LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles Department of Transportation receives plenty of requests annually to study the most dangerous intersections in the city with the consideration of adding left turn arrows.

According to LADOT, Los Angeles has more than 4,400 intersections with traffic lights, most of which have four approaches. On average, however, only 13 percent of the approaches have a left turn arrow, or a "protected" left turn.

Now, residents who have experienced alarming, unsafe, or even traumatic incidents at some of the city's more dangerous intersections are hoping to persuade the city to escalate that percentage.

In July of 2012, Bill Wheelock was riding his motorcycle through the intersection of Fletcher Drive and Estara Avenue. Moments later, a substantial collision with a Honda CRV resulted in Bill in a coma with a traumatic brain injury and at least a dozen broken bones in his body.

According to the police report, the accident was caused when one of the involved parties made a left turn at the intersection without a green arrow.

Bill, who now walks with a cane and has no memory of the event, eventually woke from his coma and was unable to recognize his own wife upon initial consciousness.

"It took a while to actually understand that was what happened," Bill said. "It took a while to actually recognize she was my wife and that I was me."

Bill's story may have been different with the presence of a protected left turn.

The installation of green arrow lights, however, is neither quick nor inexpensive.

"It costs between fifteen-thousand dollars, and as much as forty-five thousand dollars to install a left turn arrow," LADOT Assistant General Manager Dan Mitchell said.

Bill's intersection, which, according to the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at UC Berkeley was the sight of nine collisions with injuries between 2004 and 2012, remains far from the only questionable intersection in the city. The intersection of Olympic and Beverly Glen is another sight where many collisions have been experienced and witnessed.

"You just have cars that are really bashed in and you have glass all over," resident Eric Mars said.

LADOT, which has reportedly installed left turn arrows at over 600 intersections since 2005, says that the requests for left turn arrows arrive from an array of sources, including constituents, new developments or from within the department itself.

The department says they take a look at a number of factors, including safety, demand and delays, before proceeding with an installation, since some can take up to several years to complete.

CBS2/KCAL9's Melanie Woodrow and a photographer sampled turning left at one LA intersection. At the turn of Western and Santa
Monica, the arrow turned yellow while their vehicle, the first in line, was still in the intersection."

At the turn of Western and Santa Monica, the arrow turned yellow while their vehicle, the first in line, was still in the intersection.

"The minimum is five seconds, so it probably seems like two seconds, but the left turn arrow would be on for five," Mitchell said.

The result of the arrow's timing produced obvious frustrations amongst motorists. One driver proceeded with a left turn on a red light as traffic was approaching.

The fault does not lie completely with the timing, however. As Mitchell explains, the timing is the result of the mere demands to balance traffic in each direction.

"You can only divide it into so many pieces," Mitchell said.

Bill's intersection, which is located directly in front of Washington Irving Middle School, meanwhile has no prospective plans for the installation of a left turn arrow.

In fact, the intersection has never even been studied.

The reason for this, LADOT says, is because the department has not received a request to do so.

Anyone wishing to file an official request to look into the installation of a left turn arrow at an intersection should contact LADOT directly or visit their website.

Councilmember Mitch O'Farrel recently committed 750-thousand dollars to a streetscape project that includes a left turn signal at Fletcher and Estara, where Bill was injured. A spokesperson with his office says the project is in the design phase, and that construction should start in the fall.