Contravening A Traffic Light In Emergency

Question:

We got a notice of intended prosecution of red light offence. My wife and I were in the car. We can’t remember who was driving at the time and we don’t think we crossed a red traffic light.

We were stressed as my wife’s father had been admitted to hospital with a suspected heart attack. However, we were driving carefully as we had a newborn and a toddler in the car.

We would be grateful for your advice. We both have a clean driving licence.

Many thanks.

Graham Says:

I’m afraid that the police will summons you for failing to name the driver if you are unable to come up with a definitive answer.

The police will not accept that you do not know who was driving at the time of the alleged offence. They rarely do.

You are going to have to show that you have done your best to figure it out in order to defend yourself.

We have introduced a new service over the last 6 months. This involves trying to persuade the police not to issue a summons against our clients when they don’t know who was driving.

Since we started we have avoided summonses in almost 90% of the cases that we have taken on. Basically we work on showing the police that you have a strong statutory defence and we take a statement from you and the other potential drivers to that effect.

I will be happy to help you with this matter for a fixed fee ( see our fees here ).

Have you got any points already? If so, how many? 

You must name the other potential driver and make sure that they are insured. Also make sure that you do look at the photo evidence.

Come back to me if you would like my help with this matter. If the matter gets to court you will be at risk of 6 points and a hefty fine unless you can show the court that you have used reasonable diligence to figure it out. At court we have over a 95% success rate. The court will take into account the medical emergency at the time.