New Traffic Law Closes Legal Loophole

An oversight in the Michigan Vehicle Code was corrected recently with the signing of House Bill 5370. According to the legislation, a driver who causes an accident by making a left turn onto some thing other than an intersection may now be responsible for a civil infraction.

The law amends the Michigan Vehicle Code “to require a driver of a vehicle at a location other than an intersection intending to turn left across a lane of traffic traveling in the opposite direction to yield the right-of-way to all vehicles approaching from the opposite direction that was so close to the driver as to constitute an immediate hazard.”

Michigan Rep. Scott VanSingel sponsored the legislation after learning from a prosecutor in his district that someone had protested a citation caused by turning left into a driveway that caused an accident, the lawmaker told M-Live. At the time of the accident mentioned above, there was nothing in a law that stated a driver would receive a citation if he or she failed to yield when turning into an area other than an intersection, causing an accident.

The legislation closes “a loophole in the law, giving law enforcement more tools to enforce common-sense traffic laws,” VanSingel said to M-Live.

Help is available

The attorneys at O’Reilly Rancilio are available to answer your questions regarding changes in the law. For more information, please call 586-726-1000 or visit our website.