Driving without due care and attention

[Maris1111]

Yesterday was coming up to a set of lights that were on green with some hatches a few metres behind them and traffic was all moving forward so I carried on, only for it to all come to a stop when my front wheels were on the hatches. I stopped to let traffic clear, and waited to see if it was starting to move to the left of me where a van was waiting for his lights to turn. He didn’t start moving so I rolled forward and over the hatches, and saw people waiting at the pedestrian crossing but there is no additional light to tell you to stop besides the one I had already passed. I carried on forward as noone was on the crossing and as I did a man carrying his daughter stepped out into the side of my car, dropping her on the left edge of my windscreen, I braked and she was awake and just dirty and crying, I pulled right into this side road bit to see if she was OK and he was shouting at me that I had jumped the lights. I had to wait for the police to come and talk to me and take my statement, interview me and breathalise me. They took the girl to the hospital but she’s fine. There is also a witness who will say how slowly I was going. The police said because I stopped slightly on the hatchings even though I deliberately stopped out of the way of any traffic that it is a possibility that I may get a court summons for driving without due care and attention. I think that I was showing attention by stopping out of the way before I got properly onto the hatchings, and where the damage is on my windscreen shows that the man stepped out as I was already on the crossing.

[R1Geezer]

what do you mean by "hatchings", there is a solid white lne before traffic lights. You mention "hatchings" are before the lights initially. Can you find the crossing on google maps and post a link, then we'll have a better understanding.

[Maris1111]

Hi, I wondered if people think they have a case against me, he didn't say for definite but I'd rather be prepared for what is to come.

http://maps.google.co...F-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

Not sure how well this will work but its Barnet HIgh Street, if you scroll right over to the left on the street map you can see the lights and cross-hatches and you can see that the pedestrian crossing has no lights on the one side.

[R1Geezer]

Are you talking about the bit where wood st joins barnet high st? by hatchings you mean the yellow box junction? Are you comming alon wood st into barnet hight st?

[Maris1111]

Yes to all three

[sigma]

The yellow hatching looks worn. "Technically" the box junction is incomplete and therefore not legal.

[Maris1111]

Well the man didn't see me on the hatches as they are quite far back, they only got that because I told the truth about it. He was claiming I had run the lights.

[R1Geezer]

Ok in the picture, are you talking about entering the yellow box just to the right of where there is a semi circular island with an arrow underneath? The pedestrian crossing is 20 yards to the left of that. Where was the man crossing, it seems to me that if you where in the yellow box then the man was no where near the crossing. In the google maps satellite picture (clisk sattellite and zoon in) where where you in relation to the white car that is there now? Yellow box rules aside for now, it looks to me like the man was not croissing at the crossing at all. I assume you are turning right into Barnet High st from Wood st, across the yellow box junction.

[Maris1111]

I might have got this a bit mixed up, I was travelling from the far left of the picture I just looked on the maps it says it is Barnet Hill, I thought that it was still Wood St. I stopped just in the hatches so the traffic light was just out of view where I stopped, I then had to drive quite far to be where the crossing was, no one so far has witnessed the incident besides right where it happened and how slowly I was going, not where my vehicle was before in the diamonds. I just told the police the truth I didn’t want anyone to think I had run some imaginary light when I hadn’t.