Emergency Vehicle/Red Light Question

[darrsi]

Must be just broken then. You could report it https://www.gov.uk/report-problem-traffic-light

But don't sit on your bike and phone them on your mobile 

Or park your bike on the pavement.
To help, or react, someone will no doubt break another law somehow.

[YamFazFan]

To help, or react, someone will no doubt break another law somehow.

Yep, and then they can impose yet another fine.

There's a fine for pretty much any petty misdemeanour nowadays from dropping crumbs for pigeons to leaving your wheely bin out on the wrong day.

It's all about extracting the maximum amount of cash from the public and reminding us who is boss.

[darrsi]

To help, or react, someone will no doubt break another law somehow.

Yep, and then they can impose yet another fine.

There's a fine for pretty much any petty misdemeanour nowadays from dropping crumbs for pigeons to leaving your wheely bin out on the wrong day.

It's all about extracting the maximum amount of cash from the public and reminding us who is boss.

The one that always bothers me is the £80 fine for dropping a cigarette butt, but feel free to light as many fireworks as you like, littering wherever they land, with no worries about any penalty charge at all?
Add to that, is it such a great idea to sell high explosives to the general public?
I think not, especially these days.

[Slaninar]

Law, justice and even common sense are not always "aligned".

As for any moral dilemmas, IMO, when choosing for oneself which laws are just and common sense, one can often be subjective and unjust. When doing so for no personal gain (like when moving to let an emergency vehicle pass), the chance of being subjective and unjust is very low.

Still, I wouldn't be amazed to get fined for doing the right thing - whenever braking the law, one should be ready to accept the risks and consequences. Worse than a fine would be a scenario where moving at a red light causes a (fatal?) accident (Murphy's law?).

[YamFazFan]

The one that always bothers me is the £80 fine for dropping a cigarette butt

It's an easy target. They can lurk about and predict almost down to the second when it gets chucked on the floor.

The fine is out of all proportion to the 'crime'.

 But hey, when did that last matter?

[Grahamm]

But i have a mate who lives there so have popped round his house then sat like a total plum at these lights that haven't picked up the sense that my bike is even there many times before.

There's a flip side to this...

At North Harbour in Portsmouth, they're building a new supermarket and have installed a set of lights so that traffic can get out from the car park onto the main Southampton Road. The place is still a building site at the moment, so they've got metal barriers around the place and across the road leading to the car park.

Unfortunately the gates are obviously triggering the induction loop which seems to be prioritised for traffic that will be coming out of the car park, so the lights on the main road are constantly changing to red to allow this non-existent traffic out!

[Grahamm]

Add to that, is it such a great idea to sell high explosives to the general public?

Technically gunpowder is a low explosive, not a high explosive, but I certainly think that selling them to the public should have been stopped long ago.

You can see much bettern fireworks at organised displays and there's so much less danger of someone being injured, let alone (as happened down here on Bonfire Night) people setting up an impromptu display at the end of the road!

Also you can now get Quiet Fireworks which makes things less stressful for animals.

This is also true for PTSD sufferers and, IMO, these fireworks should be the only ones available. If you were near QA Hospital around November 5th it was like World War III out there

[darrsi]

Add to that, is it such a great idea to sell high explosives to the general public?

Technically gunpowder is a low explosive, not a high explosive, but I certainly think that selling them to the public should have been stopped long ago.

You can see much bettern fireworks at organised displays and there's so much less danger of someone being injured, let alone (as happened down here on Bonfire Night) people setting up an impromptu display at the end of the road!

Also you can now get Quiet Fireworks which makes things less stressful for animals.

This is also true for PTSD sufferers and, IMO, these fireworks should be the only ones available. If you were near QA Hospital around November 5th it was like World War III out there

These days around my area it's not Bonfire Night that's noisy, but Diwali.
And they don't hold back when they buy their fireworks, some of which resemble bombs going off, and they will go on for 6hrs solid each night for about a week.
There's also a temple in the next road up from me which holds their own display so even with my windows shut you can barely hear the tv, and the surrounding areas including my road look like a BMW car park. It's a particular time of year i'm not too fond of.
You can only imagine how downhill the air quality goes, and those fireworks have to land somewhere too, but whatever you do.........don't drop a cigarette on the floor, or you'll get nicked.

[maddog04]

happy new year everyone, hope Santa brought you everything you wanted


ref the original question, blue light drivers have to be very careful passing a Red, it must be treated as a give way but any accident will see the driver of the emergency vehicle get fucked over by their organisation and then the law.....their Unions will leave them out on a limb as there's no recourse in law. Please remember this when emergency services (ES) approach you on the road. Our drivers are told to turn everything off once you hit standing traffic (traffic lights) as we shouldn't be encouraging the public to break the law/panic. Many people panic when we approach, they stop on hills/blind bends etc....just keep going at normal road speed coz we will pass you when safe to do so. I've heard anecdotal evidence of traffic moving through a Red to allow ES through and camera has operated......some won in court, some lost......appears a lottery to which ever judge you get and how they read the law determines your fate......TAKE THAT CHOICE AWAY FROM THEM AND DO NOT JUMP A RED
believe me, you sitting at a red for seconds is nothing compared to delays in the big picture (ie all ES not being deployed at the point of call....(Golden Hour).....ES crews unavailable due to cuts etc). Drive safe and stay stay safe, look after no. 1