“Red Light Offence: Hta Sec 144 (18) - Need Some Advice :)”

Hi all.

I am new to this message board. I tried reading through all the similar threads regarding my subject offence, however, with my court date set for this April 16, 2012, I am running out of time and I was hoping someone could provide me with some advice.

Charge:

The offence occurred at 6:30AM at the signalized intersection of Keele St and Ingram Dr/Gulliver Rd. There is a left hand turn shoulder on both sides of Keele St. I was traveling southbound on Keele, looking to make a left hand turn onto Ingram Dr. I made my way into the shoulder and I was the sixth car in queue. Following the advanced left hand turn light, I was now number three in queue. The two cars ahead of me were deep into the intersection, which provided me with enough room to pass the white line and move into the pedestrian crosswalk, as I edged closely behind the vehicle in front of me.

Attached, you will see an aerial view of the subject intersection. It is not your typical parallel/box-shaped intersection. The lines run diagonally because the cross streets at Keele (Ingram Dr and Gulliver Rd) are not inline with one another.

As the north/south bound traffic were proceeding on Keele St, I was already passed the white line. However, a City of Toronto vehicle, traveling north on Keele, pulled over on the right hand lane (passed the Ingram intersection, but parallel to my car, going in the opposite direction) causing a bottleneck for the northbound traffic on Keele to merge into one lane. This bottleneck delayed the two cars in front of me from making their left hand turns once the light turned amber.

Before all this happened, being third in queue and passed the white line prior to the northbound traffic even having their light turn green, I had already determined I would be making my left turn once the north/southbound light turned amber and it was safe to proceed. But with the City vehicle delaying the northbound traffic flow, it kind of changed things.

As a driver, I believe I am allowed to proceed with my left hand turn once I am on the pedestrian crosswalk, and passed the white line. The light had turned red, but my position was the same as it was when the light was green. I proceeded to make a safe left hand turn, I did not impede oncoming or crossing traffic. A cop from the opposite side of the road pulled me over and handed me a ticket for failing to stop at a red light.

He told me to come fight the ticket, and I will this Monday, but what are my chances of being successful in winning this?

He told me he has video evidence, but there is no way he couldve saw where my car was located in the intersection, I was behind one of that extremely tall european vans. He also mentioned that he should be giving me a ticket for talking on my cell phone, but will let it slide this time. My phone was no where near me. It was tucked nicely away in my work bag. I feel this can play into my hands as I printed my monthly telephone bill during the month the offence occurred. I plan on bringing it to court to prove that the cop was blatantly wrong about me being on the telephone, so maybe he was wrong about me making a left hand turn on a red light.

I spoke to a random cop about that approach, and he said it wasnt a good idea to bring that up just because it will probably "piss" them off even more.

So I'm just looking for any advice on this matter. Ill be sure to let everyone know how it went on Monday.

Thanks for your help