New Ohio Law May Allow Drivers to Run Red Lights

Much has been made of the bill signed by Ohio Governor John Kasich earlier this year, which apparently makes it legal to run a red light. However, read a bit deeper and you’ll see that the bill doesn’t give drivers carte blanche to run red lights whenever they feel like it, instead, it only makes it legal to run a red light if the light is malfunctioning.

With this new law, drivers are now legally allowed to proceed through a red light in the event that the vehicle detector fails to detect their vehicle. The passage of House Bill 154 means that these vehicle detector failures are now treated in the same way as if the traffic light was out. This means that when a driver feels that the light is malfunctioning, they are allowed to go through the red light after stopping before the intersection and yielding to any traffic.

Unfortunately, the law doesn’t specify exactly how much time a driver must wait in order to establish that their car wasn’t detected by the vehicle detector. This means that there is at least a chance of a driver potentially being ticketed for running a red light even if they feel the signal was malfunctioning as specified under the new law.

For this reason, it is important that motorists realize that the new law doesn’t mean they can simply run red lights after waiting for a few seconds as it obviously takes a longer time to truly establish that the detector isn’t working properly. As well, drivers are expected to yield the right-of-way to any other vehicles at the intersection and must exercise extreme caution when proceeding through the intersection.

Essentially, the responsibility relies solely with the driver to ensure that they waited a long enough time to fully establish that the signal was malfunctioning. The fact is that you can still be cited for any accidents that occur if it is shown that the signal was working properly. Therefore, you need to be extremely cautious about making use of this new law or you might otherwise find yourself facing tickets and fines.

At the same time, you also need to be aware of your rights and stick to the letter of the law by ensuring that the light is actually malfunctioning. This way, you can hopefully prevent yourself from getting an unnecessary ticket for running a red light that you believed was malfunctioning.

Running a red light increases the risk of a car accident occurring whether or not the light is malfunctioning. In that instance, it is important that you seek the legal counsel of an experienced car accident attorney. Ohio Accident Attorneys can get you in contact with a car accident attorney in your area that can discuss your legal options. Contact us today at (888) 906-4943 for a free consultation.

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