Penalty for breaking red light? (Not me)

JohnCleary

Was coming up to a cross junction with traffic lights earlier. Lights went amber, then red (as they do) and just as it his red the jeep infront of me had kept going. Long story short, unlucky for the person in the jeep, traffic corps lights had just gone green. Anyhow on with the lights and they plough on after him and pull him over. I passed by

Curious as to what the penalty for this is? I always thought it was more serious than just penalty points, can anyone confirm?

(Again, for the PC loons, it wasn't me, or my 'friend'... just some randomer who was infront of me)

mick.fr

JohnCleary wrote: »

(Again, for the PC loons, it wasn't me, or my 'friend'... just some randomer who was infront of me)

Yeah yeah that's what they always say.
Kidding man I don't know, would be serious enough in my opinion and certainly worth more than 2 points. Well you never know in Ireland :-)

Fey!

Don't know about the penalty, but it's no harm to see people stopped for running reds; it's become almost like a popular sport in Galway recently.

Traffic Corps seem to be blitzing Galway this weeken; I think they have numerous extra units drafted from surrounding counties this weekend. Perhaps it's just a warning before the rally next weekend.

John R

mick.fr wrote: »

Yeah yeah that's what they always say.
Kidding man I don't know, would be serious enough in my opinion and certainly worth more than 2 points. Well you never know in Ireland :-)

It is just 2 points and €80. I suppose the Garda could do them for driving carelessly which is a court appearance and 5 points + fine on conviction.

I saw two muppets that would certainly fall into that category within the space of 5 minutes yeaterday. First was a gob****e white van driver that stopped at a set of lights and drove through them on the pedestrian cycle. Second was a SUV bint on the phone that sailed through a set of pedestrian lights that had been red for 10 seconds plus, narrowly missing an OAP that would have bounced off the bonnet had it been 2 seconds later.

milltown

Heh, almost as stupid and unlucky as the gobsheen I saw a few years ago. For any that are familiar with the area, the traffic lights at the junction of Emmet rd., James' st. (extension?) and Kilmainham. Coming from James' st. side there was a truck at the head of the queue trying to turn right towards Kilmainham. Being a narrow road it meant that nothing behind him could go straight while he was waiting but the flow of oncoming traffic meant he had to wait until our light had gone red before he could complete his turn, which he did. The car behind him, and in front of me, decided he had waited long enough and took off through the light that had been red for a good 20 seconds by now, just in time to nearly take the front wheel off the Garda bike coming from the Drimnagh side!

I had intended going left but I couldn't resist going straight instead to gawk at the finger wagging gard spitting venom at the fool.

Saruman

I find that sometimes i break red lights and have no choice about it. I think our amber times are too short. I could be driving in heavy but moving traffic and pass the while line on green but by the time i get half way through the junction, lights have turned red and i have technically broken a red light.. as have the two people in front and behind me.
Amber times in the UK are longer i think.

milltown

Saruman wrote: »

I find that sometimes i break red lights and have no choice about it. I think our amber times are too short. I could be driving in heavy but moving traffic and pass the while line on green but by the time i get half way through the junction, lights have turned red and i have technically broken a red light.. as have the two people in front and behind me.
Amber times in the UK are longer i think.

In heavy traffic I don't think you're supposed to cross the line unless you can get accross the junction. Similar to the yellow box idea but comes under the "green light - proceed if it is safe to do so".

Exception would be making a right turn. You are allowed to stop in the junction and complete your turn when oncoming traffic allows. If the light has turned red in the meantime you are still within the law.

Saruman

Nice on paper... not practical in reality. Im not talking stop start traffic. I simply mean enough traffic to be moving slowly enough that it takes longer to get through the junction than you thought. Can you imagine the jams if people stopped at white lines in traffic to wait until the junction is clear of traffic before moving.. my god the ripple effect of brake lights would leave everything in every direction pretty much stoped dead.

Just like on a motorway.. one gob****e hits the brakes at the front of traffic, person behind brakes harder, person behind them harder again until you get enough cars back that traffic has stopped.

JohnCleary

Fey! wrote: »

Don't know about the penalty, but it's no harm to see people stopped for running reds; it's become almost like a popular sport in Galway recently.

Traffic Corps seem to be blitzing Galway this weeken; I think they have numerous extra units drafted from surrounding counties this weekend. Perhaps it's just a warning before the rally next weekend.

