From today's Manchester Evening News.
Motorist fined £60 and given 3 points for jumping a red light.
'Quite right too...you would think. But this poor guy moved his Lexus 3 feet forward over the stop line to make room for a police van coming up behind him with blues and twos on ! Phillip Lilley asked for photo evidence of his crime and was amazed to be sent a picture of his car just over the stop line and the police van disappearing into the distance.
Spokesman for the Casualty Reduction Unit ??? said ' If the lights are red then you are putting yourself in danger '....Right,,,, a couple of MPH for a yard at 9.20pm, quiet roads, no pedestrians.
We had one here a year ago when a driver pulled into a bus lane to let an ambulance past...he got his money back...I hope Mr Lilley does too.
A further nail in the coffin for public trust in the 'authorities'?
Revenue gathering at it's worst !
Ted
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I seem to remember a thread recently, where we were told the right thing to do, would be to cross the line to allow emergency vehicles through....
naw.... Im sorry Ill not do that any more... I need my licence, like this country needs common sense to return!
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nuts, but hardly surprising.
I would be very interested to see a test case where the motorist does not move out of the way (but presumably gets the book thrown at them for it) for fear of losing their license.
It reminds me of the unpleasant circumstances at school when the bully would come around and force people to do things purely for their amusement; whatever his hapless victim did, it was always the 'wrong' course.
I would not pay that fine, even if it was upheld in court.
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was the £60 fine and the 3 points dealt with by some minion bureaucrat and dealt with by Fixed Penalty Notice...or was this a court decision?
It smacks of the former to me, in which case he should appeal and /or request the court hearing
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As per Westpig. I would have my day in court. *IF* all the facts are as described, no Mag would let that one stick.
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I had a smiliar situation today. Stopped at a set of dual carriageway traffic lights, with a taxi in the left hand lane. A police car came out of nowhere put his blues and two's on and expected us to move, when we did not, we got the blown horn treament and waving of hands. The lights changed we all moved of and the patrol car vanished at great speed. The hand gesticulations of the taxi driver gave no doubt as to his displeasure.
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MEN now claiming he's been cleared due to their intervention:
tinyurl.com/redjumpercleared - by the looks of things it had not gone to court.
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Extract from the above link
Chief Inspector Haydn Roberts, from GMP's Traffic Network Section, said: "On a daily basis we don't progress prosecutions when emergency vehicles are shown to be affecting the driver's behaviour.
"On rare occasions, if one did slip through the net, we will always look again at the evidence to ensure the driver is being treated fairly."
Sounds like that is exactly what happened - not
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Interesting.
Reading the local French rag, they are adding 150 red light cameras at known accident blackspots in towns across France between now and December.
There will be no warning signs.
The first sensor will be buried on the white line.
The second sensor will be buried 3 metres or more across the junction,
not 10 or 12 inches.
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bureaucrat issued it, bureaucrat declined to cancel it when he rang in....someone in management position with more sense cancelled it when the poor publicity ensued
answer = speak/write to management grade, not take the carp a bureaucrat issues
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I recall HJ mentioning in a column never to jump a traffic light to make way for an emergency vehicle as the only legal way of doing so is when directed by a police officer. Seems like the local police are being sensible here though.
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I recall HJ mentioning in a column never to jump a traffic light to make way for an emergency vehicle as the only legal way of doing so is when directed by a police officer. Seems like the local police are being sensible here though.
So could it be argued that an officer waving at you from his partol car to get out of his way is directing you or does he have to be out of his car and standing in front of you?
Can anyone clarify?
HJ?
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He wasn't a 'jumper', in any sense of the word. He was stopped at the light/line and chose to move his car, slowly and under control, forward 3 feet to facilitate the emergency services.
As someone else has observed, in different words, in these cases one needs to deal with the organ grinder and not his monkey!
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Of course it's a non-story, trouble over when addressed by an intelligent person.
It seems to me unlikely that HJ would advise people to stand their ground when obstructing an emergency vehicle at a traffic light. He might have been drawing attention to the legal trap in which they may find themselves if they move.
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Having read previous threads about this issue, I have decided that when stopping at lights I will leave at least half a cars length in front of me as a buffer zone. If I'm required to move forwards I will still be behind the line.
It also has the advantage of me still being able to see the traffic lights without having to crane my neck to see beneath the top of my windscreen.
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The irony is, the police vehicle was probably on its way to a damage only accident of no consequence, or some other ridiculous 999 call.
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I had the same dilema the other week in the city centre. I was in a truck and taking up the best part of the two lanes waiting at a red light that leads on to quite a tight light controlled roundabout.
Whilst I was sitting there at the lights a panda car came zooming up from behind with the lights and sirens blaring away. I just sat there staring in my mirror at the rather fustrated police officer behind the wheel. He sat there with the lights and sirens continuously sounding, in no doubt whatsoever that I knew he was there and was not going to proceed throught the red light until it changed.
Now if he wanted to say get out from behind the wheel, come and give me his collar number and authorise me to proceed through the red light then I would have gladly done so, but he just sat there.
I know that there is no red light camera on this roundabout but that obviously doesn't make it right to proceed just to let the police car through. So did I do the right thing???
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Exactly. Did you do the right thing?
No one seems to have a definitive answer.
If you cross the line you risk getting zapped and having to take time off work trying to defend your actions meantime stressing over a fine/points/increase insurance premiums etc.
if you stay put you risk making plod irate and possibly stopping him/her getting to an emergency incident or nothing more than a fender bender on a roundabout.
You're damned if you do, damned if you don't.
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I know that there is no red light camera on this roundabout but that obviously doesn't make it right to proceed just to let the police car through. So did I do the right thing???
depends Simon....if your wife/child/sister (delete as applicable) had dialled '999' and was desperately waiting for police as an intruder was in the house, no doubt you'd think a tad differently
move that on to the fire brigade and ambulance service and i for one would not like to be second guessing the urgency of the calls, despite the large number of false or not as urgent ones, (when you find out afterwards).
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So could it be argued that an officer waving at you from his partol car to get out of his way is directing you or does he have to be out of his car and standing in front of you? Can anyone clarify?
A police officer would have to be stood up engaged in 'directing traffic' to authorise you to move through the red light. Not sat in a car behind you gesticulating for you to move forwards.
The bottom line is using 'common sense'....and if some bureaucrat clown tries to be awkward with a ticket or something, moan to someone senior enough to see sense
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