Flashed by Traffic Light Cam

R0B75

R0B75

R0B75

Soldato
Joined
15 Aug 2003
Posts
5,867
Location
Burton-upon-Trent
Last night whilst driving home after picking some friends up from a wedding do out in the sticks I got flashed by a traffic light camera.

Now I'm willing to accept the blame for anything I've done wrong but this was purely accidental.

I was approaching a large junction/crossroad with crossings and lights at each exit (you know the type) and the lights were already on red. My sat nav showed this had a traffic light camera and so was slowing down to stop.

The problem is that the area (Arnold, Notts) is unfamiliar to me and the rain had made the road very shiny and I could not see the white line to stop on approach.

Because of this I ended up guessing where I should stop and as I was coming to a halt I think the camera flashed twice in quick succession. It was then I realised the white line, which in all fairness was pretty worn, was 10 yards behind me. I had no intention of jumping the lights and stopped until the light was green again.

This was purely accidental and as far as I'm concerned only happened because of the road and weather conditions and that it's a road I've never driven and in a town never driven through before.

My question is this. I have a clean licence and would like to keep it that way, so would there be any way of contesting a fine and the points based on what I've said?? As I said, if I had intended to gamble with the lights and got caught I'd take it on the chin for being an idiot, but I'm not a risk taker and this was genuine and possibly unavoidable mistake.

A few seconds after I was flashed a police car pulled up at the lights behind me, I was expecting to be pulled over but they obviously weren't interested.
 
3 points and £60 fine?
You might be able to appeal, but given other people stop there fine I don't think you would win
 
Will the pictures show you were moving or stopped?
If stopped, should be fine to contest, otherwise you should have got out and asked for a statement off Mr Officer to say you just overshot the line, not jumped the lights.

Mick
 
Why did the sat nav need to tell you about the camera to slow down, not the big red lights? Would you have plowed on through if there wasn't a camera?

Anyway you could try appealing, but i guess it depends on if your position was dangerous or not
 
FlyingFish said:
Will the pictures show you were moving or stopped?
If stopped, should be fine to contest, otherwise you should have got out and asked for a statement off Mr Officer to say you just overshot the line, not jumped the lights.

Mick
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I think I was stopped or stopping, either way my brake lights would have been on.

iaind said:
Why did the sat nav need to tell you about the camera to slow down, not the big red lights? Would you have plowed on through if there wasn't a camera?

Anyway you could try appealing, but i guess it depends on if your position was dangerous or not
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The point about the sat nav was just to say I knew there was a camera so I'd hardly plough through lights that were already on red. I was slowing down as I approached the lights, I just couldn't see the line to stop at so pretty much guessed. I was not in danger of hitting anything as I was nowhere near entering the junction.
 
his was purely accidental and as far as I'm concerned only happened because of the road and weather conditions and that it's a road I've never driven and in a town never driven through before.
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So what you're saying is you weren't driving with due care and attention or in a manner appropriate to the conditions?

Yeah, I'd contest it with exactly that statement at the magistrates. Let us know how you get on.
 
amigafan2003 said:
So what you're saying is you weren't driving with due care and attention or in a manner appropriate to the conditions?

Yeah, I'd contest it with exactly that statement at the magistrates. Let us know how you get on.
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Where did I say I was driving without due care and attention?? I was driving in a manner appropriate to the conditions, well under the 40mph speed limit and slowing down for the lights. I just couldn't see the stop line due to the fact its worn and the shine from the street lights on wet road so had to guess.
 
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taximike said:
You stop before the lights. What has the line got to do with it? How do you think people drive through snow?
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Exactly. You're not looking for a grid starting line for a GP. Get serious, you stopped 10 yards further down the road and got flashed doing it. It’s just careless driving on your behalf. Live with it, you’ve won some bonus point.
 
Unless you can show the line was extremely worn and the pictures show extreme weather conditions you highly unlikely to get anywhere contesting it, might even make it worse...

ancedotal - and why I think red light cameras are bad due to being blanket "guilty"... we were towing a caravan approaching some lights once which were at red (with red light cameras) as they changed to green my dad started to speed up a little but for some random reason, with us almost on the line, they switched back to red again moments later without properly pausing on amber*. My dad hammered on the brakes so as not to go over the line - the road was clear so under any other circumstances it would have been safer to go through - the caravan jacknifed and only missed a bunch of people sitting outside the pub alongside the road by 2-3 inches at best. At no time was my dads driving in any way unsafe.



* I was moving into a place in the area - I later found these lights do this quite a lot :rolleyes: and its never been fixed despite numerous complaints from residents.
 
Rroff said:
as they changed to green my dad started to speed up a little but for some random reason, with us almost on the line, they switched back to red again moments later without properly pausing on amber.
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Err..

the caravan jacknifed and only missed a bunch of people sitting outside the pub alongside the road by 2-3 inches at best.
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Ummm..

At no time was my dads driving in any way unsafe.
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Riiight :eek:
 
Personal insults removed - calm down my dad was driving extremely safely. The lights changed back under 3 seconds from going from red to green back to red without pausing on amber.
 
If extremely safe driving involves jacknifed caravans missing bystanders by a few inches whats it like when he's being a bit less careful :D
 
[TW]Fox;17405215 said:
If you go through a red light, you get a fine. It's pretty much that simple.
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Nothing is ever that simple. Poor road markings, a faulty or incorrectly calibrated camera, ground loop malfunction, lighting out or being pushed through a junction by an emergency vehicle are factors that make it not that clear cut.

The ground loops as you know are generally situated just after the solid white line, giving little room for error. If you want to appeal be sure to take photo's and/or a video of the junction at the same time and conditions of the incident in order to demonstrate this to the court.

If you accept the fixed penalty then you know you will get 3 penalty points and fined £60. if you put your case to the court there is always a risk these could be higher.

Jack
 
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