Someone’s Ignorance Almost Got Me Rear-Ended at a Light in Gray

Sometimes you have to wonder if some drivers ever bothered to learn the rules of the road.

I was approaching this traffic light at the intersections of Route 26, The Gray-New Gloucester High School and Hannaford Supermarket, when I noticed the light was dark from a power outage. I did exactly as I was taught in driver's education. I came to a complete stop.

I was unable to find any language in the Maine Statues on what to do when a traffic light is not functioning, but common sense and what most of us learned in driver's ed is you stop, and treat it as a four way stop sign.

Most driver's ed manuals have language like this one from driversed.com

"If all traffic signal lights are not working because of an electrical power failure, you must stop at the intersection and then proceed when you know other turning and approaching vehicles, bicycles, or pedestrians have stopped. A blacked-out traffic signal works the same as a four-way stop intersection."

When I stopped to let the vehicle on my right who entered the intersection at the same time as I did to go first, one driver flew by me on the right and another driver hit the brakes and laid on the horn.

Either they weren't paying attention to the light or just have no common sense. I'm pretty sure if he had rear-ended me, he would have been the one at fault.

Back me up here. I'm not the only one that remembers this rule am I?