I can see how a lot of this is just common sense (not in abundance these days).srothstein wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:52 pm As a police officer, I can tell you that the law on when it is illegal to run a yellow light is very confusing. Our law is written to say that when a light is green, it means you have permission to enter the intersection when it is safe. If the light is yellow, the permission is removed. If the light is red, it is forbidden to enter the intersection.
What does not having permission to enter the intersection men?
Then of course, there is the question of what does entering the intersection mean?
I was always taught, and have always taught others, that the best rule to go by was if the driver was in the intersection when the light was yellow, he was good to go through it. And the driver was in the intersection if any part of his car was far enough forward to write a ticket for stopping at the wrong place. And the definition of intersection is the stop line if there is one and the line of the side of the street continued through on a straight line if there is no stop line.
Yeah, per your post above, what is the difference between "permission is removed" and "forbidden"?
In my view, it's just a judgement call. So if you're cruising down the street at 45 mph and the light turns yellow .000001 seconds before you hit the intersection, you're supposed to slam on the brakes and lay rubber? On the other hand, I can see the issue when it turns yellow and you're half a block away and stomp on the gas to "beat the red light."
Actually, my wife had a collision in this situation many years ago. A light turned yellow and she wasn't sure whether or not to keep going. She decided to hit the brakes and play it safe. WHAM!!!! The car behind her slammed into her. Since then, she's been pretty liberal about going through yellow lights...
