Going to court over breaking red light

murhatchi

Hi all,

My friend got a ticket for breaking a red light which she is adamant she didnt and is going to court. Any tips for her on the day?

source

murhatchi wrote: »

Hi all,

My friend got a ticket for breaking a red light which she is adamant she didnt and is going to court. Any tips for her on the day?

Legal advice is against the forum charter.

norrie rugger

Can we not give advice on the general court session?
Dress "code", procedure, environment etc?

cursai

My tip would be to stay quiet and take her fine. As she probably did it.:)

Reloc8

norrie rugger wrote: »

Can we not give advice on the general court session?
Dress "code", procedure, environment etc?

Helpful sticky of court room 'dos and don'ts' at the top of the forum.

MagicSean

Failing to stop at an orange light is also an offence.

source

MagicSean wrote: »

Failing to stop at an orange light is also an offence.

Unless doing so would cause more of a danger than going through.

maryk123

wow i better slow down i am always going through orange lights i thought it was ok to go through if you hadnt slowed on time ??????????

Procrastastudy

The other one people dont realise is if you hit a pedestrian on a crossing even if the light was GREEN (for you) you can be done. I think the logic is lack of awareness to potential hazards e.g. pedestrians on a crossing.

Couple of traffic light questions for ya (bit OT sorry)

Why don't Irish lights have the Red and Amber (get ready to do) sequence? Would seem to help traffic flow better.

Why do Irish light change so fast in the opposite direction you'll frequently see pedestrian crossings going green directly after the opposing light goes red. With the practice here of going though on "just red" I would have though it was dangerous.

MagicSean

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

The other one people dont realise is if you hit a pedestrian on a crossing even if the light was GREEN (for you) you can be done. I think the logic is lack of awareness to potential hazards e.g. pedestrians on a crossing.

Couple of traffic light questions for ya (bit OT sorry)

Why don't Irish lights have the Red and Amber (get ready to do) sequence? Would seem to help traffic flow better.

Why do Irish light change so fast in the opposite direction you'll frequently see pedestrian crossings going green directly after the opposing light goes red. With the practice here of going though on "just red" I would have though it was dangerous.

The answer to your second question is that you're supposed to stop on orange and not red. The answer to you first question is because traffic coming the other way never stops on orange so the delay in taking off is safer.

berrypendel

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

The other one people dont realise is if you hit a pedestrian on a crossing even if the light was GREEN (for you) you can be done. I think the logic is lack of awareness to potential hazards e.g. pedestrians on a crossing.

.

pedestrians also have a duty of care to themselves and should also take care crossibg. a lot of them think that cos they come to a pedestrian crosing they can just walk out without giving traffic near it time to stop and think a high viz vest means you can jog accross the road at night without looking

seamus

maryk123 wrote: »

i am always going through orange lights i thought it was ok to go through if you hadnt slowed on time ??????????

The amber light means, "Stop. Unless it is unsafe to do so".

In most people heads they think it means, "Only stop if it is safe to do so".

Semantically they would appear to be identical. However the first (the actual meaning) is a command. The second is phrased more as a caution or request so people think that an amber is an optional stop, like a yield sign. It's not.

whydoibother?

I remeber being told by an instructor that if you make the decision that you have to go through an amber light and it turns red before you're through the junction, you fail the test.

This makes me wonder how exactly breaking a red light is understood and what happened with the friend in the OP. Is it possible that she thought she was ok, as she went through an amber light entering the junction but actually the offence is different?

seamus

The offence is failure to obey traffic signals.

If the light was amber and the person proceeded, then they have technically committed an offence. However, it is a defence to claim that it would have been unsafe to stop before the white line.

If the person's defence is "The light wasn't red", then they should pay the fine.

murhatchi

Many thanks. Will revert with result