In May at carnaby level crossing nr Bridlington, the lights came on a few feet in front of me, i braked but realised quickly that with 24 ton on that i would not stop before the crossing, so with not many options i kept on going.
Result a summons for not obeying a signal & driving without due care & attention.
British transport police have had a copy of my tacho that shows that i was not speeding & that i did try to stop & also a letter explaining what happened. The other options were slamming the brakes on & risking jacknifeing the trailer still with not a lot of chance of stopping before the crossing.
They say that the signal was flashing for 7.71 seconds, i came back that way a few weeks ago & from the amber light coming on (not flashing) to the flashing red light i would say was less than 5 seconds.
The summons basicly says that it will be less costly if i plead quilty.
I was all for going to court to plead my case but now think i would be easier to just plead quilty & take the fine & points.
Have a look on pepipoo. I’m not sure of the exact url but putting that into your search engine should bring it up. Pepipoo is mainly aimed at speed camera summons, but I would think the same applies to railway crossing cameras, more or less
You were all for going to court to plead your case? What case is that then? That you were driving a heavily loaded vehicle towards traffic lights at a speed (albeit inside the speed limit) that you couldn’t stop??
What do you do at normal, non railway crossing traffic lights where you’re lucky if you get 1 to1.5 seconds of amber light?
Personally I think you should be grateful you got away with your life
In May at carnaby level crossing nr Bridlington, the lights came on a few feet in front of me,
At 40 mph, you will have travelled 293 feet in 5 seconds, which is more than enough time to stop. In any event, you are supposed to approach level crossings and traffic lights “in the expectation that they will change”.
It’s an absolute offence. Do yourself a favour and take the cheapest option, which is a plea of Guilty by post.
Harry Monk:
In any event, you are supposed to approach level crossings and traffic lights “in the expectation that they will change”.
you beat me to the reply
however, he does have the right to a day in court to argue his case.
but does he risk all in an attempt to get off or take the easy option and the fine by pleading guilty by post?
Well, I wish I could be more optimistic, but the fact is that this is an absolute offence. He passed a light signal while it was at red, end of. The police will be able to produce photographic evidence which will prove this beyond reasonable doubt.
It just doesn’t matter why he passed a red light. It doesn’t matter that the lorry might have jack-knifed, or that the load might have shifted or anything. None of this mitigates the offence, and contesting the case is simply guaranteed to prove the old maxim about court appearances- “The more you say, the more you pay”.
All I’ll say is “Good Luck”. Carnaby is my stomping ground.
The local courts prosecute red light jumping at Carnaby crossing extremely vigorously. There’s pretty much always something in the “Court” section of Bridlington Free Press about someone getting prosecuted.
I’ve managed to pull up with 20+ tonnes of hanging beef on for Dawn Foods at Carnaby on more than one occassion although you do have to brake fairly hard.
Pleasd guilty and take the points. It’ll be easier.
Conor is bang on the button with that one. The Brid Free Press site has more than a few stories about that Level Crossing. Strange though that almost every story contains quotes from people complaining that if they approach the crossing at the speed limit there isn’t enough time to stop.
Why do so many people think a speed limit is a target that you have a right to drive at regardless of local conditions?
Maybe the reason our government is turning the country into a nanny state is because people are increasingly showing themselves to be incapable of common sense thought processes?
Having been a British Rail signalman for 12 years including operating level crossing boxes, I happily took part in prosecuting dozens of drivers including truck drivers, every single one was convicted. some pleaded not guilty, made no difference, IF THE LIGHTS ARE FLASHING YOU STOP.
Plead guilty save yourself time and money, and have more sense next time.
Part of the problem with the crossing is that the approach to it is a very wide SC road and is also a fairly new one, encouraging people to do 40. It’s also on a downhill slope as well. If the amber comes on at the point where you’re too close to brake, it’s virtually impossible to get across before the red lights start flashing. The amber light also does seem to be on for a short time and I can’t see why they couldn’t double the length the amber was on.
Even though I’m local and have been over that crossing hundreds of times, I still find myself having heart stopping moments there despite taking a cautious approach. Strangely though, the one on Prospect St in Bridlington doesn’t seem to have the same problem.
It does surprise me that Network Rail or whoever haven’t questioned why there’s such a high rate or red light jumpers on that crossing. It’s certainly had it’s fair share of problems over the years and seems to have engineers there every few months.
Conor:
It does surprise me that Network Rail or whoever haven’t questioned why there’s such a high rate or red light jumpers on that crossing. It’s certainly had it’s fair share of problems over the years and seems to have engineers there every few months.
They Might well have but are looking it as a nice ££££££££££££ source of revenue■■?
Edward Teller:
I have just spoken at 18.04, to a Network Rail manager and the sequence is as follows.
Amber lights flash 3 to 4 seconds.
Red lights flash 3 to 4 seconds.
Barrier starts to move.
They consider that all traffic should have been able to stop by the time the barriers start coming down.
Oh dear. So a 44 tonne artic has 3 seconds less reaction time to brake from 40. So in other words, its 2-3 seconds to pull up 44 tonnes.
Riiight.
I think you’ll find the advice given (in highway code) is to approach all crossings with care. There’s no way anyone should be rattling over one at forty. But i agree, 3 seconds is not a lot of time.
Conor:
Oh dear. So a 44 tonne artic has 3 seconds less reaction time to brake from 40. So in other words, its 2-3 seconds to pull up 44 tonnes.
Ok, I see where you’re coming from but what do you do with ordinary traffic lights with cameras on them?
I can recall one set of lights near Oxford on the A40. I can’t recall the precise limit but it was either 50 or deristricted (as it is dual carriageway there it’s the same). The lights are fitted with red light cameras and there is only one way to guarantee not getting caught by them and that was to slow down when approaching them. Frustrating I agree but the only way of ensuring you could stop on the red if they changed.
Another thing no one has mentioned, but the prosecution will in court.
Is there a warning sign, advising of the level crossing ahead?
What they will argue is that there is a sign x metres ahead of the crossing and you should have seen it then eased off in anticipation that the lights might change.
Of course if it is obscured, damaged too close to the crossing etc then you may have a defence.
If you say that a truck is heavier and takes longer to stop than a car then the prosecution will simply say that you were aware of this and should have been using forward planning which is taught as part of LGV training…
This is ridiculous, the main priority should be safety. If there a lot of people getting caught they should adjust the timing by a second or two and NAIL anyone who jumps it.
It is the same with low bridges, there is always loads of messages telling you how many bridge strikes there are and the cost etc. But they are not always well signposted in advance and there is no easily accesible database with them on. Surely somewhere there is a definitive list that could be made available, if it stopped only a couple of bridge strikes surely it’d be worth it. But as usual it is easier to ignore it, then have to mop up the mess rather than try and prevent it happening in the first place.
If you see lights of any description, Traffic Lights, Crossing Lights, Belisha Beacons, Pelicans, SLOW DOWN! save yourselves stress,Points, Aggro, You will only lose minutes at the worst its not a matter of life and death if that load gets there two minutes later, CHILL MEN.
