In Nevada, stop always means stop

Sharon Coats asks: I live in Southern Highlands and frequently travel on Dean Martin Drive. The intersection of Dean Martin and Cactus Avenue is a three-way stop, as Cactus T-bones at Dean Martin. If you travel south on Dean Martin to Cactus, there is a right turn lane onto Cactus. My question is, are motorists required to stop at the stop sign when going right on Cactus from Dean Martin? I always stop and usually, if there is someone behind me, I get beeped at or worse. I’m concerned that one of these days, I’m going to get rear-ended.

Yes Sharon, stop at the stop sign. Remember the old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but not stopping at a posted stop sign could cause a crash in which I am fully at fault.”

If you do get rear-ended for stopping at the stop sign it won’t be your fault. Plus getting hit in the rear would probably cause you less physical harm than getting slammed on the driver’s side of your vehicle by a motorist turning left from northbound Dean Martin onto Cactus.

Unfortunately, I believe those agitating Sharon with their honking are probably practitioners of the “California stop,” where a driver doesn’t stop at all but rolls through a stop sign while turning right.

Just to be clear, Nevada Revised Statute 484.319, section 1 states a vehicle must come to a complete stop when faced with a stop sign.

I bring this up for two reasons. Firstly, I want to assure Sharon that she is correct in stopping for a stop sign.

Secondly, I was recently told a story about a police officer pulling someone over because the driver did not stop a full three seconds at a stop sign.

To be fair, in my experience riding with police officers on assignment, I’ve never heard any of them say something like that. I’ve seen officers pull drivers over for not coming to a complete stop, but never for any “three-second rule.”

It might be a good rule of thumb that will go a long way in training drivers to make that full stop, but it’s not the law.

Warren asks: I just bought a car. I don’t plan on getting rid of my old one, but I don’t plan on using it. Do I have to register or insure it?

You don’t have to register your car. You don’t even have to insure it. In fact, you are even allowed to still use it, the only stipulation being that you use the vehicle on your own property.

Tom Jacobs, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, explained that registering a car and insuring a car has more to do with meeting the obligations of using public roads.

“This is something that happens a lot on ranches and farms, for instance a pickup that is used to drive around the ranch,” Jacobs said. “But the minute the vehicle leaves private property and isn’t registered and isn’t insured, you’re breaking the law.”

Hit ‘n’ Run

Nathan Jensen asks: We take road trips from Las Vegas to Southern California, and we always notice an abandoned water park along Interstate 15 between Barstow and Baker. No one I know who’s driven this remembers it ever being open. Do you know the story behind this?

According to several Internet sites, Lake Dolores water park was built in the 1960s and first closed in the late 1980s. The owners tried to market the park to families traveling between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

It was reopened and reconstructed and renamed in 1996. But the new Rock-A-Hoola Water Park received little interest. One of the new investors went bankrupt, and it closed again in 1998.

It was reopened again in 2002, this time called Discovery Water Park. But once again the water park did not succeed, and it closed in 2004.

It has remained closed ever since.

If you have a question, tip or tirade, call Francis McCabe at (702) 387-2904, or send an e-mail to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com. Please include your phone number.