Got a challan for stopping at a red light when other cars kept going

I stop while others were gone and had to bear the brunt of not jumping the light as I had to stop over a zebra crossing.

BHPian sumeethaldankar recently shared ghis with other enthusiasts.

So I received a challan for my Swift today. I was taking a right turn towards Airoli from the eastern and traffic was slow due to a pothole and the signal turned red as I was traversing the zebra crossing and decided to stop. Got this gift from the police. What should I have done in this case? Should I have jumped the line and tailed the last vehicle and crossed the line even when the signal was red? I have already paid the fine for now.

Further to that I have sent pics along with the dashcam footage to the police email id last night though I don't have much hope they will reverse the challan. I want to know from fellow BHPians how can I avoid this situation again? This is a regular route for me and it will become a mental block everytime I approach this crossroad signal.

Attaching some pics from my dashcam video screengrabs.

Notice the signal is green while I am still moving across:

The signal turns yellow/red and the other vehicles scurry away. I had not noticed the signal while I was driving and was looking at the tail of the Ciaz as it was negotiating a pothole plus that tall tempo had blocked my line of sight to the signal:

I stop while others were gone and had to bear the brunt of not jumping the light as I had to stop over a zebra crossing:

So I asked chat GPT what I should have done and below is the response:

In India, when a driver has already entered an intersection or a zebra crossing and the light turns yellow, it is generally expected that they should continue their movement and clear the intersection or the crossing, rather than abruptly stopping. Stopping suddenly on top of a zebra crossing can cause confusion and potentially lead to a traffic hazard.

However, it's important to exercise caution and ensure that you clear the zebra crossing safely without endangering any pedestrians. Be mindful of their right of way and allow them to cross the road before proceeding further.

Any suggestions how to avoid this situation. Next time I dart across too when I am this close to the signal? I wonder what the rule book says about this? Should we go ahead or stop?

Here's what BHPian riteshritesh had to say on the matter:

I too have been fined on a couple of occasions for such stoppage beyond white line, when indeed I like an obedient driver stopped instantly after seeing the yellow. This happens at places like the Ravindra Natya Mandir Prabhadevi signal which is so vast and full of Grid lines that if you are even driving at 10~15 kmph and you see the Green drop to Yellow, you are stranded like a Deer caught in the headlight, hoping no camera catches you. I think the sensible option would be to move on and hope that there isn't a physical cop waiting to catch you for jumping the signal.

The MTP constables sitting in their offices to catch violations, do they see the situational videos when they catch cases like us or they just go by the static images that they send us? In your case you have your footage to prove whereas my dashcam footage overwrites in 15 days and the challans that come are over 2-3 months old with no way to prove.

One challan I was stopped at Linking Road signal on my way to Dadar for moving on in a yellow ( which I saw in the dashcam). Same situation like yours where I was beyond the white line and moving at 18 kmph and the signal turns yellow ( which the dashcam can see but beyond my sight). The team of constables to catch such juicy preys were waiting in hiding and asked if I wanted to do 'settlement'. All this was recorded on my dashcam, the footage which I sent to the Grievance cell. Still they rejected my Grievance stating onduty constable is right. I paid that challan too but have escalated the matter stating that 'Cop asking for bribe.Refused to pay hence challaned"

• There should be clarity on cases where we are in a limbo of "to cross white line or to jump signal" when we see Green drop to Yellow and we are already beyond the stop line.
• Escalation of challan mechanism. Right now if your Grievance is rejected then there is no escalation system. Nor is there any way to upload our footage when registering our grievance.

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