Readers share ‘nominations’ for the worst road incidents

QLet me submit an entry for the most inconsiderate and idiotic driver award for the month. I was on El Camino Real during evening rush hour and stopped at the traffic light on Castro Street in Mountain View.

There are four lanes in that direction — a left turn lane and three forward lanes. The driver in the front of the middle forward lane decided he really wanted to turn left on Castro.

So while the light was still red, he pulled up a bit and turned left into the crosswalk, blocking off the second lane and planning to barge into the left-turn lane when the light changed.

However, at this intersection, forward-going traffic gets the green light while the left-turning traffic waits until the end of the cycle.

So now the forward light turns green and the driver is blocking a lane of rush-hour traffic and can’t pull farther into the intersection due to cross traffic.

Horns blow until the left turn light finally comes on.

The driver then cuts in front of other cars waiting to make their turn. All this, so they didn’t have to go to the next intersection and make a U-turn.

Sigh.

— Dale Allison, Sunnyvale

AWow, definitely not smart driving. Here’s another contender for worst of the month.

QI am beside myself. I had to make a right turn from Oak on to Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park.

I was driving my “rig,” a heavy-duty truck pulling a three-horse trailer 40 feet long,15,000 pounds of vehicle and animals.

Although you are supposed to make your turn as close to the right side of the road as possible, you can’t turn 40 feet of this vehicle and hug the curb at the same time. By the time the trailer axles round the corner, there are only inches to spare.

After I was well into the turn, a bicyclist, an older adult, decided to sneak past me on the right. I checked before I started the turn, and thank heavens I did look again because my trailer was within seconds of crushing him.

The man then proceeded to turn left onto Sand Hill.

The proper way for a bicyclist to make a left turn (in almost all cases) is from the left lane. Not only is it now popular for cyclists to make their left turns from the right lane, they often cut across traffic to do so. — Deb Goldeen,

Palo Alto

AIt’s so good you did take that second look. That very frightening situation could easily have been a tragedy. Bicyclists, avoid passing on the right as trucks may not see you at an intersection. Join Gary Richards for an hourlong chat at noon Wednesday at mercurynews.com/live-chats. Look for Gary at Facebook.com/ mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup. com or 408-920-5335.