Left-turn law too vague, Supreme Court rules

It seems easy enough to write a law declaring it illegal to make a left-hand turn into the far right-hand lane on a multi-lane road.

But the state Legislature so badly mangled the wording of the law that the Georgia Supreme Court on Monday found it unconstitutionally vague.

A plain reading of the statute renders two “diametrically opposite interpretations,” Justice Carol Hunstein wrote. A person of “common intelligence” cannot determine with reasonable certainty that the law prohibits making a left-hand turn into the right lane of a multi-lane roadway, the ruling said.

Until the Legislature meets next year and fixes the law, police may no longer hand out tickets to motorists who make the improper turn.

The ruling was a win for Todd Christopher McNair of Whitfield County. In 2007, Dalton police charged him with DUI, obstruction of a police officer and making an improper left-hand turn. McNair should have turned into the left lane, not the right lane of the roadway, police said.

At trial, McNair was acquitted of DUI and obstruction but convicted of the improper turn. He was fined $500, given a year’s probation and ordered to perform community service.

Benjamin Goldberg, a Whitfield County public defender, said when he first read the statute he couldn’t believe it —- or comprehend it. “It was gibberish,” Goldberg said.

After clearly instructing drivers where their car must be to start a left turn, the law is indecipherable: “Whenever practicable, the left turn shall be made to the left of the center of the intersection and so as to leave the intersection or other location in the extreme left-hand lane lawfully available to traffic moving in the same direction as such vehicle on the roadway being entered.”