Can you continue driving in this situation?
Show the correct answer
Correct answer
YES
Explanation
In the video you have stopped in a town before a junction with traffic lights; the traffic lights show red, but in the middle of the junction a police officer in a high-visibility vest is standing sideways to you. In this situation you can continue driving. The answer is: yes.
The Road Traffic Act states that instructions and signals given by persons directing traffic take precedence over light signals and road signs, and a road user follows them even when the rules indicate a different way of behaving. The Regulation on road signs and signals states that a position in which the person directing traffic is sideways to the approaching vehicles means permission to enter the junction or the stretch of road beyond the person directing traffic. The police officer is standing sideways to you, so traffic is open for you despite the red light - he decides, not the traffic lights. However, you enter carefully: traffic from the intersecting road is stopped, but you check whether someone has entered the junction earlier, and you give way to pedestrians who are still finishing crossing. If the police officer points in a direction with his hand, you drive the way he has shown.
Legal basis: Art. 5 para. 1 and 2 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym); § 108 para. 1 and 2 of the Regulation on road signs and signals