It’s common sense, the red light means ‘Don’t Cross’, but you look and think the traffic looks pretty far away and you have enough time to cross the road regardless of your red light signal. Well, where do you stand if you cross the junction against the red light signal and are involved in a collision with a vehicle travelling up the road through their green light?
It is a general principle that a driver/rider can assume that no vehicles will be crossing against a red light. So in the case of Joseph Eva Limited V Reeves, the driver of a vehicle approached the traffic lights as they turned green, he pulled out and overtook three lanes of traffic on the wrong side of the road knowing he had time to pull in; in time to avoid traffic coming in the opposite direction. He continued through a junction but collided with a van who was crossing from the left against a red light.
The driver of the van was found 100% to blame for the accident.
Similar cases have since been held where the trial judge has followed the decision made in the above case. It would simply be contradictory to find a driver travelling through a green light liable for a collision with another car who has run a red light when all road users MUST follow the simple rule of obeying traffic signals.
So our advice to you:
The red light is there for a reason! If you decide to cross the road/junction against the instructions of the light signals and a car approaches to travel through their green light, they will not be found liable for your injuries/damage caused. You should therefore always wait for the green light.
Well, actually you should probably obey the Red Light not so much for the reason that you wont be able to claim car accident compensation but actually more so, because failure to obey a red light signal is a Criminal Offence and ignoring a red light could blimmin well kill you or another road user.
