn with no other cars around, you will probably get away with it, but you’re still taking a risk when you do. You never know when you might have a police car hidden nearby waiting for someone to execute an illegal maneuver, and a U-turn with no sign saying you can legally do it definitely qualifies.
You want to have the U-turn in your arsenal as a driver, but only do it when you’re sure you legally can. If you don’t see any signs, it’s best not to attempt this time-saving trick of the road.