I was heading towards the bridge from Dunnes Stores say, at the trafflic lights at Statoil. Jeep broke red light heading straight on. Traffic Corps coming from Dangan side. I coul dsee by the agressive turn they took that the lights were about to come on. Scary thing was, the jeep had pulled out into the 'fast' lane (Its not a dual carrageway as eventhough there is 4 lanes there's nothing seperating them) to get ahead of a slow moving van, as did I. Had the van not been there, chances are the lights would have been amber by the time I got half way across the junction :eek: Ah is the jeep just stayed behind the van he'd be 80euro richer right now

Jonnykitedude

I work shifts and i see this all the time, people sailing through red lights at 6am and they couldn't even be bothered looking, think the taxi drivers and delivery drivers are the worst IMO

jozi

There's a junction in phibsboro with 2 lanes of cars going in all 4 directions.

I pass trough it every day going to college (as a pedestrian) and always see cars going trough red there. I can understand driving trough amber if it just changes as you approach (happens all of us) but for 2 cars after that to not be able to stop is BS tbh, and very often there are at least 1 or 2 more cars who think it's ok to not stop for a red light.
Being a pedestrian if i had walked out on green i wold have been hit by the car going trough the red light. Always have to wait a look to be sure it's clear to go, very often people don't get across in the time the light goes green and then amber (which is quite short anyway).

Some day some one will get badly hurt there. Is there anything that can be done?

LarWright

Last November, happened to me... Coming into Swords, I was halfway across the white line, light went amber so I kept going. Garda steps out infront of me and pulls me in... He asked if I knew why so I said yeah, amber light. He replied 'I was gonna give you the chance to be honest and let you go, but as you've lied I wanna see your licence'. He accused me of breaking a red light, I argued back etc... No point with the feckers....

I got the fine 2 days ago, it's 80euro and 2 points, or if I appeal and lose, it's 5 points.... It's ridiculous that your guilty until you prove yourself innocent in this country. Even the way that the fines are written, it's not 'an offence', it's 'the alleged offence'. If it's 'alleged', why are you punished more if you try to fight it???

Anyway, long and short, it's not worth fighting incase I lose. 2 points is nothing, 5 is nearly halfway to a disqualification and it will affect the insurance price too.

What is more annoying is that the offence was November, the fine came in January, but I probably won't get the points til April!!! Why aren't they set from the date of the offence?

RANT OVER!

D_murph

LarWright wrote: »

Last November, happened to me... Coming into Swords, I was halfway across the white line, light went amber so I kept going. Garda steps out infront of me and pulls me in... He asked if I knew why so I said yeah, amber light. He replied 'I was gonna give you the chance to be honest and let you go, but as you've lied I wanna see your licence'. He accused me of breaking a red light, I argued back etc... No point with the feckers....

I got the fine 2 days ago, it's 80euro and 2 points, or if I appeal and lose, it's 5 points.... It's ridiculous that your guilty until you prove yourself innocent in this country. Even the way that the fines are written, it's not 'an offence', it's 'the alleged offence'. If it's 'alleged', why are you punished more if you try to fight it???

Anyway, long and short, it's not worth fighting incase I lose. 2 points is nothing, 5 is nearly halfway to a disqualification and it will affect the insurance price too.

What is more annoying is that the offence was November, the fine came in January, but I probably won't get the points til April!!! Why aren't they set from the date of the offence?

RANT OVER!

i agree with you on the guilty before proven innocent thing. if you were up for murder you would be allowed to defend your case without fear of a tougher sentence but if you try to get out of a traffic ticket you get even more points and a steeper fine if you lose and you will cos the judge will only side with the garda anyway :rolleyes:.

load of BS

milltown

LarWright wrote: »

Last November, happened to me... Coming into Swords, I was halfway across the white line, light went amber so I kept going. Garda steps out infront of me and pulls me in... He asked if I knew why so I said yeah, amber light. He replied 'I was gonna give you the chance to be honest and let you go, but as you've lied I wanna see your licence'. He accused me of breaking a red light, I argued back etc... No point with the feckers....

I got the fine 2 days ago, it's 80euro and 2 points, or if I appeal and lose, it's 5 points.... It's ridiculous that your guilty until you prove yourself innocent in this country. Even the way that the fines are written, it's not 'an offence', it's 'the alleged offence'. If it's 'alleged', why are you punished more if you try to fight it???

Anyway, long and short, it's not worth fighting incase I lose. 2 points is nothing, 5 is nearly halfway to a disqualification and it will affect the insurance price too.

What is more annoying is that the offence was November, the fine came in January, but I probably won't get the points til April!!! Why aren't they set from the date of the offence?

RANT OVER!

Is it possible, if he was facing you, that from his side the light was already red to allow a filter light or something from your side?

cyclopath2001

Saruman wrote: »

I find that sometimes i break red lights and have no choice about it. I think our amber times are too short. I could be driving in heavy but moving traffic and pass the while line on green but by the time i get half way through the junction, lights have turned red and i have technically broken a red light.. as have the two people in front and behind me.
Amber times in the UK are longer i think.

