Accident - Traffic lights not working

Strider590

It depends a lot on whether the 3rd party was going straight over OR turning into "your" road.

Were they aware that the lights were out? So many people just look for a red light and go if they can't see one.

TimothyEBaldwin

Was there a stop line at the traffic lights? They are quite often missing.

AlexisV

Yes, need to see road layout and diagram really.

flang

Even if there is no stop line you should still treat the situation as you would an unmarked junction.

flang

maninthestreet wrote: »

Were there any warning signs to indicate the traffic lights were not working?

The council usually repair attend traffic light faults within 2-4 hours however often the faults out of their control eg power failures. The council has no duty to put out "traffic signals not in use" and are usually not recommended due to conflicts if the power to the lights is restored.

keystone

maninthestreet wrote: »

Were there any warning signs to indicate the traffic lights were not working?

Yes - not a single one of them was illuminated!

Cheers

tommie1shunt

Dunno where I got this from, think highway code, but it traffic lights fail you are supposed to treat them as a roundabout, i.e. give way to cars from the right.

pendulum

NeverInDebt wrote: »

Funny isnt it when you go to a busy junction with lights no working how less congested they are and everyone tends to slow down

Absolutely. Whenever the lights fail round here, congestion is a fraction of what it usually is and traffic moves much more freely.

That's why I always get very suspicious when they say they are installing traffic lights to improve traffic flow.

flyingscotno1

pendulum wrote: »

Absolutely. Whenever the lights fail round here, congestion is a fraction of what it usually is and traffic moves much more freely.

That's why I always get very suspicious when they say they are installing traffic lights to improve traffic flow.

Depends, some lights are clearly not needed but lights always cause some form of congestion.

The UK doesn't actually have many 4 way give way or equal priority type junctions at all, closest we have is a mini-roundabout, so if lights were ripped out, one way naturally gains priority. Often traffic can be fine on a main road, hellish to get out on a side road, but when lights go in people on the main road hit queues that weren't there and get annoyed. All that has happened is a bit of the delay from the side road is spread to everyone.

One thing to keep in mind is we've seen examples where lights have been out for an extended period. I think there was one example in Edinburgh with a serious cable fault. Traffic flowed fine initially but eventually the 'dominant flow' took over and things got difficult.

Altarf

flang wrote: »

Even if there is no stop line you should still treat the situation as you would an unmarked junction.

Correct. Highway Code rule 176, and at an unmarked junction, nobody has priority.

And as nobody has priority, it will certainly go 50/50.