A Stupid Police Women!

[Zaid]

A friend of mine has been given a penalty for turning right on a yellow traffic light... he tried to question the police women, and guess what she answered him... she said "I have to please my boss" and "if you where to appeal against the penalty you would probably ending up paying more fines"... I thought this was ridicules, first i dont think he has broken the law by turning on yellow lights, second on the reaction the police women had!

What would you do if you where in his place, appeal or pay the fine even though you are convinced that you didnt break the law?

[Nutter_John]

The highway code section 175 states the following

Amber means stop at the Stop line . You may go on only if the AMBER appears after you have crossed the line or are so close to it that to pull up might casue an acident .

Also section 176 states the following

You MUST NOT move forward over the white line when the red light is showing. Only go forward when the traffic lights are green if there is room for you to clear the junction safely or you are taking up a position to turn right.

So technically if your friend had crossed the line on green and had been waiting to turn right when the lights changed to Amber then he has not comitted any offence under the highway code ,

So he does have grounds to appeal on the basis the police officer did not have enough knowledge of the highway code or the law related to traffic offences , he can also raise a formal compliant to the PCC regarding the officers conduct during interview which should have been done under caution if he has broke the law

hope that helps

[pitslayer]

question is what can you do.
im currently going through a case against the police, so far ive had statments being lost, other stuff being lost, naff all happening. then i get a letter through saying they are admiting fault and are going to pay the damages, which now means they have admitted guilt and i have to take it all back up with the police complaints dept.
going through a yellow, the yellow is just there for caution, you could end up paying more fines, it could get thrown out, if so get a really good solicitor

[Nutter_John]

The yellow is a wanring that the lights are going to change to red within a preset amount of time (this is dependant on the time taken to travel from a safe distance from the lights and stop whilst travelling at the speed limit for the road )

[Kenneth]

My father had a similar fine in NZ. Essentially the same law. He got off the charge.

His argument was "I didn't believe it was safe to try and stop at the time as doing so may have caused an accident."

This single statement basically fulfills the requirements of the law, being that it is a judgment based law anyway. The fact that the officer may not have thought it dangerous to stop has no relevance because they were not the one driving.

Of course if there was no one else on the road then it might be difficult to make it stick unless your friend can say "I was busy checking my mirrors and the intersection for cars and when I looked back it was amber but I was already into the intersection" (though you wouldn't say than unless the first statement was queried)


Bit of a stupid law really as it is fairly easy to get out of.

[Nick Mann]

the yellow is just there for caution

Sorry, but that is bollox. I was taught that every colour light except for green means stop. Flashing amber means proceed with caution, but solid amber means stop.

The only way out is as John says - if you had already crossed the line before the amber light came on.

[pitslayer]

i just use the phrase "i was commited, nothing i could of done"

[Throbbe]

John is bang on, the light applies to the stop line. If you've crossed that at green and are waiting to turn that is perfectly legal. In fact, when you design signal layouts, stacking within the junction can be the only way to provide capacity for right turning traffic.

Conversely, a right turn is a dangerous manouvre, so you should already be proceeding cautiously on the approach, which would undermine claims that it was too late to stop for the amber light.

If it were the first situation, I'd go to court*, the second, I'd pay up.

* Although I could save money by being my own expert witness. :)