red lights

[wharfedale]

I was at a set of road works with the lights at red , the road ahead was clear for half a mile, my passenger insisted it was leagal to proseed as the teparary lights were only advisory. do we go for it or wait for green ?

[splitter / judas]

What the fish said

[DPX]

Not crossways dorset by any chance ?

[flemke]

FishFace said:

It isn't legal. Wait for green. The only time it'd be 'legal' is if they were broken and stuck on red. That'd only be legal in the sense you'd have a reasonable excuse for going through them.

Do the people who set up the temporary lights need to have gotten approval for that specific installation, or do they have blanket approval?

[wharfedale]

Not in Otley Yorkshire, any one with a high vis jacket can grid lock the town at will. Keith

[rdjohn]

If it is for 2-way control on a straight road, then no, they can be used anywhere on the highway, but they should seek advice from the Highway Authority (usually local council) for timings.

When they are controlling a junction, they should have site specific approval from the HA. This is where most abuse occurs from contractors, particularly the sub-contractors of public utilities.

[superlightr]

how long do you wait before thinking they are broken. Straight road and lights with god visability. I would wait about 1 min. ie arrive at red and nothing ahead but one lane coned off.

[rdjohn]

The temporary lights must be equipped with radar detectors to ensure they operate under vehicle actuated control if not being operated manually. By implication, if you cannot see someone at the controller and if you can see nothing is coming and the lights have not detected your presence then clearly they are not working correctly.

However, it would probably need a brief to argue the case for you in court and certainly, if you caused an accident, you would probably get the blame, if the other party could prove that their lights were at green. Of course they may be being shown a red light and thought like you.

[Brett928S2]

HI

I "thought" there had to be 2 sets of temporary lights at each end for them to be compulsory..not 1 set at each end ???

All the best Brett

[tvrgit]

Brett928S2 said:

HI

I "thought" there had to be 2 sets of temporary lights at each end for them to be compulsory..not 1 set at each end ???

All the best Brett

Nope, 1 set only required.