I was in the middle lane waiting to turn right while all 3 traffic lights were red and then i got distracted for a few seconds (my bad) and when i looked at the traffic lights i saw the green one and started to drive, but it was for the left lane which goes straight. So i’ve got a first flash and then i realised that i did something wrong, but was afraid that there could be a car behind and decided to drive further and got a second flash.
So i’m wondering now what will be the consequences of this mistake…
From what i understood 250 chf of fine will be the “best” outcome for me, but from what i understood it could be much worse(jail, suspension of the driving license, criminal record) depending on the circumstances . In my case it doesn’t look like i could endanger anyone since i wanted to turn right and since the traffic light for the left lane was green i was “safe” to drive since nobody else could drive except the cars on the left lane which could only drive straight. Also the opposite cars were not able to turn left.
Would much appreciate your advise, since now i have to wait for a letter to arrive and i’m going to get crazy waiting all that time and afraid about consequences.
Something similar happened tomy partner. After the ticket arrive she went to the police station and explained. They wouldn’t cancel the ticked but they changed the infraction which reduced the fine.
Although it can happen, I've never heard of getting flashed at a red light in Zürich costing anything other than a 250CHF fine.
My advice would be to assume that will be the case here as well. If you get the fine, you'll have a time period (I think about a month) to lodge a protest if it is a different issue.
My advice would be to give yourself the peace of mind of assuming your case will also be 250 CHF. If it is more, you'll have a month to stay up at night panicking about what to do and you can start panicking after the fine comes.
'i got distracted for a few seconds (my bad) and when i looked at the traffic lights i saw the green one and started to drive, but it was for the left lane which goes straight.'
I'd be curious to understand why. I'm not saying the OP is a horrible human being or anything like that, we all get distracted sometimes, nobody's perfect (except certain forum members, of course).
But going on red, particularly in the middle of the light sequence, can have terrible consequences (someone can crash into you at full legal speed). I think it's actually worse than "pinching" it, i.e. going on red just as the light changes to red, which is very frequent in some other countries.
I don't understand how the "distracted" excuse would reduce the fine.
I can see there's a nearby bus stop, a yellow lane for bus and tram tracks. This makes things complicate, the traffic lights might be coordinated to give priority to bus/tram.
Making the right turn brings you to the most congested part of the city. Not sure if this is one of those traffic lights that let only pass X number of cars per minute to old city center.
I got flashed there turning right about 3 years ago. The guy in front was so slow and I was late, so I followed him through close behind on yellow. This turned red by the time he got through.
Yes, i did, but i couldn't find the exactly the same case here hence decided to create a new thread. The point is that i'm not afraid to pay the fine (i made a mistake which could lead to a really bad consequences), but i'm really scared that i might get a criminal record which is a big issue for me now, since next year i would like to apply for the swiss citizenship and the criminal record will stay at least for two years. So my intention was to check if anyone here had a similar case and how it ended up.
There are don't appear any other participants you could have endangered, least of all pedestrians, so there doesn't appear to be grounds for (much) more than a 250 fine.
Only a fine of 5k and higher would get you a criminal record, nothing points to a fine of that magnitude.
I had a red flash at that exact location too. Identical situation: three lanes, one to go ahead and two to turn, and I was intending to turn right, the light to go ahead gets green before the light to turn, and my reaction was to start driving. If you are the first car the flash goes on as soon as you touch the stop line. I got only one flash, when I realized that the green light on was only to go ahead I stopped, about 1/4 of the car crossed the stop line. It was 250 chf with no further consequences.
Let me say something. I find that spot at Zurich Enge very prone to get fines and avoid it as much as I can. But if you want to cross to the right bank from the left lake bank in Enge it is the logical route. Does it not seem strange that three people here in just few hours pop up to say we had a fine at that exact same point? Perhaps we were all careless by coincidence or perhaps not, and the set up could be enhanced. I find that the lights at that spot operate since years in a very confusing way. I have avoided that spot for months now, could be it has changed, but it used to be like this: the lights are very close, seem to be a group all for the same movement, and they are not. When you want to turn you will preferably use the middle lane
When you see a green the impulse is to start driving. Then the cars at you left, who actually want to go ahead, start moving and give you the false impression that they go your way too (this is linked to your impression, OP, that "you have a car behind": you don t want to obstruct traffic and start moving). Then you realize that they actually go ahead and you wanted to turn and, oh no! you realize that the group of lights is not actually a group, some go straight, some are there to turn. Then flash. True, our fault to fall for this mistake, because if I recall correctly there is an indication on which line belongs to which lane, but a small and confusing one (my opinion). Not sure if I am right about the frequency of this light throwing fines, but if a spot is frequently throwing fines at same situation perhaps it could be made safer by better signaling, for instance having those lights separated in groups and better marking and dividing the one to go straight vs the ones to turn right. That would enhance safety and the wellbeing of the pocket of the honest driver.
Ah, I used to work in the red building, my office had a view of the intersection..that camera never stopped printing money. The two cameras on the adjacent intersection (General Guisan-Quai and Alfred Escher-strassse) were also kept busy.
250chf is a one time hit. The heckling here is for a eternity.
If as described, the onward lane having green, the standard anonymous CHF 250 fine seems to be correct. In the worst it might be a non standard fine, if red was on for more than 2 second. This fine would be based on Art. 90 Abs 1. SVG and less than CHF 5000. Means no criminal record entry.
A criminal record entry is out of scope, as no one was potentially endangered (cross walk had red, and traffic from the left had red as well, trams are irrelevant as they have their own lane) and according your description also no one was actually endangered. If they, for what ever reason, throw Art. 90 Abs. 2 SVG and you get a monetary penalty instead of a fine, I suggest to contest it, as this would not be warranted in the descriped situation.
Just so you know, I once passed at a red light maybe 30 seconds after it turned red, paying attention to the wrong light like you did, and I got a fine of 250. This happened near Irchel. You can expect the same.