Grade 11 kinematics question

Several of my classmates and I were trying to figure this question out, but we don't even know where to begin to solve it. I had an idea about using substitution to find a point of intersection between the car and the truck's equations, but I don't know which equations or where to start. The question is:

"A car is stopped at an intersection. When the traffic light turns green, the car starts to accelerate at 1.5 m/s^2. A truck continues through the intersection at a constant speed of 12 m/s, and passes the car at the same time that it starts to accelerate.

a) How long does the car take to catch up with the truck?
b) How far does the car travel before it catches up with the truck?"

What my peers and I could find was:
Car:
Initial speed = 0 m/s
Acceleration = 1.5 m/s^2

Truck:
Speed = 12 m/s

And we trailed off after that. Thank you for helping!

Problem a)

You need to construct an equation in time the following way:

Suppose the car catches up with the truck after t seconds
In t seconds, the truck would have traveled 12*t meters because its speed is 12 m/s

In t seconds, the car would have traveled (1/2)*(1.5)*t^2 meters
(using the distance formula S = ut + (1/2)*a*t^2)

Here comes the trick:
Since we assumed that the car caught up with the truck in t seconds, the distances traveled by the car and the truck in that time have to be equal right?

So,
12*t = (1/2)*(1.5)*t^2

Cancel off one t on both sides and you get:
12 = (1/2)*(1.5)*t

So, t = 12/((1/2)*(1.5))
or
t = 16 seconds

Problem b)

The distance traveled by the car in t = 16 seconds is:

S = (1/2)*1.5*16^2 = 192 m

And you can verify that the car really caught up with the truck by finding out the distance traveled by the truck: 12*16 = 192 m
So, you are done :)