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

Yes. Everyone knows this.

To help an ambulance reach an ill patient or get an ill patient to hospital.

Why does my proposed plan of action upset you? It doesn't affect you. Unless you or a loved one are the patient. In which case you might be pleased.

There's no room for this "adherence to rules at any cost" on the roads.

My exH's friend refused to let a car in front of him and allowed it to collide with another car. But apparently he was right because he was following the Highway Code. I know it's not quite the same but you could have pulled forwards. You were wrong no matter how much validation you receive on here.

@MrFluffyDogIsMyBestFriend the ambulance should have turned off sirens as they are not meant to pressure a car to do an illegal dangerous manoeuvre which going through a red light is.

Going through a red light from a standing start at 4/5 mph to pull in front of a stationary car in a situation where you are not putting it in the potential path of any other cars is clearly not a dangerous manoeuvre!!!

You did the right thing. Ambulance driver is wrong for continuing with blues and twos when you couldn't legally move out of the way. They are trained to turn off the horns and wait in such situations. It's well known and the official advice that a driver shouldn't in any way break a traffic law to allow for an emergency vehicle.

Interestingly our local police put this in last months newsletter and it stated not to go through a red light for an emergency vehicle as you can still be fined.

I guess it was a different car that beeped at you as the ambulance would know to wait.

How the hell do you 'allow' another driver to collide? They are the only person responsible for their vehicle. They have brakes, steering and accelerator all available to them, as well as the anticipation and skill of driving? Totally and utterly the other drivers fault, not your exH's friends fault.

OP - you are right. You do not break traffic law or Highway Code in such a situation to let an emergency vehicle through. There are many times you can sneakily let them through, but red light on busy junction is just not one of them.

YANBU

I know someone who pulled forward and out of the way at a red light to let an ambulance through and they got a fine and points.

@MasterBeth the OP would have entered a box junction with multiple entry points, how would that not be dangerous, never mind illegal

Mostly because OP and the other traffic can see, I find vision the most incredible attribute for driving.

@calkel so when normally driving do you ignore the law and police guidance (all police websites I have looked at tell you not to go through red light if ambulance etc is behind you with blues and twos on) just because you can see?

Your ex’s friend didn’t ‘allow’ a collision. What a ridiculous thing to say.

But given that you then go on to say the OP was wrong despite her being completely in the right, it’s not surprising that you’d think that someone can ‘allow’ two cars to collide just by following the rules of the road, it not occurring to you that just possibly one of the other two drivers was at fault 🤨

Someone in a car with sirens on madly gesticulating behind doesn't count. It has to be a police officer- usually on foot- giving a clear and legal direction.

The Highway Code does NOT say this. Your words are from the 'askthe.police' website, not the Highway Code. They are talking about the Highway Code, not quoting it. And their advice is at variance with other official and police pronouncements (which say don't do it at all).

You don't do it on a red light. That would be extremely dangerous and pulling straight into the path of traffic. I can think of many examples of traffic lights round here where there is no room for manoeuvre at all, and no scope to "get out of the way" as you put it.

You obey the lights and then pull aside as soon as it is safe to do so afterwards.

As before, yes I would ignore that and crawl through a red light if it was safe to do so (using my eyes to help that decision) and it might be the difference between life and death. Every single time. Yes.

You absolutely use common sense
of course you wouldn’t plough into on coming traffic
but there are plenty of junctions and traffic lights where you can go over the white line by the lights and your still not crossing into the path of traffic

Why so snarky? I wasn't rude to you. This is MN where posters allowed (if not positively encouraged) to comment EVEN if it doesn't affect them - it would be unusual if it did TBH. As what you were saying is illegal AND going against official advice, I thought I would. It's been commented upthread several times that moving for an emergency vehicle wouldn't (and hasn't for some) be a reasonable defence.

You need to report the driver. That's against their training. That driver would be removed from duty pending further training.

No. Wrong advice. Absolutely 💯 wrong.

@calkel why do you think you know better than the law and police guidance?

Not snark. I'm just clarifying that reasonable people make different judgement calls in real situations. I wasn’t advocating reckless driving, only noting that context matters and drivers sometimes make safe, proportionate decisions to help emergency vehicles.

It feels like my comment may have hit a nerve, but there’s no need for this to spiral. I’ll leave it there and won’t be engaging further.

For those saying OP should have moved, would you go though a red light if there was an ambulance behind you (but without their blues and twos on) and there was no gap for the ambulance. Because they are not meant to have them on in a situation like that, but it might still be a matter of life and death. Would you use your all seeing eyes and superior knowledge and driving skills to move out of the way then?

You are 100% WRONG! Previous posters are right and they know they are