How many seconds after driving through a red light are you allowed before you get caught by the camera?

Larry

pay the ticket, stop whinning, stop risking other lives because your in a hurry.

JeffE

None at all. That's what the amber lights are for. They mean stop too.

Fenris

0 seconds dude. you are busted. technically when it hits red you should be already stopped :)

look at it this way: do you start to go 3 seconds before the light goes green?????

Elmondo

NONE.....The amber light warned you while you approached the traffic light's.

Sorry mate...you don't have a leg to stand on this one, you have been done so this is your lesson..DON'T do it again.

Sarah (28/UK)

zero!!

the amber light is on for 3 seconds. this also means stop!

Dandy_Man

Pay attention before you kill someone nobby.

red beret

Are you some kind of mad bar stud.

taketwo

nest day

who c

if u were doing 180 mph + you'd be ok i reckon

only jokin before anyone starts lol

alxnol

I'd hammer a guess at it and say 0 seconds aswell

fivetoze

youre only defence is that road conditions were unsuitable for that level of braking. look at it this way, at 60mph you cover 88 feet per second, so to stop you need atound 3 to 5 seconds (yes alright ive got a volvo) thats 264 feet - 440feet, obviously at 30 we halve the figure. (so 130 feet), thats minimum distance, but its still 3 seconds... and teh amber sequence is around three-five seconds...so really you were either speeding, or you were actually driving without due care and attention. bite the bullet, pay the fine, and pay attention to the road ahead.

theres probably a few ways around this, but, if you did it, be a man, qand take your punishment.

cautionary tale; my mate got done for D&D after evading a high speed persuit at between 70 and 90mph in a residential area. anyway to cut a long sorry tale of woe short, he crashed the car, maybe it was the 7 pints, maybe it was the cocaine, who knows.. but the fool contested it...it went from D&D and failing to give a specimen, and Due care and attention in the magistrtaes (12 month automatic ban and a fine) but oh no, dave knew better...by the time it got to crown court it was dangerous driving..blah blah blah...and he got (quite rightly) 2 year ban, and he must retake all his licences and he got 12 months in jail.. and believe me that has messed his life up beyond recognition.

pay up, and consider yourself lucky.

steve b

After the lights turn red, there is a 1 second delay before the camera will activate.

RSWN

You shouldn't even drive through the amber light, which also means stop. So when the red light is showing you have no time at all.

Steve-Bob

First thing: most people who have answered this question aren't quite right. They have been saying the amber light means 'prepare to stop'. It doesn't. The amber light means 'stop if it is safe to do so'. If you ever watch TV police shows you can sometimes see them pulling over people for going through amber lights, though they rarely prosecute for that.

Given that it is illegal to through an amber light unless it is unsafe to stop, you will not be surprised to find out that it is always illegal to go through a red light. Always. The amber light gives plenty of time to stop.

Have you ever sat at a traffic lighted intersection and watched the lights before? You'll find that normally there is less than a second delay between one set of lights turning red, and the next turning to red+amber. If you go through 3 second after a red light people from the other directions are already going to be moving, some for 2 seconds. Get some sense into you and stop at amber lights, otherwise you might be in an accident.

mike g

its 0 seconds

Blade

Most of them cameras dont work mate, i went threw a red light about 2-3 seconds after it had changed to red and nothing happened

Tallulah

You are meant to STOP at a red light.

mad_ness777

The amber light triggers the sensor, once the light has been red for a few seconds the sensor dis-arms. runnning a light that has been red for a while wont get you a fine, just dont run the amber/ red.

mike-from-spain

Youare given 0.0 seconds, the lights turn yellow, that tells you they are about to turn red, so you should stop before they turn red.

idontkno

i have no idea

kja63

You can drive through the yellow light, but you can't drive through the red light. Not even .05 seconds through it.

Mr. PhD

Lights are supposed to be timed so that at the speed limit, minus 5 mph, when the yellow activates, you have enough time to clear the intersection before the red light activates. I have found that in a number of times, the traffic engineer (again, another do-nothing civil servant) messing up the timing.

According to the CVC, you have the right to clear the intersection. Running a red light technically means that you pass the entrance (noted by a white line) after the red light activates. If you are in the intersection when the light changes to red, then you have not run the red light. You can be cited for blocking an intersection though. This is were officer discretion comes in - I have seen lots of officers cite for red light violations when technically it was merely blocking an intersection.

Red light cameras are set fairly conservatively. Most of the time you have to literally run the red blatantly to get caught (unless they are set wrong). The unfortunately thing is that most are set up by private companies. I know in California, they dismissed quite a few traffic camera tickets because the court found a conflict of interest as the traffic camera companies were receiving a percentage of the fines collected. The court ruled that this gave the companies the incentive to adjust the timing to their favor. Now these companies receive only a flat fee

On a side note: there is a spray that deadens the reflective properties on your license plate. I have heard this prevents traffic camera from seeing your license plate. I find nothing in the CVC which specifically prohibits its use.

logicalawyer

There is no margin, there are procedural ways to challenge this, ie did they follow procedure. you should see a solicitor with the paperwork, may cost a fee for this.

Sally J

Red means STOP. NOT to decide to go ahead. Which part of STOP do you not underst and?

Just think how you would feel if one of your loves ones was killed or injured by someone doing just what you did?

It seems you might be making a habit of this given that you talk about what you have been led to believe in the past.

You need to learn to drive properly and with consideration or think about possibly ending up in prison for causing death by dangerous driving.

haplesboylard

Technically, the amber light means be preparied to stop, and red mean stop if doing so will not cause a collision from the rear.

If someone is tailgating you it is possible to state that if you had stopped at the red light you would have been involved in an accident. However, this will have to be backed up by evidence from the police camera.

kurtbondusmc

I doubt its either, but I do know in Maine if an part of your car is over a the wide white "stop" bars you can legally proceed into the through the light. Furthermore I don't know of any buffer time in red lights, that's what the yellow light is for. Either way, take it to court and have the officer or whoever wrote the ticket, prove it.

Robert L

the drive wheels of your vehicle must be in the intersection BEFORE the light turns red. has nothing to do with time after light turns red

sarah_roo03

I would guess, then, that it is 1.5 seconds!
I didn't know there was a time limit on this at all. I thought you would have committed an offence just by going through a red light.

PAulio --

2 seconds

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