Officer: Traffic Laws Regularly Broken

Posted Wednesday, September 26, 2018 by Andrew Charles Huff

I have spent many hours sitting court for various matters and occasionally will chat it up with a police officer while waiting for my case to be called. In speaking with officers who enforce traffic laws, here are the violations they tend to see more than others:

No Turn Signal – Specifically, drivers will occasionally turn onto a road and then immediately move to the far lane without establishing yourself in the nearest lane first. State law requires that you pull into the closest lane possible when making a turn. Once established in this closest lane, then you can signal to move into the next lane.

Traveling in Left Lane - State law requires you to stay right unless passing. It’s something that happens far too often that drivers can get pulled over for.

Not Signaling in Time - Washington traffic law requires you to signal for at least 100 feet before switching lanes or merging. That’s really not a lot of distance at 60 miles an hour, but it’s more than most of us see.

Roundabouts – We are seeing more of these roundabouts out there and some drivers and some drivers are confused about how they work. Here is the simple rule: if you are entering the roundabout, you must yield to traffic already in it.