Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2014-03-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what consideration he has given to exempting motorists from being prosecuted for traffic light offences if they have committed the offence while making way for an emergency vehicle.

Robert Goodwill

The law is specific on a driver’s requirement to comply with traffic signs, which include signals, as defined in section 36 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. There is no exemption for members of the public from this, even to give way to emergency vehicles.

Clear passage should always be given (where possible) to prevent delay to emergency vehicles responding to calls, by taking reasonable action such as pulling into the side of the road. If a driver were to go through a red light to allow an emergency vehicle to pass, in most cases where no danger was caused to other road users and it was done reasonably a police officer would not be expected to enforce this. Should a red-light running camera record a traffic light violation, any claim would be supported by the emergency vehicle also being captured in a similar way. The courts would be likely to listen to mitigating circumstances and again, if done safely and or reasonably it is unlikely there would be any prosecution.