Driving & Driving Test Tips: Rogue Traffic Lights, bizarre accident, mr winter

Question
Dear Mr. Winter,

Have you ever heard of traffic lights malfunctioning so that a turning lane and opposing traffic both receive a green light at the same time?

My husband and I were recently involved in
a very bizarre accident.  We were on Highway
97 in Summerland at an intersection where the
lights are controlled by traffic flow, and Northbound vehicles have a turning lane/turn
light to safely turn from the highway into
Summerland.

We were South-bound.  There are a set of Amber
Lights that flash when the traffic light ahead
is about to change from green to amber, or when it's red.

These lights were NOT flashing.  

Our light had recently changed from red to green.  As we neared the intersection, I saw 3 cars facing us, still parked at the lights.

The car in the turning lane began moving -heading
across the intersection towards us.  We were just entering the intersection.

In panic I looked up at the light.  I was about
to warn my husband of our danger, but when I
saw that, "Yes indeed, the light is Green" a
part of me relaxed and felt falsely reassured
that we were SAFE!  We were well within the
60 km speed limit, but collision was inevitable.
The young man turned right in front of us. There was nowhere for us to go to avoid the accident, and we couldn't stop in time.

According to a witness in the car behind the other driver, this young man had a Green turning arrow.

It was approximately 6 p.m. at the time of the
accident.  It was dark outside.  There was no
sun in anyone's eyes.  There wasn't any traffic
heading the same direction as my husband and I,
so unfortunately we have no witness to the fact
that we did have a green light.  

Have you ever heard of this happening
before?  Both lights green at the same time?
It has seriously shaken me up.  I don't trust lights in general anymore, but esp. at this intersection.  The following day I tried talking
to an officer and urging him to have someone check the light.  He blew me off and said there were no other accidents or complaints of it not working.  I guess I don't blame him - he didn't see what I did.  I'm still concerned about the safety at this intersection though.   

I spoke with a family member about our accident and she suggested there may be some mechanical device that interfered with the traffic light.

We had  fog lights that were recently installed
and one was dipped down towards the road.  I'm grasping at straws here, but is it possible this may have interfered in some way with the sensors for the traffic light?

Do you know of anything else - a faulty switch
within the traffic light, a mechanical device etc. that could have caused this to occur?

I appreciate your feedback as I am feeling puzzled and slightly unhinged by this.

RF  

Answer
As with all devices there can be a malfunction.  The area's traffic engineering department monitors and maintains the lighting systems.  Check with them to ascertin if there was any malfunction to the lighting system at the date and time of this collision.  They also make periodic spot checks of the system to make sure that it is working properly.  Other then that, there isn't much more from the mechanical side that can be checked.  By the way, was the person behind the other driver that hit you associated with him?  People have been known to lie about a situation for a buddy.  Rest assured your fog lights would not effect the lighting system.  If the lights work with loops in the roadway, they activate from the electro magnetic field of the loop being fluxed when the bulk of a vehicle passes over it.