Went through amber light and then realised there was traffic light camera

remainanon

Hi there,

I am looking for some advice/reassurance.

A week ago today I went through and amber traffic light and then once past it I looked behind me and realised there was a traffic light camera at said lights. I am not even sure if it flashed because of bright sunlight that morning.

I have been so so worried about this ever since and I know it is very stupid of me.

Am i likely to be caught?

roddydogs

No.........?

Car_54

Not by the camera: they only work on red.

Scrapit

Why go through amber lights if you don't wanna get done. I'm given to believe that arklight has an opinion on this.

AdrianC

Traffic light cameras come into action a couple of seconds after red.

But think back to learning to drive. Amber is - stop, unless it's unsafe to do so.

bigisi

AdrianC wrote: »

Traffic light cameras come into action a couple of seconds after red.

But think back to learning to drive. Amber is - stop, unless it's unsafe to do so.

Yeah but just think about all the much more important things the OP can now do with the 10-20 seconds they've saved!

facade

You will just have to wait another week, as they have 14 days to write to you to ask who was driving.


Chances are high you got away with it, as you would have noticed the flash.


Next time, just stop before the line.


You can be prosecuted if any part of your car moves over the line when the light is red, even the edge of the little plastic cover on the towball. (So there are usually 2 pictures taken to confirm movement), most people are useless at judging how long it will take to clear the line and "go for it" but only half the car is across the line when the red comes on, a camera won't catch them, but a real live policeman (remember those?) can and will......



It is actually an offence to cross on amber, but there is a defence of "unsafe to stop", so no-one gets prosecuted for amber.

AdrianC

bigisi wrote: »

Yeah but just think about all the much more important things the OP can now do with the 10-20 seconds they've saved!

Nothing like that much. It's usually 3 seconds amber, IIRC.

At 30mph, that's 42m - nearly twice the HC stopping distance.

uknick

Why hassle the OP for going through amber just on what they've written? We don't know if it changed to amber just as they approached and couldn't stop safely in time or, they saw it change to amber and sped up to make sure they got through before it went red.

Ectophile

Scrapit wrote: »

Why go through amber lights if you don't wanna get done. I'm given to believe that arklight has an opinion on this.

Because sometimes it's impossible not to. And other times, slamming on the brakes without warning is more likely to cause an accident than prevent one.


Traffic lights are set so that the light will stay red in the opposing direction until they have gone red in yours.

AdrianC

Ectophile wrote: »

Because sometimes it's impossible not to.

Indeed. And that's why the exact wording in the HC says "AMBER means STOP. You may go on only if the amber appears after you have crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to pull up might cause an accident"

Now, how often does that get... stretched?