Young woman’s shock over $500 fine for not knowing a basic road rule nearly every driver has broken 

A young Australian woman took to social media to express her surprise at being fined $500 for disobeying a badly understood traffic rule.

Lucinda McGarrity, from Melbourne, collected the fine for running a yellow light on Rathdowne Street in Carlton North.

She candidly admitted that she was unaware that her action was against the law.

“So you learn something new every day and today I learned that it’s illegal to drive with a yellow light unless it’s 100% necessary,” he said in a TikTok video.

Adding to Ms. McGarrity’s embarrassment, police officers pulled her over with sirens blaring at 8:30 am on a busy street, then tested her for drink and drug driving.

In the utmost indignity for a Melburnian, it all happened outside one of North Melbourne’s trendiest restaurants, Florian’s.

“So that was embarrassing,” he said.

“Everyone is eating their salmon gravlax and tomato tartine while enjoying the spectacle of their life, which is getting drug and breath tested while crying my eyes out.

‘So anyway, don’t drive through the yellow lights!’

Some of Ms McGarrity’s supporters were impressed by the way she accepted the punishment.

But one urged her to “fight the ticket… try to get out of it.”

Lucinda McGarrity from Melbourne collected the fine for running a yellow light on Rathdowne Street in Carlton North

She replied: ‘I’m not going to fight it, I did the wrong thing. Good to know for the future though.

Others were shocked that it is a crime and that it attracts a $500 fine.

‘How do they justify such a high fine for such a small infraction?’ said a woman.

“It’s treated the same as a red light,” said Ms. McGarrity.

All offenses related to running traffic signals also come with three demerit points.

Others were not so empathetic towards her.

‘The comments [here] They’re scaring me, how come no one knows this? That’s the whole purpose of the amber light (to slow down)’, said one woman.

According to the RACV, many drivers mistakenly think of amber (or yellow)’as an extension of green’.

‘A better way to think of yellow is that it is at the beginning of red, not the end of green.

‘A yellow light is not a signal to travel faster through the intersection to beat the red light.’

The RACV said drivers “should not” go through a yellow if it is possible to brake safely before crossing the line.

“If you cannot safely stop before the stop line, you must stop before entering the intersection itself.”

He added that motorists should still stop even if they go slightly over the stop line.

‘At this point, our recommendation would be that you stop.’

If you have already entered the intersection when the light turns yellow or red, you should exit as soon as you can safely.