Disregarding traffic signal - IN

[cailin05]

This morning, I was driving to school, through a construction zone. The four-lane road I was driving on was half shut-down, with the two east-bound lanes open, one designated going east and one designated going west. I was crossing an intersection, which had a stoplight. At the time I passed the sign that said "Stop here on red," the light was green. Once I passed that line, the car in front of the car in front of me turned right (because the two lanes next to us were closed, it was a long right turn and a bit awkward). The car in front of me, and I were both in the intersection, but because of the car ahead of us, we were forced to slow down. The light then turned yellow. I couldn't stop where I was, as I would obstruct any traffic attempting to turn left onto the road I was on. I kept going through the intersection, with the light turning red just before I'm completely through the intersection. I was pulled over immediately, and the officer gave me a ticket for disregarding the traffic signal. My biggest complaint is that the light was green when I entered the intersection, and I was forced to continue through the intersection so as to not obstruct traffic. Do I have the possibility of contesting this ticket? I don't even know how else I could have handled the situation to prevent the ticket.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

[Maestro64]

Depends on how the law is written in IN, first look up the code you were cited for and see what it says.

If it meets the standard it should say you not allowed to enter the intersection on red and does not say anything about clearing the intersection before your light turns red. If this was the case then you did not violate the law since you cross the stop line while it was green.

However, some states have written their law to state you may not enter the intersection unless you can clear it before the light turns red which very subjective and hard for a driver to make a real world determination and violated the standards set forth by the MUTCD.

Those are the facts, and even when the law is written correctly most officers believe being in the intersection when it turns red constitutes running a red light. However, it does not appear you were cited for that, you were cite under the catch all law of disregarding a traffic control device which could be for any number of subjective reasons the officer could justify it under.

If you were cited for running a red light based on the code he wrote, then you have to show based on the officer own testimony you did not violate the law as written. If it was the general disregarding the traffic control signal then you have to get the officer to justify how being stuck behind another car was disregarding a traffic control device and what device you disregarded. Especially if no where in the code it says you not allow to enter on green if you can exit before it turns red.

One thing to keep in mind some states have a law about blocking an intersection, which is generally defined as being in the intersection after the condition of both lights being red and the opposing traffic gets a green. The law requires all stop lights have what is known as an all red period which all light stay red for a second or two to allow any car that entered on yellow to clear the intersection before allowing other cars to enter.

You can Research MUTCD which is requirements for traffic control device that all state are required to meet, and you have to research your states laws around this and then decide if the ticket was valid based on the standards, rules and laws.

Good Luck.