[Closed] Got flashed by traffic light camera while on way to hospital

sharkbait - just unlucky mate. The Traffic light cameras don't go off on amber - on red plus a bit - so you must have been rather late going thru the light. Easy to do.

everything changes when it's your kid in need of hospital treatment. I know what I was like when we had to take ours to hospital when he was a few weeks old

*puts dukes up in defence against hora, dodges, dives, dances like a butterfly, but gets caught on the ear with a lucky roundhouse, rolls around on ground whinging at the ref*

Hora - 1
Guardian - 0

Firestarter: No the lights didn't change fast. The speed limit there is 40mph and I wasn't going over 40mph - you may well know that the stopping distance of a vehicle at this speed is 120 feet. If the lights go to red when you're even 60 feet away, you aint going to stop. They changed when I was about 10 feet away.
This is 120 feet at that junction:
[img] [/img]

having a small A&E emergency

All good fun though, lots of parallel fights going on now...I reckon the OP was on the phone and that's why he didn't notice it changing to amber. If SteveTheBarbie had been driving, that wouldn't have been a problem.

my little one collapsed just before christmas and i had to do cpr on her i called the ambulance and im sure i was in no fit state to drive anywhere i would have caused an accident myself.And just after christmas my mrs appendix went and as id had two pints we waited for the ambulance as i knew id end up getting pulled. Its just not worth the risk imo but each to their own. At least all is well with the little one and worst you should expect is a few points. 🙂

TJ. I dare say it does reduce reaction time, but since I drive well within the time I need to react, it's not an issue. It'll reduce reaction time for pedestrians, but doesn't mean they'll all walk into a lampost does it? Guess you've never switched chanel on the radio or eaten a sweet, all of which would similarly reduce reaction time. Once those become against the law though, you'll soon be having a witch hunt against the nasty sweet eaters.

I will get none of the rubbish you mention happen to me. I have not ignored a summons, I've ignored the form requesting details of the driver. A form they cannot prove I've recieved.

I'm a menace to society LOL. I'm 49, never hurt anyone, stole from anyone, or wronged anyone, and I pay my taxes - some menace huh?

some menace huh?

Henceforth, thou shalt be called "Dennis"

i think you may need to get yourself on a driving course mate. One that teaches reading the road etc 🙂

Sharkbait - youare supposed to stop on amber unless you are too close to stop in time. that gives you enough time to either stop or be beyond the white line by the time tehy go red.

In a way both lucky - in that your kid is fine and no accident was caused and unlucky in that by being a bit distracted you went thru the light a bit late.

You might be lucky again - camera out of film or you might be unlucky again.

For what its worth I see what you have done as an unlucky easily done mistake. Not obviously dangerous nor obviously reckless.

Steve - you ignore road law and consider yourself above it. That makes you a menace. You show obvious selfishness in your behaviour. You will be prosecuted and you will get an ANPR marker against your car. You will get a bigger fine.

anyway enough of this bickering this is a bike site 🙂

This thread is why I ? STW.

Firestarter:

Ironic thing is that if I had been speeding I would have gone through the lights on amber and this would never have occured!!!

At least all is well with the little one and worst you should expect is a few points. [:-)]

You're right. Worst case is a a little fine for something that did happen. unlike poor Zedsdead who's been stitched up on a far greater scale for something he didn't do 😡

Always good to start a little 'debate' though 😀

[i]I didn't go through the lights knowing they were red, they turned when I was about 10 feet away and couldn't safely stop.[/i]

I can understand your mind was on other things and you wanted to get your kid to hospital asap. Glad she's okay too. But this not being able to stop because the lights just changed is nonsense really. If that were the case then everyone would be going through red lights all the time. You nipped through on red, fair enough, I've done it and I'm sure most of us have. But would you honestly stand up in court and say 'I couldn't stop safely in time'. You also said you went through a red because you were tin a rush to get your kid to hospital, which then changed to you went through a red because you couldn't stop in time. Which is it? If you're using the fact that your child was injured as an excuse for jumping the red then why were you sticking rigidly to the speed limit.

And I'm not taking the moral highground here it's just that your 'excuse' is a bit silly.

Sharkbait; good on you for putting your child first. **** the fine; it's a small price to pay, surely.

Glad to hear your kiddy's ok.

In the true spirit of STW, I reckon we should have a whip round, for Sharkbait, should he receive a fine. The bloke's only done what he had to do, as a responsible parent. The Law may be the Law, but it'll be very harsh, if he does get done.

