Got home tonight to find a nice letter from Waltham Forest Council with a photo of me on me bike with the back of it on the edge of a box junction (blocking no traffic whatsoever). Looks like the sneaky fokkers got me with a CCTV camera hidden on the opposite side of the road.
£120 fine reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days. I suppose they gotta pay for the new speed cameras in Forest Road somehow…
Really fokked off cos the last thing I need is to chuck 60 quid into their coffers. Bstds.
Although I was relieved in a way cos I first thought it wasa a speeding fine :crazy:
The ‘C’ word was used liberally here tonight I can tell you.
The traffic blocking you has to be oncoming - even if turning right you can’t sit in a box because the road you want to enter is full.
The only time I end up in a box junction is when I have a clear exit and someone changes lane at the last minute and cuts me off. My understanding is that being in the box is not the offence - it is entering without an available exit due to another stationary vehicle. At least that is what the HC says. I can’t see how a photo of a person in a box proves that.
Here, I have found the legal offence -
“7 (1) Except when placed in the circumstances described in paragraph 8, [box junctions] shall each convey the prohibition that no person shall cause a vehicle to enter the box junction so that the vehicle has to stop within the box junction due to the presence of stationary vehicles.”
That seems to be full of holes - any evidence would seem to need to show that at the point you caused your vehicle to enter the box there was a stationary vehicle blocking your exit. A single photo of a vehicle proves nothing - indeed, it doesn’t even prove you stopped. They need to have video evidence showing you moving into the box at the same time as the stationary vehicle is blocking your way across the junction.
I know I haven’t really got any grounds for appeal cos on the website there are more stills taken from the video recording that show me being there for half a minute. I’m worried now cos I do that most evenings at this spot (I turn left right after that junction) and this happened on the 16th Oct - hope there’s no more on the way :pinch:
The thing that fokks me off is that it’s obvious I’m blocking no other road users whatsoever. I’m sure their video recording equipement could be used to catch the likes of red light jumpers, people driving whilst on their phones etc. which in my eyes are more of a danger.
GGGrrrrrr!
(it’s on Forest Road just before the left turn into Fulbourne Road - I also did a little ‘looking around’ on their website and found loads of box junction pics taken from the top of Leytonstone High Street approaching the Green Man roundabout, so be careful if anyone’s around there))
Whats up with you jonesy…should happen more often,.THATS CRAZY …what they should do is make our roads better, improve traffic flow by making more roads allowing better parking and having a go at helping the motorist rather than hindering him…fining him becuase they cant be bothered to improve the roads and then trying to blame the mototrist for everything is just plain nuts…and 120 pounds is a disgraceful amount of money for not obstructing anyone…I thought the Highway code was a guide not a law…I would fight it mate…this country is going frightfully anti vehicle mad…the car and truck and bus and bike made this country great…gave the people freedom they had never had before now they want to fine us for it…nuts…Fines are not the answer…
Jonesy I agree with you to an extent i.e. those people who actually block the junction, preventing the traffic from moving across the junction the other way but FFS at least they should apply some common sense to this i.e. if there is a blatant and disruptive obstruction occurring then by all means send the owner a fine, but for the likes of the example above ? Come on.
At the end of the day these fines from the CCTV are manually converted from the camera footage by a human, hence evidence that it is a case of monetary greed rather than helping traffic flow.
Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll have a leg to stand on if it came to fighting it - I obviously entered the box junction without ensuring the exit was clear- and I definitely couldn’t afford the £120 after 14 days (and £180 after 28 :blink: )
BTW I saw a CCTV camera this morning at the crossroads by Blackhorse Road station. Made extra sure the exit from the box junction was clear this time
very harsh that mate, same as the guy in paper today who stopped on single yellow line for under a minute to put singlasses and hi-vis both for safety and got caught on camera.
It may constitute a guide but if you dont follow it you fail your test dont you? As a guide it also offers a best practice and unless you can come up with a better one you would loose any arguement I expect.
The HC is what is known as a statutory code of practice. After consultation the document is approved by Parliament and is intended for use as a guide to the law and good practice. The law says that the code should be used by the courts to help resolve disputes over blame for accidents etc. The Must bits of the code are the bits where you will be liable to be prosecuted because there is a law (not the HC itself) that says you shouldn’t do that. The Should bits of the code tell you things that if you don’t do what it says could make you liable for damages in the case of an accident etc. So the code says you must not enter a box junction if your route across is blocked unless turning right and your progress is only blocked by oncoming traffic, but it also says things like you should not overtake where there are side turnings. That is why filtering bikes who get hit by people turning right are often found to be partially to blame for the accident.
