Driving through a red after traffic lights have been broken
<p>A situation happened to me today that got me thinking. I live in Victoria, Australia.</p>

<p>I was driving and entered an intersection on a green light to make a turn. I waited until there was no oncoming traffic, by which time the light turned amber, to complete my turn. As I was completing my turn the lights started to flash amber, which indicates an error with the signals and that drivers need to follow the rules for unregulated intersections. (There are also some pedestrian crossings with red-amber-green lights that flash amber as part of their cycle before turning back to green, but not in the area I was driving.)</p>

<p>After I completed the turn I could see that at least the next two sets of lights had been affected too and were flashing amber as well. As I approached the first set it changed back to red and I was able to stop in time. I was wondering what would have happened if I drove through the intersection just as the light changed to red (with not enough time to stop) and got a fine for driving through a red light? Would the authorities realise that there had just been an outage of the traffic lights and not issue it or would I have to prove that the lights had just been down to avoid having to pay the fine?</p>

<p>If you were to be issued a ticket in such circumstances, you would likely be able to bring up an affirmative defense that it was not possible for you to stop safely in the circumstances, an action most likely required by the statutes.</p>

<p>P.S. I've actually sat through a traffic trial where some guy in KW, Ontario, was defending against a red-light ticket he has gotten when passing a red light in the winter.  I recall that his defense basically amounted to the fact that he would not have been able to stop safely in the circumstances (a requirement / exception of the statute), that the pavement was too slippery, other cars were nearby (maybe a car that followed, which would not have been able to stop had he stopped?), and that the light was likely still yellow when he crossed into the intersection (he took quite some time to cross-examine the cop).  I recall that he was acquitted, but the guy did look quite exhausted from the trial!</p>

traffic australia