🙂 glad she ok tho mate its horrible when little ones are in a bad way isnt it

steve, what do you drive?

just so the traffic cops on here have bit more to go on, so far we have:

sales rep
49
on his mobile
immaculate road manners
wears red and black striped jumper
never wronged anyone

If someone on the A41 was also in a hurry, so went through on amber as the lights went from red to green... [b]Amber means stop[/b].

Gary_M:

You also said you went through a red because you were tin a rush to get your kid to hospital

Please point to the bit where I said this. I didn't.

The bloke's only done what he had to do, as a responsible parent.

Drove through a red light with his six-year-old in the car?

I ignore a road law, that pretty much 100% of road users ignore - speeding. I ignore it, because I believe I know what speed is safe for myself, on any given road; the same reason others ignore it. I believe that if speed limits were completely removed tomorrow - the average speed on the road would stay very similar to now, and accidents would not increase.

It's a fact that better drivers drive faster
It's a fact that there are no more accidents on unlimited autobahns than limited ones.

I would guess road safety in Germany is higher than here. People think sitting in the middle lane at 60 is a perfectly good way to drive over here. Take the limit away, and they may learn how to drive properly.

I'd be amazed if you never ever went over the speed limit, you'll be in a small minority. But anyway, the mobile menaces(who also know they can safely do it) are the latest people types like yourself get off on demonising.

If:
10% of accidents are drink related
10% of accidents are speed related
10% of accident are mobile phone related

Then it's the righteous law abiders causing 70% of accidents - bloody menaces!

You hide behind 'the law' and say it makes me a menace. I know you're wrong, and really don't care what you think, so wont reply to you again.

Miketually: The junction is big and wide open.
I was coming from the East side of the junction turning right. The next lights in the sequence are the ones coming from the West (told you I know these lights well). The distance from those lights to any 'impact point' is over 120 feet.
In the second or two I was in the wrong place at the wrong time even Lewis Hamilton (or should that now be Jenson Button) couldn't have got to me.
Not that that makes it OK

sharkbait you insinuated that because your daughter was injured you were in a hurry to get to hospital. ‘Is the fact I was on my way to hospital with my daughter any defence’ – if you weren’t in fact ‘in a rush’ then why is that a defence?

People who speed where I live mean that it becomes very difficult to cross the road or for other non car users to use the roads which they pay for, causes numerous accidents and damage to property and regularly cause fights in the street.
I absolutely agree that speed limits are a complete travesty, after all if they're not enforced now so why have them?

fontmoss

Traffic cops already know where I live, can't you read?

yes ta, im just typing while driving-not easy when you're doing a ton down a b road mind 😉

SteveTheBarbarian you will get points, you will get a fine and if you carry on as you are you will eventually get banned from driving, although I'm sure if you do you'll carry on driving anyway. But you know that don't you.

No Gary I didn't insinuate anything. I wasn't in a 'hurry' and I didn't speed (40mph for a mile before this junction).
I was simply getting my daughter to hospital in a timely manner. The fact is that I inadvertedly went through a light that changed to red just before I passed though it.
My question should really have been "is it worth stating that I was taking my daughter to hospital (and here's the evidence), or just pay up?".
I have nothing to lose by getting a few points. If I was that desparate I'd get a lawyer.

Throws up an interesting point though, does this thread. Most people I know would drive someone to hospital rather than wait for an ambulance, unless it was an injury/illness where the person couldnt be moved easily.

From my experience it takes >15 mins for the ambulance to reach me/family members when called (done it 3 times now). In the latest case a paramedic guy in a car arrived first which is ideal, but for non-life-and-death situations I'm fairly sure I'd drive someone to hospital rapidly rather than call an ambulance. Takes 20 mins for me to drive "swiftly" to the local hospital, it takes the ambulance 15 just to get to the scene. Obviously the people on board are then able to give treatment though, which is a big difference, but in the case of a major cut or break (rather than a heart attack/stroke etc) they'll apparently do little more than you will if you have basic first aid training, making you wonder if it's worth the effort calling if you can do first aid.

