For not driving through red light with ambulance behind me

Dangerous advice on your part. Learn the highway code and context before you talk utter nonsense to the masses.

Rule 219 of highway code emphasises getting out of way but only if you can do so safely, and concludes: “If you do cross the stop line at the junction whilst the lights are on red, you will commit the offence of contravening a red traffic light. It's important to remember that in committing the offence (crossing the stop line) the onus will be on you to provide evidence that you did so to allow an emergency vehicle through. That may be considered as mitigation, but there is no guarantee that it will be. If the police decide to prosecute you for the offence and you choose to challenge that decision, it will ultimately be a matter for a court to decide.”

I have also read that if you break the law to allow for the passage of an emergency vehicle you still get the fine and points, so I think you did well under extreme pressure.

i understand the point about only being able to cross a red light if directed by police but what I’m less clear on is if the OP’s situation had happened but with a police car beeping multiple times behind her, does that count as being directed by the police?

Really - and you’d be glad to pay the £1,000 fine too? And put other lives at risk by driving through a red light?

Could you have not moved slightly right and the car next to you moved slightly left?

Answered in the OP - there wasn't room.

You'd be prepared to break the Law? Do you not think the Law is there for a reason? It's unsafe to jump a red light and would have been for OP to illegally move forward into the box junction.

Assume OP asked the question because she heard a 'beep' and was second guessing herself?

I dont think OP was asking for advice but rather the legal position.

As it stands legally she did not have to cross the red light to let the ambulance pass as she wouldve broken the law

Could you have not moved slightly right and the car next to you moved slightly left? I hope you’re never blue lighted to hospital and have to wait at a traffic light. If someone is being blue lighted to hospital that means life and death. I’d take a ticket for an ambulance any day of the week. You seem to be asking for advice but not taking it. If you know what to do then why ask? Is it to settle your conscience?

I went on course for using mobile when driving so not the speed awareness one (learned my lesson won't do it again), different one to speeding, it was for general driving fuck ups, and there were a couple of people who had run red or gone into yellow box without clear exits because of ambulance pressure and got similarly penalised. So I suppose you do your best to make room but no you can't break the law.

You did right

this is police advice

https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/ask-the-police/question/Q699

Me, I pulled forward at a red light for an ambulance, there was a camera and it flashed. I tried to defend myself and you could see the ambulance in the photo i got sent of the offence and I still got points and a fine for it! So @User34445566677 you are correct to not run a red light even for emergency vehicles. However it’s a very stressful situation when it happens to you.

"Omg you pull forward enough to let them through .... everyone can see the ambulance and gets pit of its/your way in letting it pass. When the blue lights are on get out of the way."

Omg you don't get to throw the highway code out of the window when you somehow pass your test!

You can only legally go through a red if specifically told to do so by a police officer....

The police can and do order people to move through red lights in emergencies. You've got to wait for them to ask though, they're usually quite irate by that point too.

So where did the ambulance go when the lights changed and the traffic moved?

Did it go right, behind you, or left?

I presume there were other vehicles in the left and middle lane so it couldn’t just use those to get through the red?

@MyrtleLion

I wasn't there, but from the description of the incident from the OP I probably would have driven slowly over the line if it was safe to do so.

And that is my perogative.

It is, but you would be breaking the Law, ignoring The Highway Code and the advice from the Police & Emergency Services. Then you would have to face the consequences of your prerogative

You were right. I was at an awareness course for going through red lights. And they said that it doesn’t matter if the police or ambulance or emergency are behind you. Legally you must not cross the red lights or break any rules or else you will be in trouble.

Apparently the emergency services are trained to drive around these kind of circumstances. And sadly if they get stuck then they must wait. Then you can obviously legally edge forward to let them pass.

This has been explained lots of times by traffic police etc- you never go through a red light for an emergency vehicule, even if they are bullying you to do so.

Honestly, I'd take the risk of the fine and move out of the way if it was safe to do so. I've been a family member travelling in an ambulance with my mum who I was convinced was dying - I'd rather give the patient inside every little bit of extra chance I can.

I don't blame other people for not doing so, but that's what I'd have done.

And that's your perogative.

The OP did nothing wrong.

I wasn't there, but from the description of the incident from the OP I probably would have driven slowly over the line if it was safe to do so.

And that is my perogative.

I do indeed know full well what I meant, and it's not what you thought it was. That's why I wrote what I wrote and not what you said I had written.

It's really not my fault if you can't be bothered to read the thread properly.

That sounds really stressful!
There is a lot of confusion in the comments about what to do with ambulances etc so I just thought i'd share a resource my driving instructor shared with me about how to respond, it's got a short video covering most of the main points. https://www.bluelightaware.org.uk/#watch

Now you are splitting hairs you know full well what you meant. Anyway I have seen from a couple of other posters you will continue your nonsense to the death. I will follow their lead and bow out of this. You got the last word so you can be proud of that much if nothing else

Same could be said for having two kids in the back of your car. Pull out when it’s a red light to ‘help’ is all well and good if there is no risk, but driving through a
red light is always a risk. Why would someone risk their kids being involved in a crash in order for an ambulance to get to the scene of an 88 year old…..??! No one would put their kids in danger for that scenario and quite right!

Of course no one knows the situation but equally no one knows what will happen if they drive through are light so I don’t blame those for saying they wouldn’t go through it

Ideally what happens in this situation is that the 3 cars waiting in the middle lane have all stopped with a sensible gap between each vehicle (so are not already bumper-to-bumper) can carefully each reverse to reduce each gap by a metre or so, leaving a car-sized gap in the middle lane that you can pull into. My driving instructor taught me to always leave enough space between me and the car in front when stopped at a red light to allow for emergency maneuvers. Not just this but also if the car in front breaks down or something.

Everyone should do everything they safely and reasonably can to get out of the way of a blue-lighter but if getting out of the way wouldn't be safe then it's ok to keep safe. I would choose safe-but rule-breaky though - if getting out of the way is safe but would incur a fine, and if doing so would get the ambulance to the hospital a minute earlier, I would do the manuever and take the fine. But that's because my dad is only alive today because of an amazingly quick ambulance journey that saved him at a critical moment and I would feel that the fine would be a small price to pay for keeping someone's dad or someone's child alive, if it could be done safely.

You did the right thing. Numerous people are fined every year for moving into bus lanes to let ambulances past and a camera issues the notice. It's no defence that you were letting an emergency vehicle past.