HOUSTON, Texas – Hurricane Beryl has passed through the Houston area, leaving widespread power outages across the area and dangerous road conditions.
On Wednesday, Houston Public Works reported hundreds of traffic lights were still without power.
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Although TxDOT crews have been out since Monday repairing traffic lights and even deployed crews from other parts of the state to help, Houston Public Works said 515 intersections remain without power, 75 locations are flashing red and 50+ locations have significant damage.
#HouPublicWorks traffic signal update. Our team manages 2,500 intersections with lights. We continue to perform damage assessments after #HurricaneBeryl. Please remember to treat any location with traffic signal outages, flashing red lights, or missing stop signs as a 4-way stop. pic.twitter.com/CkYgHNMhCz
— Houston Public Works (@HouPublicWorks) July 10, 2024
For many Houston area drivers, this has caused a mess on the roads and several vehicle incidents.
TxDOT has since asked drivers coming into contact with areas with damaged traffic lights to treat the intersections without power like four-way stops.
If you’ve forgotten the rules, here’s a quick reminder:
- First come, first served: At a 4-way stop, the first car to arrive at the intersection goes first. It doesn’t matter where the vehicle is located or what direction they’re traveling, this rule will always apply when someone has arrived at the stop sign first. However, be careful of drivers who ignore this rule.
- Drivers yield to the right: If two vehicles come to a stop at a four-way stop at the same time and are next to each other, the right-of-way goes to the person who is on the right. If three vehicles arrive at the same time, the car furthest left should continue to yield until both of the other cars to the right of them have passed.
- Straight goes before turning: When you get to a 4-way intersection and are head-to-head with another vehicle, make sure to use your blinkers to show other drivers the direction you intend to travel. When two vehicles arrive at a 4-way stop at the same time, and they are head-to-head and one of the vehicles is wanting to turn and the other intends to go straight, the vehicle going straight has right of way. Keep in mind that if both vehicles are going straight or turning in the same direction, they can both proceed at the same time as they will not cross each other’s path.