The thread is incorrectly titled. The penalty is for failing to stop on amber. If the lights are green when you cross the stop line, you can't be done for breaking a red light.

If you're done for failing to stop on amber, in your defense, you would have to prove that it would have been unsafe to do so. Arguing that you were travelling too fast to stop is unlikely to sway the judge as when approaching traffic signals, reasonable consideration (which is legally required) means you should be prepared to stop if the lights change. Ditto for any following vehicles. In practice, if the lights change to amber and you're more than a car-length away, you should be able to stop.

lisajane

Fey! wrote: »

Don't know about the penalty, but it's no harm to see people stopped for running reds; it's become almost like a popular sport in Galway recently. QUOTE]

Some of the traffic lights in galway are a joke anyway. Out by argos, the road leading to woodquay. If u take a left u'd go to roches and if u take a right it takes u to the car park outside the black box.
The main road seems fine but its when ur on the other side, the lights are forever red. And when they do go green, they will only give 2 cars the chance to move and then it goes red again. Iv spent 10 minutes waiting there once and that was on a quiet day and not even during rush hour.

There's another set of lights does the same thing close to westside.

Iv sat at these lights counting the cars go by. 50/60 cars go by and then they would let about 2/3 cars go from the other side.

littlejukka

i was pulled for running a red in donnybrook late last year. the light was definitely amber as i crossed it, i didn't think i could stop safely from the time it went amber to when i crossed the line so i kept going.

got pulled over out by RTE by a garda who was just behind me at the light. i apologised and got a verbal warning, which is fair enough.

pred racer

before the penalty points, running a red light was considered a dangerous driving offence and that is what you would get done for, or possibly careless driving if the cop hadnt been to the local centra for doughnuts in a while.;)

sternn

Ok, well i was just driving down the widefill road from dun laoghaire with my friend driving behind me. Comming up to lights, they turned amber about 20 meters (or there abouts) away and me travelling at 60km (the limit!) and as i passed the line, the lights went red. My friend behind me stopped. Another car on the right lane kept going aswell, and that car was about 10 meters behind me, so would have crossed the line definately when the light was red.
As my friend stopped at the lights, a cop car pulled up beside her, and...so she says...starts looking ahead and writing stuff down.

So im wondering, what are the chances of me having been done? I was thinking, because the cops were on the right, and i was on the left...maybe they couldnt see my licence plate? Should the cops have come after either one of us if they were going to fine us?

Omcd

LarWright wrote: »

Last November, happened to me... Coming into Swords, I was halfway across the white line, light went amber so I kept going. Garda steps out infront of me and pulls me in... He asked if I knew why so I said yeah, amber light. He replied 'I was gonna give you the chance to be honest and let you go, but as you've lied I wanna see your licence'. He accused me of breaking a red light...

Should have just said 'Too late through the lights?' No appearance of quibbling then..

milltown wrote: »

Heh, almost as stupid and unlucky as the gobsheen I saw a few years ago. For any that are familiar with the area, the traffic lights at the junction of Emmet rd., James' st. (extension?) and Kilmainham. Coming from James' st. side there was a truck at the head of the queue trying to turn right towards Kilmainham. Being a narrow road it meant that nothing behind him could go straight while he was waiting but the flow of oncoming traffic meant he had to wait until our light had gone red before he could complete his turn, which he did. The car behind him, and in front of me, decided he had waited long enough and took off through the light that had been red for a good 20 seconds by now...

Seen it several times at roadwork traffic lights where cars have pulled out from a waiting queue to zip through a red, only to find that one of the cars they have overtaken is an unmarked car.

I do remember reading in a newspaper about someone who ended up in court a few years ago for breaking an amber light in Athy, and ended up getting convicted (of what I don't exactly remember, but it might have been careless driving).

When I was a child I saw another child being killed right in front of me by someone speeding through an amber/red light - I'll never forget that - the car hit the child with such speed that the child was flung into the air, landed on the windscreen, got catapulted down the bonnet and off the front of the car, and then went under the front left and rear left wheels of the car. I would rather be rear ended stopping quickly for an amber light than risk killing a pedestrian - having said that some truck drivers drive far too close to the traffic in front of them when approaching junctions, which has to be taken into consideration when a light turns on you.

10-10-20

sternn wrote: »

Ok, well i was just driving down the widefill road from dun laoghaire with my friend driving behind me.

Sorry, but is it not the "Wyattville road"...?

sternn

Ha, maybe it is "Wyattville road" but i always knew it as sounding like wydefill road!! lol but thats beside the point. Do cops actually have to come after you and give you a ticket? Or can they charge you by just writing something down by seeing you?
And as for that story about seeing a child being killed..iv seen a mother being crushed under the tyre of a truck, and the baby buggie going under the wheel aswell but somehow the child survived.. And it ended up being my neighbour..so i dont need any more storys to make me feel bad. That wasnt to do with breaking a light, but it still does make me drive very carefully. This was at 1 am, and i was obviously looking around.

