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Q. On 17th street, between College Rd and St. Andrews, there is a traffic pattern that causes close calls almost daily. It is 17th street directly in front of Scotchman and Bruster’s. Some cars turn left into Scotchman off of 17th and a lot make a u-turn. At the same time there are cars at a stop sign coming out of Scotchman, making the right turn onto 17th. The cars at the stop sign do not yield to the U-turning cars. It ends up with both cars nose-to-nose trying to figure out who should go, while traffic off of college approaches quickly. To be honest, I am not even 100% certain that the U-turning vehicles have the right of way.
A. Cars at a stop sign must ensure an intersection is clear of traffic prior to proceeding into the intersection. That includes cars making a legal U-turn, according to Cpl. Kevin Smith with the Wilmington Police Department.
So unless there is a sign indicating No U-turns, or that cars making a U-turn must yield to oncoming traffic, the car making the U-turn has the right of way if they are in the intersection, Smith said.
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Date posted: October 23, 2012
User-contributed question by:
Anonymous
PLEASE qualify the response to to this question to clearly identify that if a car is making a U turn from a turn lane, and the vehicle on the side street has a right turn light, the U turn vehicle SHOULD yield to the vehicle on the side street, If they would only take notice at the sign placed next to their light, it tells them to yield BEFORE turning. This is ignored so often it’s scary.