Orange light campaign

[candor]

Intersection Deniers
Thursday, 15 January 2009, 10:22 am
Press Release: New Zealand Police

Intersection Deniers, Or What My Staff Have To Put Up With Every Day
New Zealand Police National News Release
9:04am 15 January 2009
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release.html?id=4674

Christchurch Police are frustrated by drivers who (perhaps genuinely) believe that they have not done anything wrong despite video surveillance showing that they have broken the law.

Sergeant Peter Daly of the Intersection Safety team says that every day his team are dealing with people who 'haven't done what we've seen them do.'

"Many drivers will admit that that they have done something wrong," he says. "I have greater respect for them than for those who will argue otherwise, even though the facts speak for themselves."

Sergeant Daly says that if as many people were as innocent as claim they are, his officers must be making up all these incidents and 'no one out there is breaking the law.'

In a classic recent example a driver was stopped and given a ticket at Blenheim/ Curletts Road after they failed to comply with a yellow traffic light. The driver then wrote giving his version of events.

The driver's letter in summary said;

He did not fail to comply with yellow light.

The car behind was so close he had to keep going.

The car behind also went through the light so it must have been legal to do so.

If he hadn't gone, the car behind would have crashed into him.

"I am very disappointed with the New Zealand Police for wasting my time, effort and money on a matter which should not have involved me. I did not break the law." the letter states.

After viewing the video the driver paid up promptly. The video shows the blue station wagon in the right lane, and there is no car behind it!

Christchurch Police put together a team of eight to specifically police intersections in October last year. Sergeant Daly says more than half injury crashes occur at intersections.

"This is not a campaign; my team are here to stay and this is what we do every day."

[PrincessBandit]

About time. How many drivers/riders have caused close shaves by doing this very thing yet managing to somehow "justify" their actions to show themselves in a better light when in reality they are just impatient prats.

[Hitcher]

Ban radar detectors. That will fix it.

[Swoop]

I'm without mine at the moment and my driving has suffered drastically. I'm spending more time looking for parked vans and Dunkin' Donuts customers rather than on the real dangers of "fucking cagers" and their antics on four wheels.

I think when I get mine back I will buy another to sit beside it and be twice as safe.

[Dealer]

what annoys me is the drivers who will pull out from behind you and pass you as you stop for the orange lights. they seem to think orange means 'go before it gets red'. and the traffic still going through red lights when yours turns green, too.

[ManDownUnder]

Ban radar detectors. That will fix it.

Yeah but that just means they get used my stealth. The real solution is to ban the use of radars! That'd render the detectors a waste of money overnight.

Totally in Police control too. Do I have to think of everything???

[rastuscat]

...............tee hee

[rastuscat]

How do I post a video on here? I have the full video, and the letter he wrote. It's a jawbreaker. How do I get them on the site?

[rastuscat]

what annoys me is the drivers who will pull out from behind you and pass you as you stop for the orange lights. they seem to think orange means 'go before it gets red'. and the traffic still going through red lights when yours turns green, too.

Orange means stop unless it is unsafe to do so. If the car in the lane next to you can stop, so can you, so if you choose not to, you've broken the rules.

[mattian]

Orange means stop unless it is unsafe to do so. If the car in the lane next to you can stop, so can you, so if you choose not to, you've broken the rules.

Ok, I have a question. If you are being followed very closely by a determined tailgater (we have all had one of those) up to a set of lights and, it turns orange. Its possible for you to stop safely but, are extremely worried that this twit behind you doesn't want to stop for the lights. Is this an acceptable defence?

[Gremlin]

How do I post a video on here? I have the full video, and the letter he wrote. It's a jawbreaker. How do I get them on the site?

check with your bosses first, you don't want to get in the shit for it.

For the vid, upload to youtube, and then link to it from here. KB no longer hosts videos, as youtube is widely used.

As for the defence about a car behind you, yep, it would work, but in this case, the driver was lying about any vehicle behind them, that was the key for them...

[MaxB]

Maybe we should think about putting video cams into cop cars?

If a scumbag knows what they just did is recorded they might not bother trying to lie their way out of it. Red light runners, dangerous drivers, drunks etc watch out.

Plus we get more material for those reality TV cop shows.

[quickbuck]

After viewing the video the driver paid up promptly. The video shows the blue station wagon in the right lane, and there is no car behind it!

Busted.
Good to see they are cracking down on this form of bad behaviour from the motoring public.

[LBD]

You want to try diving in Kyrgyzstan where we have the red, orange, green go system, as well as the green orange red stop.

Nobody stops until well after the red. Sometimes not at all, if no cross traffic coming. And if waiting on a red, will start forward when they see the other direction change to orange irrespective of what traffic is coming...Needless to say its Taxis only for me in town.

Got to say I am pleased to see the police acting on orange light runners in NZ

[klingon]

I overtook a car that was doing 40kph along New North Road the other day (two lanes, so I just changed lanes and sped up - no drama I thought). The driver obviously took exception to this and sped up and tailgated me. They even changed lanes when I did, so they could keep tailgating.

Coming up to an amber light, I saw a pedestrian who was about to step out so I started to slow down, light went red, I stopped. Car behind me went past me so close that I swear if I had put my right foot down instead of my left, I would have been hit.

[Funny thing is, the car was a white honda civic and the driver was a grey-haired old woman. I wish people would like my life easier by conforming to the stereotypes inside my head.]

I'm all in favour of a re-education campaign to remind people that they have to stop at amber lights if they can safely do so. If that re-education includes people getting ticketed, that's fine by me.