Legalities behind running an Orange light ?

Question

I was reading an article that states the following:

"It’s an offence to run an orange light if police deem you had time to stop safely. The penalty is the same as for a red light, carrying three demerit points and a fine of up to $425 in some states."

Then followed up by this statement by the police, which I found devoid of all logic:

"calm down. It’s not worth running a light … because you’ll only get stopped at the next one. Running a light is especially dangerous because it puts you on a direct course with someone else’s driver’s door at speed."

What the hell ? Unless the intersection is the length of 2 football fields and you are traveling at 10kph, there is absolutely no conceivable way that you can T-bone a car while running an Orange light. The Green light for opposing traffic doesn't register until seconds after the Red light has initiated for the other party- More than enough time to traverse any intersection known to exist.

Blatant moronic revenue politics.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

That's actually a lot horse sh*t.

It's not illegal to 'run' a yield light.  The law states that "any person whose vehicle's front bumper fails to cross the 2nd white line when the light turns red in any given intersection is guilty of a moving violation" [infraction]

I've never in my life heard of a law that says it's illegal to go on a yellow light and how exactly does one "deem" whether or not you could have stopped in time?

What if you believed slamming on your brakes would have caused the potential for greater danger than merely going on your pre-laid out street path?

See where I'm going with this?

I'm giving you your starting point, it's up to you to finish it.

Anonymous · Answer

since you obviously are not in the US - as we don't have orange lights at traffic signals - then I can't answer

Legalities behind running an Orange light ?

2 Answers