Can you get a ticket if you cross a stop light when it is yellow and then turns red as you cross it.?

Question

Well that just happened to my brother and wanted to know if he earned that $200 dollar ticket or if the police guy was an a*****e,

Answer 1

Yes. You must completely clear the intersection before the light turns red.

Bart is very wrong. This statute is the same in every state. You must clear the intersection before the light turns red. It does not matter if the light wasn't red when you entered the intersection.

Answer 2

Yes, you have to clear the intersection before the light is red, or you may be cited. He had enough time to slow down, but he decided to gamble and it cost him $200. Trooper explained it all to a 'T'.

Answer 3

Do not confuse a solid yellow light with a flashing yellow, as another poster obviously has. Flashing yellow means slow and prepare to stop. Solid yellow means stop, unless you are so close you can not do so safely.

The average yellow light in a 25mph zone is about 4 seconds. Your car travels about 1 1/2 feet per second for each mph. This means you are traveling about 40 feet a second. That puts you 160 feet back when the light turned yellow. You can stop a car going 25mph in about 50 feet, leaving you with 110 feet reaction time. If it was red as you crossed it, you should have stopped.

Answer 4

The summons is legit.

You are required to stop for a yellow light if you can.

The only time you can enter an intersection on a yellow is when you are so close when it goes from green to yellow that you CAN'T stop.

Answer 5

yes you must be able to clear the intersection BEFORE the light turns red.

if it turns red while you are in the intersection, you ran the light.  "failure to yield to an automatic signal"

many cops don't ticket for this due to the wasted court time/money dealing with people who never read the drivers manual.

your brother was at fault.  it will cause an accident in the future when he's trying to beat the light meets someone trying to anticipate the light.