Driving offence - points on UK licence? Also, to contest or not?

[joidevie]

I'm probably clutching at straws here, but I jumped a red light by about a second or two as I had a very heavy and awkward load of chipboard sheets in the back of an estate car (sticking out the back a bit as well, but well tied up) - and I took a split decision not to stop as I personally felt it was more dangerous to hard stop than continue on..

So, from the camera's point of view, a jump.

What is the cat in hell's chance of getting this let off, or am I inviting trouble with further 'contraventions' with not 'correctly securing' my load etc? I feel quite stupid now as I was tired and probably made a poor decision.

And what is the situation with points? I've been decided -4 and I have a French registered car (at our residence secondaire) but a UK licience. Is the system the same? (4 points is quite a lot). Will this be tracked back to the UK even if I pay the €90 fine right away? Will this affect my French insurance premium?

I'm quite cross with myself, but a smidge of me thinks I made the right decision, but I'd rather not make things any worse for myself!

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[Chancer]

Pay it, traffic lights are black and white as are those who enforce the contraventions, you either go through on green or you dont, a second or two is not a split second decision, a vehicle at 50kph will travel nearly 30 metres in that time.

Pay up and the likelyhood is that you will never hear any more, your UK license will be unaffected although technically the French system will have allocated points off of your French starting balance if you exchange your license.

You might get a visit inviting you to exchange for a French license, it will sound like they are telling you that you must in probably a very heavy handed manner but in reality all they can do is invite you to do so.

[joidevie]

What I was hoping to hear, and as I'm not 'resident' in France, I have no intention of changing my licence..

Lessons learned, get more sleep, and don't rush decisions in a split second..

Thanks..

[Chancer]

Despite what the black and white merchants will say these instant décisions are usually made with a sub-conscious awareness of whether you are aware of traffic approaching from the other directions, if its at a standstill, if its started moving etc, its rare that someone consciously jumps lights and causes an accident, they normally happen when someone breezes through without being aware and without looking. I always look all around before and during even when the lights are green and I dont lift off, i probably could not do much about someone sailing through on red but at least I am on the alert to react as I'm sure you were.

I'm guessing that the lights had a camera watching over them, might be Worth looking at the phasing, seeing how much time you actually had to react, some of the times  have been shaved down.

[AnOther]

If you're not resident then you cannot be forced to exchange your licence, that's all there is to it.

The deduction of 4 points on the fine notice is what the computer spits out automatically because that is the penalty for a French driving licence holder but is meaningless for a non resident UK licence holder.

Furthermore the French system does not record offences and points prior to an exchange, you could have had a dozen one point contraventions but on exchange you would only be deducted points for the specific offence which triggered that.