Wind Gusts Are Expected To Hit 55mph This Weekend

You should be aware that wind gusts are expected to hit 55mph this weekend throughout the Vegas valley!

The last time it got really windy in Las Vegas, my neighbors lost their family trampoline. I remember waking up and seeing it in the park behind our house, smashed to pieces because of the awesome power of mother nature! We also had a bunch of trees in our neighborhood that broke (example above) from the gusts. And I got a chuckle from some of the local influence pages that made jokes about the wind.

A high wind advisory has been issued for the area and Las Vegas residents are being asked to brace themselves for potentially extreme weather conditions. The high wind advisory is set to start at 8 a.m. on Saturday, March 23rd, and is expected to remain in effect until around 2 a.m. Sunday morning.

Naturally, this also means if you suffer from seasonal allergies, you should probably be aware; because air quality conditions will be affected as well. Elderly people, children and anyone with respiratory issues are being advised to stay indoors as much as possible.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued the high wind advisory due to an expected drop in temperature that will contribute to strong winds in our region. The NWS says anyone in the Vegas valley should expect wind speeds between 25 to 35 mph, but gusts could exceed 50 mph! When gusts reach those speeds, they have the potential to create dangerous driving conditions which include: reduced visibility when driving, difficulty driving larger vehicles, and debris filling the roadways.

Additionally, according to a graphic on their website, potential hazards from the gusts will be: dust, fallen trees, power line damage, hazardous crosswinds, and large waves at Lake Mead.

To keep you and your loved ones safe during such windstorms, here are some additional tips you can take:

Wind Gusts Are Expected To Hit 55mph This Weekend

Sin City has always been known for it's array of casinos. But two recent studies suggest that it's actually Las Vegas drivers, not gamers, who might be taking the biggest risks. And gambling with their lives.

Two personal injury lawyers out of Florida, Anidjar & Levine, conducted a study with data collected from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They examined the number of fatal crashes in each U.S. state between the years of 2012 and 2021. They then found out what percentage of those crashes involved another car.

What they found was the rate of increase for each state in vehicular fatalities involving at least two cars. Nevada landed at number eight on the study. According to the findings, over that ten year period we have seen an increase of 24.98% in vehicular fatalities that involved another car in the collision. 73 of our 238 fatal crashes in 2012 involved another vehicle. And 138 of our 360 fatal crashes in 2021 involved another vehicle.

Related: Driving In Las Vegas - Where You Need To Be Extra Careful

What the study shows us is that Las Vegas drivers involved in fatal crashes has become more a result of one car actually colliding with another. Versus a car rolling over or colliding with a inanimate road structure. And those of us who have been driving in this city will probably site the same things we've seen that might be common precursors to such car-to-car collisions.

I've lived in Vegas for over 20 years, and have seen a lot of driving. Both on our surface streets as well as on our freeways. What I have observed is a lot of bad driving decisions in both areas. On our freeways, the tailgating always makes me shake my head. Practically touching someone's bumper while driving 75 mph is incredibly foolish, in my opinion.

Interestingly, though, I haven't seen a lot of accidents coming from such behavior. Where I have seen most of the collisions between cars, many of which end up in fatalities, is in our intersections. And there's another study that makes a strong suggestion when it comes to how these collisions might be happening.

This second study was conducted by personal injury attorneys John Foy & Associates. They also collected data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, also focusing on drivers involved in fatal crashes. This study looked at 2017 through 2021 and focused on the fatal crashes involving drivers turning either right or left at the time of the crash.

What the study revealed was that Nevada ranked second in the percentage of fatal crashes involving at least one of the vehicles making a turn. Over the five year period in question, there were 2,403 fatal accidents in Nevada. And 273 of those crashes involved a driver turning right or left at the time of the incident. That's 11.36 percent of our fatal crashes for that time frame.

Unlike the results of the aforementioned studies, the following information is not based on statistics. This is just what I, as a Las Vegas local, have observed on our surfaces streets in my 20 plus years of living in Southern Nevada. Specifically in our intersections. To me, it seems that our local drivers are making the same mistakes when it comes to turning behaviors. Which of these have you seen, or worse, been guilty of?

