London Banter - View Single Post

Richard J. · November 26th 03, 09:04 PM posted to uk.transport.london

Robin May wrote:
(CJG Now Thankfully Living In The North)
wrote the following in:
om
There is nowhere for the
fire engine to go but yet it sits behind the traffic constantly
honking its horn (as well as sirens going). This causes cars at
the front of traffic lights to panic and start to edge past the
lights. So if your stuck in lights. With nowhere to go. What
exactly are you suppose to do? I know fire engines have to get to
a fire within a certian time to save lives. But if there is
nowhere to go until the lights change can't they leave off the
horn for a while?

Driving through red lights is what people should do if there's an
emergency services vehicle stuck behind them that has no other way of
getting through. I was at some traffic lights the other day and an
ambulance was trying to get through. There was a massive queue of
traffic and no way for it to get through on the other side of the
road, so the queue of traffic I was waiting in ended up carefully
driving through the red to let the ambulance pass.

I agree that that's the sensible thing to do. Anyone know if it's actually
lawful? In other words, is there a get-out clause in the law about
stopping at red lights which covers this?
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)