I recently stabbed myself in the arm at 1am(upturned knife in sink draining board, wedged itself solidly in my forearm bone after I picked up a heavy bowl and lowered it into the sink). I had 3 options - call an ambulance (seemed a bit "wasteful"), leave it in and drive to the hospital (not really an option - it would have got in the way of changing gear) or pull it out, apply pressure etc and drive to hospital. I chose the latter and, after a while recovering from feeling a bit woozy and taping up my arm I decided I was fit enough to drive. When I arrived at hospital I saw proper stabbings and a fair few "serious" injuries arriving by ambulance. I'm glad I drove as one of these people would have been delayed. I may have increased the risk of me crashing by a small percentage, but I consider that a decent trade-off on probabilities. But is that right? How is a member of the public supposed to decide? Likewise, when I was young I fell off a slide and cracked my head well and truly - out cold for a minute or so, massive egg within seconds. My dad drove me the 70 miles to a hospital at very high speed - doctors suggested that it was a very good job he did as the ambulance would have taken too long and serious damage may have occurred, we were out in the sticks at the time. How does a member of the public know where to draw the line?

So in that case the fact that you were taking your daughter to hospital has nothing to do with it, other than you passing through the junction on the way. The whole 'injured kid' thing is just frillying up the fact that you jumped a red light, oh no sorry 'wasn't able to stop in time'. I can't be doing with people who try to get out of things.

I think you're completey full of shit Gary_M

I may or may not get points, neither of us knows. I've looked it up, and many people on the internet have got away with it using this method.

I have a clean license - it's highly unlikely I'll ever get banned for speeding.

Getting a bit wound up there SteveTheBarbarian, but if you looked it up on the internet it must be right eh. You appear to be a particularly gullible idiot. Your time will come.

on the internet! why didn't you say so!

sweet im off to find those young horny girls that keep emailing me

coffeeking, when we were in the sticks my folks did the same (brother had stridor) because ambulance took too long and they'd told us just to belt along to the hospital but as you say how, as a member of the public, do you know when to do which. Not in a law abiding sense as such but knowing when your actions aren't going to prevent others receiving treatment or potentially cause more injuries.

I'm gullible for reading peoples stories on the internet, rather than believe Gary M, fortune teller?

LOL - My time will come! Am I gullible if I believe you, or is that rubbish?

Gary_M: Why do I get the impression you want to cause trouble? I'm not going to bother getting into this with you. Sorry to disappoint.

fontmoss

Yes - on this internet. Guess only threads you're involved in could possibly contain anything worth reading - or might possibly be true. How typical of someone like yourself.

If you want everyone to agree with you sharkbait you should have said, perhaps if you didn't want people to tell you how they see it then you shouldn't have posted this thread. I don't want to cause trouble with you, you jumped a red light and your 'excuse' doesn't make sense. A bit like SteveTheBarbarian post above.

I really don't think you should ever think of taking this to court, you don't seem very pleased when people disagree with you.

Guess only threads you're involved in could possibly contain anything worth reading - or might possibly be true.

who said this thread was worth reading or was true?

How typical of someone like yourself.

i didn't realise we'd met, how rude of me

As a nurse one of the jobs I have to do is gauge how long someone has left on this earth, we have to ask relatives to come in, we always wonder how safe they drive especially expecting the worse.

On a lighter not that sketch in Gavin & Stacey with the police motorcyclist cracks me up

The irony of Steve's "it was on the internet" response is that further up the thread I explained that I had similarly ignored the letters and actually ended up being tried in absence and fined heavily.

I explanined that on the internet too and it goes completely against what he claims but he chose not to listen to my actual real life experience.

Interestingly I've had more than one ambulance driver "challenge" me to keep up while transferring family between hospitals, suggesting I should stay close so traffic can see us coming. With hindsight this would seem bad advice but I was thankful for it at the time.

I love the car ones. THey fall apart so quickly. Lots of people swinging off on tangents then suddenly it's all name calling. Brilliant, this is a classic even by STW standards.

I know it's just fantastic - i personally wasn't expecting the diagrams and statistics - they are the cherry on the cake!

Can't you sort it with a few pints at the pub then a trip to a go-kart track!

Hardly a detailed account of what happened, what you ignored etc mathew_h, unlike other accounts I've read.

So far, I've been sent(since September), a letter asking details of driver, and 2 copys of that letter.

Believe the BBC on the internet?:

Two drivers caught speeding on a police camera have escaped conviction after claiming protection under European human rights law.
A judge in Birmingham ruled that police could not ask the drivers exactly who was behind the steering wheel when the car was filmed.

He said that would be asking them to incriminate themselves - in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is due to become law in England and Wales later this year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/834532.stm