OHTA.ca

Hello Everyone,

I received a ticket from a police officer who pulled me over for supposedly entering the intersection and driving through a red light. I was very certain that I did not enter the intersection on the red. I requested a meeting with the prosecutor and the disclosure of all written and video evidence. I received the video that was taken from the police vehicle after the police vehicle turned on the road, way behind me. Since the police vehicle was turning, the camera only captured when the lights are already amber. I am driving toward the intersection and since the intersection is on a slight uphill, there is no way to see on the footage from the camera's angle where the stop line is. There is no way to tell if I am ahead, on or after the stop line while the traffic signals turned red.

What makes the whole thing more interesting is that this intersection has 2 traffic lights to direct the traffic, and when I tried to print out the crucial "split-seconds" of the lights turning amber to red, I noticed that the signal on the left was still amber while the signal on the right already changed!

Video evidence differs from those taken by the "red light cameras", and does lack all the details. You can't see the stop line, the pedestrian crossing, etc. I only know that I did not drive into the intersection while it was already red.

Any input would be much appreciated!

Your story is confusing were you crossing from the left or right light

First of all, post the video (if you can and block out your license plate info) so we can all see it.

Second, the video is not the entire case; the officer will testify to fill in a lot of gaps in the video such as where the stop bar is, your estimated speed, etc. So, don't be fooled in to thinking the video needs to prove the entire case; it doesn't. In most cases, video is not available.

In most cases, the video is actually used corroborate a lot of what the officer testifies to, such as the date, time, location, weather, visibility, traffic conditions, etc. The officer will then 'fill in' what the video may be missing such as where the stop bar is, if there is a crosswalk, your estimated speed and distance from the stop bar, especially when the light first turned amber (i.e. did it afford you time to stop), etc. Even though fail to obey amber light is not an included offence of disobey red light, some JP's will view the distances and speed to estimate whether you could reasonably have stopped your car at the stop bar on the red and proceeded with the speed your car was at subsequently. (Remember, JP's are experienced in doing this quite often with red light camera charges where officer testimony is not even needed).

So, if you'd like, let us all see the video so you can hear what many of us on this forum think it shows.

I am sorry but I have no idea how I can upload a video here.

It is a T-Bone intersection, 2 lanes on my direction of the road, one turns left, one turns right. The speed limit is 50km/h. I was in the left lane to make a wide left turn.

The police vehicle turned out to the road where I was proceeding prior to the left turn, and was driving behind me. The moment he turned onto the road, the lights were already amber (according to his dashcam). I was driving way ahead of him. From his perspective is no way to tell where was my vehicle. He cannot say (or in fact, no one could say) that I was on the stop line or not. He was way behind me. He could not witness what was the position of my car in relation to the stop line. The amber lights at the intersection are 3 seconds long.

You can see in the link that there are 2 lights that supposed to be in synch, one is ahead, the other is slightly to the left ahead.

On the police officer's note, it says that I told him I thought "that best to go through instead of trying to stop". I did not say that. I said that I noticed the yellow light late, tried to break (you see it on the video) but I felt it seemed unsafe and I determined it is better to drive through or I would only stop already in the road. If I slowed more down, I would have crossed the stop line on red for sure! He also mentions I speed up. True. After determining that I would slide into the intersection, I speed up, likely about 15 m from the intersection (based on the footage). (According to physics, it would require about 15 m to stop with 50km/h). My perception was that I am to close to stop, so I speed up after I initially applied the break. I am certain, I did not cross the stop line on red!

The video I received contains, no speed data. Frankly, I am not sure how fast I was driving but since it is a left turn I doubt I would have driven into the intersection over the speed limit.

Thanks to all of you!