r/Glasgow Tools

Not exactly that but sinilar. About a decade ago I moved forward on snowy day to avoid being rear ended. I got a picture from traffic camera showing my car crossing the line and all three stop lights on. (I had to move maybe 10 metres). The other car stopped where I was before so was out of the frame.

They sent me a ticket, I appealed and went to court. Defended myself, just told them what happened, then a police officer made a fool of himself saying I am not telling a truth. I said I only moved slowly forward after being stationary. He said I was speeding and failed to stop in time. I asked him what is a time difference between pictures as if it was a second or something it would be clear I was travelling very slowly and braking. He said I was soeeding as the camera takes pictures in some silly fraction of the second apart (don't remember details, he overshoot several orders of magnitude). I did a quick calculation and asked him if he tries to say that I was travelling with about half the speed of light. He got red, started mumbling incoherently and then just said he has nothing to add. The judge had troubles to hide his laughter.

Judge ask me how I noticed that the car in the back is going to rear end me. I told him I was rear ended in the past, badly, and since then I always keep my car in first and look in my mirror. The judge said they have no reason to believe I am lying even though the other car is not visible on the picture.

The judge said I broke the law, but I have a reasonable excuse to do it as I did it to avoid a dangerous accident, so while I am guilty, I am free to go and won't get any tickets or points.

It was interesting experience.

I was later told by someone that all the pictures from red light cameras are automatically ignored if the ambulance or other emergency vehicle is next vehicle to cross the line. I don't know if that's true.