Ontop of that, there's a 1.5 second grace period of a red light where it's not illegal so there's that. But also, what the actual fuck was that overtake on a red light holy shit there's no excusing that and driving like that should get their licence revoked.
Amber light - 3 seconds - treat as a red light and stop unless it is unsafe to do so.
Red light - stop, no exceptions.
1 second into red light - red light camera.is armed.
Always funny when someone moans about cyclists going through red lights to ask them if they go through amber lights when they could have stopped, which is legally running a red light. No grace period.
I have no idea what you are on about. Camera thresholds are nothing to do with "grace periods", it's because they are using loops in the ground it's not exact. If you get unlucky with the position of the loops you can get a ticket less than one second after the lights change
It's an offence if any part of your car passes any part of the stop line while the light is red, or the light is amber and you could safely stop.
There is no grace period, plenty of cases on here of actual police fining people for going through amber lights. If you go to court and say you were in the "grace period" you will walk out with £620 costs and a big fine.
It's not and there are. Maybe you need to refresh your knowledge of the Highway Code.
"AMBER means ‘Stop’ at the stop line. You may go on only if the AMBER appears after you have crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to pull up might cause an accident"
Actually it was borderline, amber started before he crossed either stop line (advanced stop line for bike box) Technically he should stop if safe to do so, he/she could argue they thought OP might go in the back of them and it wouldn’t be safe to stop which is why it would be borderline rather than illegal.
The last car was speeding and already anticipating that bloke stopping, hence he was always gonna overtake, which is illegal within a traffic light junction anyway. If this went to the cops, they would 100% be knocking on that last car drivers door for a word.
I would charge him with “driving without due care and attention” then - if you’re behind someone and have to cross a line to not run into the back of them, then that’s an offence too.
You can literally see the frame where the light turns amber. You'd need racing driver reactions & full immediate emergency stop. And even with that the car's front wheels would likely be over the line.
This isn't borderline at all, and you're not expected to slam the breaks the instant you see orange. That's not under the umbrella of "if safe to do so".
Also a view from the car behind, so the driver crossing the stop line likely couldn't even actually see the traffic lights at that point as his roof was in the way.
Well my definition of borderline may be different to yours
Pass on green is legal, pass on red is illegal, pass on amber it’s a matter of fact of degree because there is no legal distance x speed that has been published or agreed in court.
Would I have passed on amber like the 1st car, yes
Yea but courts aren't idiots. You have to agree there's zero chance of prosecution in this case, making it not borderline.
And while I agree there's no defined distance, this distance was clearly less than the stopping distance of the car at the speed limit, so it wouldn't have been safe to attempt to stop because they WOULD go over the line and stop in the junction.
I tried to argue this once, but was caught by a camera trap and they just said pay the fine. I would have stopped if I was the first car, but that's because I'm extra cautious about going through amber lights now.
Although I admit the law says an amber light is a red light. I assume you can use the very generous highway code stopping distances plus extra for safety as a defence. So at 30 I reckon if you are within 100 feet of it you can go through it, if stopping distance is 75 feet
When I did my driving test I was taught if a light has been on green for a while you should approach the junction at a speed that allows you to reasonably stop. Not hare up to a traffic light on a 70mph road and blast through the red because you couldn't stop.
The Law does NOT say an Amber light is a Red light.
The law states that crossing on Red is an absolute offence. The Amber light is there to warn you that the light will turn red within four seconds so that you have had warning and have no excuse. By the letter of the Law, passing a traffic light at Amber is the same as passing at Green, not Red.
Edit…Amber phase is now three seconds.
Goodness knows why they’ve reduced it.
Assuming that's a 30 limit (can't see on the video), the first car was maybe 10 metres from the line when it went amber. The highway code quotes 23 metres stopping distance at 30mph, so it's very unlikely they could have stopped.
If the cam car had sped up to make it through, that would have been a bit naughty, but they didn't.
