Passing Red Light by 0.9 seconds

Man of Honour
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21 Feb 2006
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In my entire driving life I can't think of an instance where I have been unable to stop at an amber light or got past it before it went red unless I was carrying too much speed. Now like most of the UK public I do carry too much speed now and again (ahem) and have on occasion perhaps crossed when I should not have, but that is a different debate. If I got nabbed, annoyed as I would be it would be my own fault. You got nabbed OP, suck it up.

"You won't take me Coppa."
 
Soldato
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unstated.assortment.union
Not sure there are any mitigating circumstances on the offence, perhaps in the delay in providing what you asked for if you have an audit trail. But you will get done I suspect.

What were you driving? If you were driving a sports car, no dice, but if you were driving a fully laden 40-foot lorry and it was wet then that's another matter. Video evidence that the traffic lights were obscured by other traffic might help.



3 seconds, actually, and as low as 2.75 seconds is acceptable.

I got done for a red light. I had mitigating circumstances. The rozzers wouldn't take any of it.

I was in a 13ton bus, passenger standing & untreated main road in snow. I had already slowed some then the lights so I braked as hard as I could, without throwing the standing passenger through the windscreen and the bus just slid.

I had a written statement from the council admitting the road wasn't treated as it should have been. The company stated that I had complied with all the safety training I had been given & supplied the CCTV & telemetry from the telematics system including ABS activation.

At the time, having informed my control room of the slide and the light, it was deemed that service in the area was unsafe and pulled.

None of which the rozzers would listen too & it was only because our managing director wrote a letter stating that formal prosecution would affect my employment that they allowed me to go on a 'driving course' rather than points/fine.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Jun 2007
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9,296
There was a large thread on pistonheads or pepipoo a few years back that got quite heated regarding red lights.

A question was posed about what will a green light will ALWAYS do?

As a driver we should be able to anticipate this.... Bull

How can you judge the back end of a 44ton HGV whilst travelling in slow'ish moving traffic for it not to cross the white line after Red.

A case in point is coming out of a side road thats 20 meters from a set of lights. When you set off they are green. But by the time your 44tons are up to speed the back end is crossing the line on Red....

Unless you sit there for a total cycle of the lights you don't know how long they've been green......
 
Man of Honour
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13 Oct 2006
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91,147
In my entire driving life I can't think of an instance where I have been unable to stop at an amber light or got past it before it went red unless I was carrying too much speed. Now like most of the UK public I do carry too much speed now and again (ahem) and have on occasion perhaps crossed when I should not have, but that is a different debate. If I got nabbed, annoyed as I would be it would be my own fault. You got nabbed OP, suck it up.

"You won't take me Coppa."

I had a close one the other day - half a second either way would have made it a far more clear cut situation.

I'd been stuck behind slow moving traffic for about 3 miles, barely above 20 MPH, and the driver behind me was getting more and more impatient and driving erratically, twice trying to push past me and the bus ahead dangerously.

We got to a bit where there was 2 sets of lights with 3 lanes (2 forward, one for turning right) and as I pulled out to go around the bus he pulled into the 3rd lane accelerating quite hard so I was distracted a bit thinking he was trying to pass both of us before cutting in ahead of me and so I almost missed the second set of lights changing, I was looking at him the moment they went from green to amber so didn't initially notice they were on amber on looking ahead again, and had to come to a very quick stop to possibly avoid going through on red.

Then he turned off right anyway... not sure if it was a case of "this is what I intended all along" when he got caught out by the change as well as it didn't look it from his approach.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Dec 2009
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5,179
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Bristol
I cut it a bit fine last night, rushing home with a takeaway. I accelerated at amber and as I passed the light I saw it change to red, but I had already passed the white line in front of the light. I take it a conviction results from crossing the white line after the light turns red, rather than the light itself?

Also, what if the front of the car has crossed the line before the light turns red, but then the red light illuminates as the rest of the car is passing over the white line?
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Jun 2007
Posts
9,296
I cut it a bit fine last night, rushing home with a takeaway. I accelerated at amber and as I passed the light I saw it change to red, but I had already passed the white line in front of the light. I take it a conviction results from crossing the white line after the light turns red, rather than the light itself?

Also, what if the front of the car has crossed the line before the light turns red, but then the red light illuminates as the rest of the car is passing over the white line?

The offence is ANY part of the vehicle crossing the white line after red. Although there may be 0.5 sec delay to that for prosecution purpose's
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Jun 2007
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9,296
Its a rule that catches longer vehicles out as per my example further ^^^^

Back in the day we were taught to anticipate the change from Green and we were to drop down a gear to aid in stopping

However after passing our tests I'm sure the dropping down a gear was so you could blast through on amber......
 
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