In other words, in any of these situations, you will fall foul of the law and could be prosecuted for passing a red traffic light. You’re guilty if you contravene a red light whether you intend to or not.
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The only legal exception in this case is if the lights aren’t illuminated at all, i.e. they’re present but switched off completely, or are broken and not illuminated. In this instance, the Highway Code (rule 176) says you should treat the light as an unmarked junction, and proceed with caution.
What should you do at a broken red light?
Legally speaking, your hands are tied, though if you’re pulling out of the way of an ambulance on an emergency call, you would hope that the police would accept this as a reasonable explanation for doing so.
If you’ve been sitting for 15 minutes at a red light which clearly isn’t cycling, and you’ve had enough time to assess when it may be safe to proceed, you can at least explain that you’ve tried to take sufficient precautions.
This is obviously trickier if there’s an emotionless, unblinking camera set up to capture red light contraventions, and no doubt going through legal procedures in that case would be more of a pain.
You could also (hands-free of course) phone the company controlling that set of road works to see if they can rectify it, and potentially you could also call the police on the 101 non-emergency number to help direct traffic. Though in either situation you could be waiting quite a while before either party comes to help. There’s even a government website page where you can report broken traffic lights, but again, don’t bet on a quick fix.
Insurance risk
There’s also an insurance risk. Even if you think you’ve been cautious but still get into some kind of accident after passing a red light, your insurance company may have grounds for not paying out, because the law is very clear on how you should treat red lights.
In the end, how you proceed comes down to common sense. You are legally not allowed to contravene a red light, but presented with a situation where a light clearly isn’t cycling, you’ve been there for quite some time with no chance of the light turning green any time soon, and you’ve got sufficient vision to be sure nothing is coming the other way, most of us would probably pull away with caution – and hope that a camera or particularly officious member of His Majesty’s constabulary isn’t hiding behind a bush.
If you really can’t be sure, the safer option is to just turn around and find another route to your destination, one without malfunctioning traffic lights. Taking the risk is not worth it.
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