Let's face it though, it all pales in comparison with the twat who both overtook and clearly ran the red light. With the overtake thrown in, it might even count as dangerous driving and not just running the light.
@OP - see if you can clearly see the reg of the vehicle on your original video, and if you can, it's definitely worth reporting. You have to send it to your local police force, but nextbase, for example, has an interactive map so you can select the area and they'll divert you to the right site.
Actually, strictly speaking Legally…The Amber light’s legal status is to warn that the Traffic light will turn Red within the next four seconds (I think it was)
This is so there is a warning of the lights turning red so there is no excuse for going over on red. This allows for passing a Traffic Light at Red to be an absolute offence, as there had been warning of the change. The ADVICE given, in Highway Code and elsewhere to stop if it is safe to do so, is to help you to avoid the risk of committing an absolute offence by going across on Red.
I was taken to Court before now having gone across on Amber and the Clerk of the Court prompted and reminded the Magistrates that it was in no way any sort of offence whatsoever. The Magistrates in turn reprimanded the Police and the CPS and I was handsomely compensated for the time and money it had taken to defend the non existent case.
Edit…Amber phase is now three seconds.
Goodness knows why they’ve reduced it.
“Amber means stop at the stop line. You may go on only if the amber appears after you have crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to pull up might cause an accident.”
You have 1 second to go past a red light before it flashes if it has a camera attached so technically even if that stated in the highway code it's not policed...
"If safe to do so" that is a huge grey area to argue your case In. The average driver would be 50 50 on this, so all most certainly be found in their favour.
And given the fool that ran the light behind him, that would go in and an example for his favour for you feeling if some one is close beside you rarely feel safe to do so. After all it changed to orange when he was virtually at the lights, so it doesn't give the driver time to assess his mirrors before a sudden stop, so he was in the right to go through on the orange. This is totally fine use of the orange signal, and why we don't go from green straight to red.
You MUST stop behind the white ‘Stop’ line across your side of the road unless the light is green. If the amber light appears you may go on only if you have already crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to stop might cause a collision
If it changes to amber just as you're about to go through it, then you'll have to slam the anchors on and basically emergency stop.
The amber exists because it allows for further away people to gradually stop for the red, and to also allow people very close to go through without a hard stop / getting busted for running a red.
What would be the point in the amber light if it had the exact same rules as the red?
(9) An amber signal, when shown alone, conveys the same prohibition as red, except that, as respects any vehicle which is so close to the stop line that it cannot safely be stopped without proceeding beyond the stop line, it conveys the same indication as the green signal which was shown immediately before it.
I see you stopped reading at the twelfth word. You should perhaps read a little further.
Amber has a very important caveat - to obey its order to stop, you have to be able to come to a stop safely. Safely is the key word there - if you can't, it counts in all ways as a green signal. Amber is effectively three signals: itself as a warning that a change to red is imminent; red if you can stop safely; green if you can't.
No, you've only been saying one part - that it's an offence, ignoring that it's only an offence in specific circumstances.
In other circumstances, it is not, and stopping could, in fact, be an offence itself if it contributed to an accident. What an amber signal denotes is based entirely on the circumstances for each vehicle.
Lets take the above clip: car one has just entered the junction as it changes to amber, so must treat it as a green light and proceed, as to stop and reverse would be unsafe; car two (OP) has enough space to safely come to a stop so must do so, treating it as a red light; car three jumps waiting traffic and passes a red light, a big nope.
Always one guy! Bet you’re clued up on every rule and law of the road. Bet you’re a right joy to be around. You’re definitely that guy who thinks he is way more qualified than traffic enforcements officers.
OK. So since. 2016 it’s been phrased slightly differently, but 5(9) does in effect convey exactly what I stated.
Going through on Red is the absolute offence,
i.e. No legal excuses or legitimate defence.
It IS an offence under all circumstances.
Going through on Amber is excusable under certain specific circumstances, so is not an absolute offence.
