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

Conor_3

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

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

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

Thunderbird_2

Charlie1986 wrote: »

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

inch_high wrote: »

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

Charlie1986 wrote: »

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

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.