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Good advice.

Good advice.

The Rules of the Road: What do you do when your green light turns yellow?

DBM Law Blog

The rules of how to drive a vehicle on the roads are contained in the legislation called the Motor Vehicle Act [1996] c. 318.
Section 128 of that act deals with what you have to do as you approach an intersection and your light turns to yellow from green.  As you know (but so many drivers don’t), the yellow light is not a single for you to speed up in order to get through the intersection before the light turns red.
So what does the law require you to do?
The rule states that as you approach an intersection and your light turns yellow, you must stop your vehicle.  You can only enter the intersection if you cannot stop safely.  An example would be if your vehicle was travelling the speed limit of 50 km/h and you were about one vehicle length from entering the intersection when your light turn yellow, you would not be able to stop your vehicle before entering the intersection, even if you slammed on the breaks.  If, on the other hand, your vehicle was six or seven car lengths back from the intersection, you would be able to bring your vehicle to a stop and you are required by law to do so.  If you proceeded through the intersection anyway then you would likely be found liable by ICBC for any accident that results.
These rules aren’t black and white.  What “safely” means must be decided on a case by case basis.  Every accident is unique, and you should speak to a lawyer prior to providing a statement to ICBC about how the accident occurred.  If there were independent witnesses who saw the accident, you should obtain their names and contact information in case you need them to provide a statement to ICBC about how the accident.

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