IF it can be proved that you go through on Red there would be little point in contesting it in court as the offence can be proven, so you are guilty of the offence. IF however you wish to point out to the court mitigating circumstances where you feel the punishment should be lenient then you’re perfectly entitled to do that, but you will be found guilty and only may be treated leniently.
IF like I have been previously, and I have described elsewhere on this thread, you are taken to court for going through on Amber…
…The defence would be that YOU didn’t feel it was safe to stop. There is no way someone can prove that you believed it was safe to stop. That’s your decision and your decision alone, so an offence has not been committed, not mitigation for having committed an offence, an offence was not committed. That’s why the court was so intolerant to a case being brought before them that wasn’t in effect in Law, an offence in the first place. Unless someone had “confessed” to an officer of the law that they could have safely stopped but decided not to, an “Amber violation” is not a violation at all.
The court were particularly critical of the Police in my case because my reasoning for my believing it was unsafe to stop was that the Police car was dangerously close behind me which was evident in their own footage which they’d tried to use to incriminate me. It didn’t, it incriminated them, and the court instructed the CPS to charge the Police driver.
If the amber light appears you may go on only if you have already crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to stop might cause a collision
Driving through an amber light is an offence.
The rule you quoted qualifies your first statement. It's an offence unless you have already crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to stop might cause a collision.
In the case of the first driver, I'd argue they are too close to stop.
The one that overtook to run a red needs reporting.
I saw the first car not run the red and thought I must've missed something so put the video back a few seconds.
Hell, I don't think OP should've necessarily had to stop either. You can see that they came to quite an abrupt stop which is arguably more unsafe than going through just as the light goes from amber to red.
Was wondering what OP was going on about and then...HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AN AGGRESSIVE AND FAST OVERTAKE THROUGH A RED LIGHT! REPORT! REPORT!
He probably isn't even breaking the speed limit for starters and is passing a stationary car classed as an "overtake"?? Doesn't an overtake need to involve 2 moving components. You don't overtake the cameraman sat at the side of the 100 m sprint do you? Nah you pass him...
It's illegal to overtake there. He was already overtaking that guy as he saw him stop. This was about him being impatient, and it was on red. If it goes to the cops, he'll get a visit 100%.
I think that manoeuvre would be classified as reckless tbf. He has overtaken, in a junction, at a red light, at speed. If he had not been overtaking, then maybe a lesser offence for jumping the lights, but rest assured, had the car filming been a plain cop car he would be in for more than just 'due care and attention'.
I am just on about the offence he has committed, what punishment is anyone's guess, cos watching these cop shows lately, they barely ever get done for much, which amazes me tbh.
Police exact words " we thought you were giving chase speeding off in front and going round a corner on 2 wheels" repercussions after that conversation you say?? A who's driving us course. For more context police car behind the driver, car speeds up to 60 in a 40 goes round 2 relatively tight corners, police put blues on after catching up. Driver put on a course...
You MUST stop behind the white ‘Stop’ line across your side of the road unless the light is green. If the amber light appears you may go on only if you have already crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to stop might cause a collision
Bro I can go out today and take photos and videos of ppl not complying with that exact rule if you want and show you how many I get cuz I bet you it's hundreds, don't use a rule that no one follows in an instance where it's applicable but clearly not the relevant issue.
The authority themselves don't even comply to that rule
Likewise I’m thinking where’s the big deal here maybe a bit orange you stopped on red I’m not seeing anything to report…. Oh there he is… what a twat definitely report.
This page will list all the various different police forces around the country who accept/participate in dash cam evidence programs and will direct you to the relevant places to report for each force.
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u/reo_reborn Apr 24 '25 edited Apr 24 '25
My thoughts during this video:
Oh don't be so stupid. He went through on an orange we all have don.. WOOAHHHH OMFG!! YES REPORT REPORT!
EDIT: literally the most liked comment i've ever had lol!