Tragedy

The amount of people routinely breaking red lights when I'm out walking/cycling is seriously disturbing, almost always people seeing them go amber when they're miles away and speeding up and blowing through them 2-3 seconds after they've gone red.

redcar

There is nothing more satisfying than stopping when they go amber and looking at the person behind make all sorts obsense gestures just because their journey is going to take an extra few minutes.

D_murph

redcar wrote: »

There is nothing more satisfying than stopping when they go amber and looking at the person behind make all sorts obsense gestures just because their journey is going to take an extra few minutes.

note to all, do not dignify this with a response :rolleyes:

randomer

JohnCleary wrote: »

(Again, for the PC loons, it wasn't me, or my 'friend'... just some randomer who was infront of me)

Just for the record, it wasn't me!

randomer

Tragedy wrote: »

The amount of people routinely breaking red lights when I'm out walking/cycling is seriously disturbing, almost always people seeing them go amber when they're miles away and speeding up and blowing through them 2-3 seconds after they've gone red.

Would you like to comment on the number of cyclists who ignore traffic lights all together?

faceman

Dont some junctions in dublin have a camera monitoring light breakers?

randomer

faceman wrote: »

Dont some junctions in dublin have a camera monitoring light breakers?

I think there is one outside RTE on the dual carriageway, although it could be a bus lane camera?

faceman

randomer wrote: »

I think there is one outside RTE on the dual carriageway, although it could be a bus lane camera?

i think there is one on the n4 on that roundabout after heuston station (heading away from town)

Tragedy

randomer wrote: »

Would you like to comment on the number of cyclists who ignore traffic lights all together?

A sad sad amount, fortunately none of them me!

meathstevie

You know who breaks more lights than anyone else ? Pedestrians.... and than having the neck to look at you like you got two heads when you're trying to drive through a green light yourself.

.Longshanks.

Is anybody here be in Newbridge, Co. Kildare often? I'm not a local but work in the area. 95% of time I go through that town i spto a clown (actually usually 2 at a time!) who run the red light. No exaggeration, almost everytime.

Must be a Kildare thing:rolleyes:

jozi

meathstevie wrote: »

You know who breaks more lights than anyone else ? Pedestrians.... and than having the neck to look at you like you got two heads when you're trying to drive through a green light yourself.

Guilty

I dont ever run out in front of cars, only cross when the road is clear enough for me to make it accross.

I don't think people driving run red lights to often because the road ahead is clear, i think it's more to do with impatience, not wanting to wait for a min or 2 before they can continue down the road.

Omcd

Most drivers who go through lights late aren't thinking about whether or not the pedestrian sequence will have started on the other side of the junction before they get there - that's when pedestrians and cars are most likely to come together with fatal consequences on junctions.

Seth Brundle

randomer wrote: »

I think there is one outside RTE on the dual carriageway, although it could be a bus lane camera?

That one appears to have been removed.

faceman wrote: »

i think there is one on the n4 on that roundabout after heuston station (heading away from town)

That one is on the inbound carriageway at the junction of the N4 with the SCR/Suir Rd at Kilmainham. I haven't seen it flash in a long long time.

OldmanMondeo

There seems to be a theme of getting stopped as the light turns amber and then red. Got stopped this morning myself, light turned amber as I approached, I would have been to near to brake, by the time I got through they were red. Got pulled, 2 points and €80 fine on route. Again no point in argueing as you get nowhere. More p'ss off as these are my fist points and first fine. Never had any in 12 years of driving, really annyoed with myself.

Oh, he did say that Enfield Guards will be clamping down big time here. So becareful.

Steve

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

In practice, if the lights change to amber and you're more than a car-length away, you should be able to stop.

Not unless you drive a 75ft long car!

http://www.lireland.com/theory/stopping.htm

panama

Bump rather than start a new thread.

Driving to work each morning for the last couple of months in Dublin, heading to Sandyford, almost every morning without fail I see people breaking red and amber lights.
So many times I've been in the situation where the amber light has just turned as I've reached the stop line or junction and I've gone through as it was safer to carry on rather than slam on the brakes and then I've been followed through by someone who put their foot down and tailgated me through as it was clearly turning red and sometimes another car behind them. It's lethally dangerous, I just can't fathom why people would risk causing a major accident for the sake of getting to their work a few minutes earlier. Gobs**tes! :mad:

Our man in Havana

Do not bump 4 year old threads. Start a new one if you must.