Odin wrote:
DeaconBlues wrote:
Further, since the "witness" is a camera, its photograph is considered its "testimony".
Want to protest this movement? One simple idea, which has always worked for me...
Stop running through the yellow lights!!
I've never gotten a ticket for red-light running, even from the shortest yellow, even from the touchiest camera, because I remembered the part of driver education where they said that the light turning yellow meant that it was about to turn red, and you needed to stop. You should take your driving advice from the state manual, not from the movie Starman ("Green means go. Red means stop. Yellow means go very fast").
If I remember driver's training correctly it is OK to go through a yellow light if you can get into the intersection before it turns red or if road conditions (ice, etc) or timing makes it dangerous to stop quickly.
Different states have somewhat different rules. In Texas, it is illegal to enter the intersection without stopping if the light is red. It doesn't matter why unless you are directed to enter the intersection during a red light by a police officer directing traffic. Road conditions don't matter -- you are responsible for driving safely and if the conditions are bad and you enter the intersection without stopping during a red light as a result, then you aren't driving safely and can be ticketed.
On the other hand, if the yellow signal is far too short, then you might have a chance. I read once that in Texas, there is a minimum time that a yellow signal must be displayed before the signal turns red, but I have never found it in the motor vehicle code -- and I have looked specifically for that.
If you entered the intersection while the light was yellow, then you do have the right of way over the cross traffic to exit the intersection before they come through. But note that means that you were already in the intersection when it turned red. If you were even just one inch from it when it turned red, then you entered the intersection illegally.
Additionally, most people do not know where the intersection starts. It does not start on an imaginary line connecting the curbs on both sides of the intersection. Usually there is a line painted across the road a few feet before you enter cross traffic. That line is where the intersection begins. That said, a police officer who stops you for running the red light may not be all that careful about noting precisely where you were when the light changed.