Red light camera question.

[Charlie1986]

Today on the way to work minding my own business I was sat in a queue of traffic at the lights. I heard sirens and then the police came and started directing the traffic. The policeman directing us told us to go through a red light, which had a red light camera and this flashed at all the traffic going through it (it was rush hour so alot of traffic).
Will i end up with a ticket through the post as it was the police who were directing the traffic :confused:

[Conor]

You may end up with a ticket but write back and appeal giving the same details you've given here - that you passed the red light under the direct instruction of a uniformed Police Officer directing traffic due to an incident.

[Charlie1986]

:eek: That'd mean 4 tickets as the roundabout had 4 camera's at the different lights all with an officer telling us to go through :rotfl:
Thank you for your reply.

[Pew Pew Pew Lasers!]

You are not allowed to pass the stop line under a red light. Only a police officer can change this. Never do it to clear the way for an ambulance or similar.

I would suggest you contact your local police station and get the details of the incident, lest it be forgotten in time.

[Charlie1986]

You are not allowed to pass the stop line under a red light. Only a police officer can change this. Never do it to clear the way for an ambulance or similar.

I would suggest you contact your local police station and get the details of the incident, lest it be forgotten in time.

It wasn't the police officers with sirens i was moving out the way for. The police on the bikes all pulled up at different junctions and then started directing the traffic using hand signals :confused:

[Thunderbird]

It wasn't the police officers with sirens i was moving out the way for.

Hi Charlie1986

Pew Pew Pew Lasers! was giving an advice in another situation where you might be tempted to go through a red light to make way for an ambulance or so. There have been several incident were the driver got a ticket for going througha red light to clear the way for an ambulance but his appeal was rejected.
Your case should be ok.

[inch high]

What if you said that a copper had sirens on? How would they know whether that was true or not?

[cyclonebri1]

What if you said that a copper had sirens on? How would they know whether that was true or not?


If you just went through the red light to get out of the way without being instructed to do so, you woild be liable for a ticketing;)

[Road_Hog]

the police came and started directing the traffic. The policeman directing us told us to go through a red light, which had a red light camera and this flashed at all the traffic going through it (it was rush hour so alot of traffic).
Will i end up with a ticket through the post as it was the police who were directing the traffic :confused:

The camera if live, will automatically start the process of issuing a ticket, unless the police intervene and alert the relevant authority to ignore any photos between the tiems of the incident, however that is unlikely.

You will receive a ticket and will have to appeal, as has been suggested already, contact the local police station and see if you can get any incident number or other details to add to your appeal to corroberate it. You will win the appeal but it is up to you to prove that you were instructed by a police officer to go through the red light.

Also, as mentioned earlier, if you are sitting at a roundabout/traffic lights with a camera and a police car (ambulance etc.) pulls right up behind you with the blues & two's going and you go through the light to let him pass, then you will be liable to pay the fine & points.

It is a sad state when the government is only interested in revenue raising and doesn't rectify this situation. I sat at the roundabout at M40/High Wycombe junction (4) once for a whole minute, with me being at the front of the lights and a police car directly behind me with the lights & siren going.

My view is that he shouldn't have expected me to do something that was illegal, he should have switched the siren off until the lights changed and stopped trying to intimidate me or got out of the car and told me to go through the lights, there by making it legal for me to do so.

Hopefully the police will get fed up of drivers not moving and will get their Chief Constables to lobby the government to change this stupid policy. It completely goes against my nature not to move over immediately for the emergency services, as I've held a driving licence for 25 years.

One last thing to consider, if you do go through a light becuase you've got a police car sitting on your bumper intimidating you and you have an accident with another car, it will be your insurance policy paying out, as you will be in the wrong regardless.

[Optimist]

The driver of an emergency vehicle has an exemption that allows them to go through a red light or break speed limits if they are going to an emergency. assuming it is safe to do so. This exception is not transferred to vehicles that happen to be in front of them
.
To pull through a red light to let them pass whilst might be socially responsible is not legally correct and might get the driver who does so a ticket. In fact if its at lights that are fitted with a camera you will get a ticket.

