For not driving through red light with ambulance behind me

[User34445566677]

Stuck at red lights in 3 lanes of traffic. I was in right hand lane to turn right, at the front of white line and railings to my right so couldn't pull to the side. Middle lane for straight on. Left hand lane (towards hospital) is always allowed to filter through first via green light to the left, then after a while, the forward and right turn green lights come on. Ambulance comes up my lane whilst red traffic lights on. Blue lights and sirens on, all while the ambulance is indicating left (I am the only car in this lane, other lanes have several cars in). Ambulance leaves sirens on, and even beeps while lights are on red ( though i am not 100% sure this was the ambulance, but don't know who else it would have been?). From what I have read, you should not cross during a red light even for an emergency vehicle, I would have been entering a box junction? Was I BU to not cross the red light? And I think the Ambulance would have been quicker going in the left lane which filtered through first? Very confused. TIA

I thought ambulances weren’t allowed to drive up to red lights with lights and sirens for this very reason- if you’d have crossed the lights you could have caused an accident. I don’t think you were unreasonable.

You did the right thing. The ambulance should not have beeped at you, as they don't have the authority to let you go through the red light.

Don't go through a red light for an emergency vehicle. They want to get where they are going safely and quickly. They don't want to have to deal with a collision if people drive through red lights.

You definitely did the right thing.

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.

No, you’d have got fined and points. Ambulance in the wrong, same with police - no one can compel you to break the law to your detriment

YANBU. It would have been unsafe and illegal to drive through the red light. It probably wasn't the ambulance that beeped you, I hope not anyway

@travailtotravel you don’t go through a red light

It's not your responsibility to do anything dangerous to allow an ambulance to pass. The drivers are trained to manoeuvre round traffic.
Drivers who panic and swerve are more likely to cause an accident.

you shouldn't cross a red light, you did right.

You are not supposed to go through red lights for emergency vehicles, apart from it being dangerous you could get prosecuted for it

You are 100% correct but I can imagine this feeling a bit intimidating. I’m sure the beep must have been another driver as surely an ambulance driver would know not to pressure you to drive through a red light?!

Not over the red light

There’s no need to to go all the way through you creep forward the bare minimum and manoeuvre so it can get past

fingers crossed it wasn’t someone in cardiac arrest arrest who ended up dying or brain damaged because you were pissing about at the lights
every single second counts

I can think of plenty of examples where passing a red light to let an emergency vehicle through would be perfectly safe as visibility is all around so to crawl forward a few feet would cause zero issue. Yes it’s illegal, would I do it? Also yes.

Not if you’ve gone through a light and stopped to allow an ambulance to pass.

Could you not have pulled slightly into the junction to let the ambulance through? Normally you just try to get out of the way someone's life may depend on it.

You still get points and a fine

It's hard to judge without being there, but if I could've safely pulled out and infront of the car in the middle lane I would have done that.
It's not typical behaviour for ambulances to keep their sirens on at a red light so I would take that to mean its a critical patient who needs to get there ASAP.

Thank you, welll I would hope not but I looked around and couldn't see any other situation in which beeping would be necessary!

Incorrect, you absolutely can be prosecuted and people are.

Presumably they wanted you to creep forward a few m to make enough room for them to pass. Depends on the junction but for most you would still be perfectly safe and as long as there are no cameras wouldn’t be in any trouble.

This is so completely the wrong response it almost feels deliberate!

You are not permitted to break traffic laws to let an ambulance through - it’s no defence.

Exactly. But don't forget this is 'modern' UK now. Common sense is out of the window ?!

Maybe the beeping was to get people to try and squeeze over rather then run the red light. Running the red light could have caused an accident so definitely not right to do.

Do you know anyone who has?