Feel sick with stress, incident at traffic lights with man in a van

[H1900]

I am shaking. I was just driving home from the supermarket and noticed this van driving very close behind me. It was making me really uncomfortable and I sped up slightly to get away from them but didn’t want to speed. There was a set of traffic lights ahead and they started to turn red as someone pressed the crossing and I panicked as I didn’t want to stop with the van so close behind me so I carried on going. I went through and they were absolutely definitely on red. Will I now get a fine? Does anyone know if I will lose my licence? I can see conflicting information online. I’m a lone parent and feel incredibly worried as I have no support to take dd to activities etc

@L0bstersLass - the police instructor I was just referring to said you should slow down naturally just take your foot off the gas, but also touch your brakes so the twat behind can see your lights. I don't think @MyPithyPoster was suggesting doing an emergency stop just for giggles, although they may come back and make me wrong ...!

If it's your first time and you were caught, you will likely be asked to do a course. My friend did the course and didn't get points on her license

It seems you are managing quite a lot of stress and anxiety at the moment. Try to relax and put it behind you; nothing you can do now; you probably won’t get a fine

I take magnesium chelated from Solgar and listen to the mindful movement meditations in YouTube; but help me relax and calm down

Exactly. I'm astounded at the arrogance and sense of entitlement.
I'm sick to death of drivers running through red lights and the OP admits she did it intentionally.
I've literally come within inches of being run over and potentially killed on one occasion and have had close calls at other times. Yes, I do always look before stepping into the road, but it isn't always possible to see if cars in all lanes have stopped.

Likely won’t get caught or fined, but you could have seriously injured or even killed the pedestrian by going through a red light. You can’t let yourself get this panicked on the roads.

You could have run someone over FFS

I was driving on the M6 about 10pm ish and I had settled in behind a lorry in the slow lane. There was about 5 or 6 cars length between us then someone started driving up behind me so close his headlights were blinding me in my rearview mirror. It was insane as he had two other fairly empty lanes to overtake me into. After 10 minutes I gradually slowed to below 45 and he finally overtook me and sped up to reach the lorry and stayed behind him constantly breaking. Some people really shouldn't be driving.

So instead of moving into the middle lane, and move away from this driver, you decided to drive at 45mph on a motorway?

You're right. Some people shouldn't be driving.

You have to man up and relax. The guy hasnt forced you into a dead end country lane and .....

Why should this poster be forced to change lanes? He was behind her! If he wasn't happy then you overtake not tailgate! I think you've misread this?!

More likely to be the person who pressed the button.

@Wavescrashingonthebeach because sometimes you have to move, that's part of driving.

Driving at 45 mph on a motorway is incredibly dangerous and she clearly did it to wind up the guy behind.

Oh lovely, chances are you will not get a fine. If you don't have any points, then you won't get banned. It's really off putting when someone is tailgating you. Try not to obsess.
The guy in the van is unlikely to report you as I would hazard a guess that he already has points and doesn't know whether you have a dashcam.

Yep. The attitude that you're OK because you didn't get caught.

You're clearly not OK to be on the road if a tailgaiter spooks you so much you run a red light! Your a bloody danger to yourself, everyone else on tbe road and pedestrians!

Some cameras you see are just for measuring the amount of traffic in the area.

Google the road where the lights are to see for definite if there is a camera.

That’s for the lights to judge the amount of traffic.

But you don't move into the middle lane because someone is tailgating you! Letting a bully win!That doesn't make sense. It's up to the tail gater to move over and overtake not the slower driver to speed up to "escape".
What if the excessive slowness was due to vehicle issues and you physically can't go faster and your just waiting to get off safely at the services.

And maybe buy yourself a dash cam, so if you do have any mad van drivers behind you, intimidating you you have evidence. And don't go through anymore red lights 👮

You're fine. If it were an issue, you'd see a massive GASTO camera somewhere nearby - usually yellow. Don't worry, you're golden!

@Wavescrashingonthebeach and this is why our roads are so dangerous. Because people are stubborn and anxious.

Vehicle issues are obviously different.

Please calm down. Nothing bad will happen to you. Don't let yourself be bullied on the road in future.

@Miyagi99 thanks… why do they need to do that when the lights only go red if pressed by someone?

Oh OP, poor you!

If it makes you feel better, I blithely carried on over a small round about last week, not seeing the car coming from my right, and then when I did spot it at the last second I stepped on the accelerator rather than the brake in my panic. Fortunately the other driver stopped and all was fine but I was a total idiot and just had a moment (or two, in quick succession, I suppose!). I'm usually such a careful driver and have no excuse. I wanted to stop and apologise to the other driver but it wasn't safe or sensible to do so. I hope they're ok and know that I know I was a total idiot!

My immediate thought was also that they might report me to someone, somewhere, and fair enough! I doubt it will come to anything and if it did I'd hold my hands up.

We all make mistakes driving. Nobody was hurt in either of our cases which is the main thing. It will all be fine whatever happens (and that "whatever" is very probably a big, fat nothing!).

Most traffic lights have sensors - ever pulled up at a set of lights at night on red and they've changed straight away as there's no-one waiting coming the other way? That is what the box with the red light is most likely to be!
Edited to add, try not to worry and see it as a warning shot, you'll know not to run a red light again in the future! Anyone who says they've never done anything daft whilst driving is lying.

This. It will hopefully get the message across that they are too close and if they don’t like it, they can overtake.