The defence that you broke the law to let an emergency vehicle out is highly unlikely to be accepted

[JJ7]

I would make way for an ambulance on an emergency call if safe to do so, no matter what. My conscience wouldn't let me do anything less.

[Happychappy]

Charlie,

The Police may well not have an incident on their computer relating to the time and location of the incident, I would certainly ring the control room and ask them to note your call and give you a reference number which they can create. Should you then receive an NOIP you can refer to this.

The motor cycles may well have been from the SEG who do not create incidents on the computer, you may well need to contact them, although on most occasions but not all, the bikes are picked out on the photograph.

[Pew Pew Pew Lasers!]

I would make way for an ambulance on an emergency call if safe to do so, no matter what. My conscience wouldn't let me do anything less.

Would you do it if you were on 9 points, with a family to feed?

[MrsE]

I honestly didn't know any of that.

So if you got an ambulance behind you with sirens & lights, you can't go through a red light to get out of their way:mad:

How crazy is that.

[Poppy9]

Even police cars responding to emergencies have to notify control if they activate a speed camera or red light camera as tickets will automatically be issued even to emergency vehicles (and of course non marked police vehicles). If the vehicle is not on an immediate response call then they the driver will get the points/fine.

[Indout96]

Whilst I do not doubt what has been said above, if the camera flashed you then it will also flash the police vehicle going through behind you, why can that not be used to back up the statement that you were moving out of the way for a police vehicle.
Take it they are just after our money then ??

[Bob63]

So if you got an ambulance behind you with sirens & lights, you can't go through a red light to get out of their way:mad:

How crazy is that.
Not crazy at all. Emergency services drivers/riders (I'm one of the latter) have an exemption on red traffic lights and (most critically) receive training on exactly how to approach and go through a red light. Members of the public don't. Best advice I can give is to follow the IAM's excellent guidance on reacting to emergency services vehicles (below). If everyone did that it would make our jobs much easier.
http://www.iam.org.uk/pressroom/drivingtips/Emergency+Vehicles.htm
Emergency Vehicles

Deciding what to do when you hear an emergency vehicle approaching can be a dilemma. Do you stay where you are and potentially block the progress of an emergency vehicle? Or do you move into a position that may put you or other road users at risk?
Unfortunately, some drivers over-react to emergency service vehicles travelling on “blues and twos” (blue lights and two-tone horns). This is often because they don’t hear or see the emergency vehicle until it’s too close, and then take drastic action to get out of the way.
The IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) says that good driving practice will alert you early to emergency vehicles: regular mirror checks (side and rear) for example, and keeping the windows slightly down around town, so you can hear sirens approaching.
Don’t panic and just brake. It’s natural to want to react. But instinctively putting your brakes on immediately in front of an emergency vehicle doesn’t help: it slows the progress of the emergency vehicle and jeopardises other road users.
Think about where you are on the road. You should deal with the problem in the same way that you deal with any other potentially hazardous driving situation. What is the safest option available to you?
Don’t cross red traffic lights or speed to get out of the way. The emergency driver has training and legal exemptions that you don’t have. Bus lanes and box junctions can be problems too, but let them resolve the problem of breaking the rules – not you.
If you are moving it may well be that you can continue at a reasonable pace and the emergency vehicle can follow you out of a pocket of congestion (such as a blocked one way system). In that scenario, attempting to pull over too soon, or slow down, might just cause a needless obstruction and so hamper the progress of the emergency vehicle.
Indicate your intentions clearly Don’t pull in opposite other obstructions, such as centre bollards. If you are thinking about pulling over across an entrance to a school or factory, you may be unwittingly preventing the emergency vehicle reaching its destination. And do think about where you are asking the emergency driver to overtake you – on the brow of a hill or a blind bend can be placing him or her in a very difficult position.
Get out of the way as soon as you can do so in safety.

