Obstructed view going through red light (camera)
 

Last week I was driving southbound on Burrard just about to cross the Burrard bridge (approx 1:20pm Wednesday) and when going through that intersection my view of the light was totally blocked by a large cement truck that was a few cr lengths ahead of me so I quickly used my surroundings to estimate that the light was green. The oncoming traffic at the intersection was stopped (this intersection is only one way at a time) and the cement truck was not slowing nor speeding up it was doing the limit and so was I (50km/h as shown in the photo) BUT once i was actually in the intersection i caught a glimpse of the light when it was too late and saw that it was red and thought "damn here comes a ticket. effing truck!"

So the ticket comes today in the mail and the pictures do clearly show that the truck was indeed obstructing my view right through the intersection....Is it worthwhile for me to dispute this? Do i have much of a defence? It is $150 fwiw.

In the picture I inserted red lines to highlight my line of sight being blocked.

https://i.imgur.com/BCm1Ofn.jpg

I mean you could try. But there’s no points attached to this kind of violation and you DID run a red light. $150 is what, date night and a bottle of wine? Meh

If I do contest it and lose then I believe that I will then get the points because I am essentially admitting that it was me who was driving, so it's basically rolling the dice?

In google maps, there's a traffic light directly above your car in your top right photo. Hard to see in your photo, but I think it's visible in there too.

I wouldn't dispute it. No points for a red light ticket and it's hard to "argue" in court that you entered the intersection safely if you didn't "know" what light it was. Also there is a traffic light on the left side of the intersection too.

Don't you get a discount if you pay the ticket early? I think the chances of you successfully disputing this is quite low, so you might as well eat the ticket now and call it a day.

Well seems the consensus is to pay the fine rather than dispute it, that’s what I was looking for some opinions other than my own and I will follow the advice.

Cheers fellas

http://i67.tinypic.com/smr89k.png

There are 4 (four) traffic lights for the same street... You can argue that the cement truck blocked one of the 4 but there is also one on the opposite side... You won't win this one if you fight it.

So what you're saying is you didn't know what the color of the light was and still entered the intersection?

thats some fast response time

less than a week from picture to ticket in the mail slot

Tough luck. Happened to us all. One of the reason why I hate driving behind big vehicles, you can't see shits.

and what did the driving book try to teach us?

dont follow so closely if you can't see shit.

read the title thinking it's some tight turn on a hill without the preempt flashers

turns out it's a flat 6-lane road with 4 lights haha

to be honest, it's night and day compared to 20+ yrs ago.
Back then, intersections were dim, signs were close to un-readable (compared to Richmond & coquitlam with backlit major street names and most importantly, only 1 light above.
Now we have dual lights above + left and right side.