Oh, and please forgive my crude scribbling on one of the photos below. Sometimes, a girl has to improvise when making a point.

The Nevada DMV's website has a section about Las Vegas traffic laws and safety. When it comes to turning on a red light, the website states that drivers "must be in the extreme right-hand lane and yield to pedestrians and all traffic moving through the intersection."

While I haven't seen too many drivers turning right when they're not in the extreme right-hand lane, I've seen plenty disregarding the second part. The part about yielding to traffic moving through the intersection. I've been cut off SO many times by someone turning into the right most lane of the oncoming traffic, just as I'm approaching that lane from the other side of the intersection. Forcing me to slam on my breaks in the middle of the intersection. Good times.

I've also seen the same driver turning right on a red turn into the middle or far left lane of the adjacent street, instead of the right most lane. And just as someone with a green arrow opposite them in the intersection is turning into one of those lanes. Also not good.

Oftentimes in Las Vegas, I'm turning right into a neighborhood. And a car (typically one NOT drawn by me) approaches from the other side of the intersection with the driver wanting to turn left into the same neighborhood. Most of the time, the driver turning left yields to me turning right, but other times they have been downright rude about having to wait.

For this one, we turn to the "Rules of the Road" section of www.leg.state.nv.us. NRS Chapter 484B.253 states that a someone turning left in an intersection has to yield to any oncoming traffic, as long as that traffic is in the intersection or close enough to it to be a hazard. On the other hand, if there aren't cars close enough to be a hazard, then the driver turning left has the right-of-way, providing they have their turn signal on.

What I see a lot in Las Vegas is that even when the left-hand turning driver has the right of way, because nobody coming at him is close enough to be a hazard, someone approaching the intersection where the turn is being made will actually speed up to get to the intersection more quickly. I don't know what that is. Maybe to "teach that driver a lesson"? Which is silly because, unless I'm reading it wrong, the law would make the driver going straight at fault in that situation.

This is one that drives me the most mad in Las Vegas. Because it happens ALL. THE. TIME. Drivers are turning left in an intersection that has both a double left-hand turn lane and at least two (usually three) lanes in the intersecting street. And I would be a very rich woman if I had even a penny for every time I saw a driver turn into a lane not designated for them considering which lane they came from.

The City of North Las Vegas website, section 10.20.260 doesn't specify where a turning car should land on a two-way street. But for "Left Left Turns on Other Than Two-Way Roadways", subsection C states that a driver has to both exit the left hand turn lane and enter the intersecting street as close as possible to "the left-hand lane lawfully available to traffic".

What happens a lot in Vegas is that the driver in the extreme left turn lane will turn into the middle or even extreme right lane of the intersecting street. Thereby forcing the driver who came from the rightmost left-hand turn lane out of their lane. And the especially rude drivers will then honk at the car that is "in their way" because they were actually where they were supposed to be. I always wonder if that driver knows what they lack in driving skills, they make up for in sheer laughable entitlement.

Oh the dreaded 4-way stop in Las Vegas. This is another area where drivers are often shirking the rules of the road. But honestly, it's not the drivers who aggressively ignore the laws that have frustrated me. It's that driver in the white car across from me, who was clearly there before I was, who sits and waits for me to go. I don't know if they are trying to be kind, but it just disrupts the flow of the intersection. Because the guy in the silver truck to the right is wondering why we're all just sitting there.

When it comes to the 4-way stop in Las Vegas, there are concrete rules. Nevada Driving Academy states that "the first car to arrive at the intersection receives the right of way." It doesn't matter where they are in the 4-way stop, or where other cars are in relation. This is the "first come, first served" rule. When two cars arrive at the same time on adjacent streets, this is where the "yield to right" rule comes in. The car to the right of the other goes first. Simple enough.

Other areas of confusion involve the "straight over turning" rule. Which states that when two cars approach simultaneously head-to-head and one is turning, the person going straight has the right-of-way. The last rule is the "right over left" rule. Which gives a car turning right the right-of-way if there's another driver turning left onto the same intersecting street.