[MrsE]

I wasn't thinking of going through as in really going right through.
What I meant was you know the bit where people cross, I meant to pull over into that to get out of the way.

I always pull over to my left (while leaving space to pass) as soon as I can when I see or hear a 999 vehicle.

[Poppy9]

I wasn't thinking of going through as in really going right through.
What I meant was you know the bit where people cross, I meant to pull over into that to get out of the way.

I always pull over to my left (while leaving space to pass) as soon as I can when I see or hear a 999 vehicle.

But if you are on a dual carriageway and in the right hand lane you should pull to the right to make space down the middle:D

[MrsE]

But if you are on a dual carriageway and in the right hand lane you should pull to the right to make space down the middle:D

But I'm a good driver, I ONLY use the right hand lane for overtaking;)

[Poppy9]

But I'm a good driver, I ONLY use the right hand lane for overtaking;) What if it's a dual carriageway and you are stationery at the lights and one lane goes right or straight ahead and the other lane is left only?:p

OH is amused and frustrated by drivers who just don't move when he's trying to get through traffic. There is always one who sits there in his own little world oblivious to cars mounting kerbs, pulling onto cheverons etc around him and sirens blaring:rotfl: . Once when OH wasn't working and a ambulance was trying to get through he jumped out of his car ( I was driving), tapped a chaps window and politely asked him if he could move his car to let the ambulance through as he obviously wasn't going to move on his own initiative!

[MrsE]

What if it's a dual carriageway and you are stationery at the lights and one lane goes right or straight ahead and the other lane is left only?:p

OH is amused and frustrated by drivers who just don't move when he's trying to get through traffic. There is always one who sits there in his own little world oblivious to cars mounting kerbs, pulling onto cheverons etc around him and sirens blaring:rotfl: . Once when OH wasn't working and a ambulance was trying to get through he jumped out of his car ( I was driving), tapped a chaps window and politely asked him if he could move his car to let the ambulance through as he obviously wasn't going to move on his own initiative!

I'm always mindful of the fact that those flashing lights mean someone somewhere is in trouble & waiting on that help to arrive.
I know lots of people who will move for fire & ambulance but take their time for police/ My Aunt (when a young OAP) was broken into once & called 999 as they were breaking in, she said the time it took them to get there was the longest 5-10 minutes of her life. The police arrived just as they got through her door!
The people who think they are clever holding up the police forget it might be their elderly relative in that situation:mad:

I have gone up the pavement to give them room to get past:o One of the bonuses of driving a 4x4;)

[ceebeeby]

I have gone up the pavement to give them room to get past:o One of the bonuses of driving a 4x4;)

:confused: :confused: I thought this was illegal too ... glad me and my kids weren't on that pavement :confused: :confused:

Does seem a bit nuts though that you can't get out of the way of emergency vehicles by carefully going through a red light

[MrsE]

:confused: :confused: I thought this was illegal too ... glad me and my kids weren't on that pavement :confused: :confused:

Does seem a bit nuts though that you can't get out of the way of emergency vehicles by carefully going through a red light

I'm talking about an area where there are lots of cars & hardly anyone on the pavements.

I wouldn't do it if there were people anywhere near (& I mean I would give it a long distance) that part of the pavement.

[Poppy9]

...........I know lots of people who will move for fire & ambulance but take their time for police/ My Aunt (when a young OAP) was broken into once & called 999 as they were breaking in, she said the time it took them to get there was the longest 5-10 minutes of her life. The police arrived just as they got through her door!
The people who think they are clever holding up the police forget it might be their elderly relative in that situation:mad: For some reason people assume that the police will abuse using their blues & Twos but the Fire service won't.

I like everyone has joked to OH when I see a pollice car going past with sirens blaring "Oh food's arrived at the station". Nothing could be further from the truth. In OH force he has to advise control if he's using his lights/sirens while responding to a call.