N E One
Here in the UK, an amber light is a *qualified* STOP: you may enter an intersection on amber if attempting to stop would be likely to cause an accident.
A guy who runs a late amber when he is not being tailgated almost certainly *is* committing an offence, but is very unlikely to be stopped for it unless, for instance, he is behind a cop when the amber light comes on and the cop stops for the light but the other guy doesn't.
Habitual TailgatorWeren't we just talking about this? And all this time I thought the point of being a lead-foot was to get out in...
That (as described) is not the outright offence of crossing a red light.
If the amber phase is properly set then, depending on the particular junction and how close anyone on your tail was, it seems to be marginal in terms of crossing a late amber: I very rarely see the red at all except when I know full well that my own car would have stopped behind the line but someone behind me has caused me to invoke the "likely to cause an accident" exception to the basic amber STOP rule (and in such cases, all too often I am followed through by two or three vehicles, which justifies my decision to proceed).
A former colleague got himself rear-ended two or three times in about as many months by stopping for amber lights when he had someone on his tail. Strictly speaking, if he could stop behind the line then the next chap should certainly be able to do so, so AFAICMO it was the other guy's fault each time, although my colleague could almost certainly have avoided each crash quite legally by invoking the exception and crossing the amber.
