Free Traffic Legal Advice

Hi there,

Last Tuesday I had to collect my son from East London in the evening.  Checking traffic before I left, all was fine but, as I headed north, Google maps changed my route to send me via the Rotherhithe tunnel rather than Blackwall tunnel or Silvertown tunnel. The journey should have taken 1 hr 10mins. However, it transpired that there was a serious fire near Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels, and they closed them both as smoke was being drawn into the tunnels.

BBC article

So, I arrived to collect my son after driving for 2 hours. He got into the car and we turned around and headed south.  Again, both tunnels were still closed but the total journey time back was showing as about 80 mins. However, as we drove south the impact of two of the tunnels being closed for about 3 hours had reached peak impact and -after another 1 hour 40 mins driving- we’d only made it 11 miles south to Peckham where this happened. There was still about 45 mins of driving to go.
Critical points: At the junction in question, I could see something was going on on the other side of the yellow box where I was going to head. There was a queue of buses (maybe 3-5 in a line) and there was a lot of flashing blue lights in front of them. The car in front went forward and just made it over the yellow box.
In a split second I had a few things going through my head. What if the flashing blue lights are because there is something dangerous going on straight ahead? I’ve got a child in the car and I need to keep them safe. Or, what if we get across the yellow box and won’t be able to get past bearing in mind there are a queue of stationary buses. Again, I’ve got a child in the car and we’ve already been driving for a long time.
Having started to go across the yellow box, I thought better to turn right to avert the potential trouble and danger ahead to keep everyone safe. This was in the knowledge that turning right was taking me away from my best route and would add time to our journey notwithstanding the issue on the road we had intended to use. So, it wasn’t to cheat or con, it was because of an incident that I was unsure of the seriousness of and - with a child in the car - I elected to avoid that. I was of course mindful that this had no consequence for any other traffic ie it was safe to make this manoeuvre.

I’ve put links to images of the pcn as well as the images they have on their website.

I’m looking for any guidance you may have to appeal the pcn. This could be based on the explanation, the notice, the images or indeed anything else you may spot.

Thanks in advance.

PCN page 1

PCN page 2

PCN page 3

PCN page 4

Image 1

Image 2


Image 3


Image 4

Image 5


Location:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/hpLLWeZrd2W1aLoa6?g_st=ipc

Hopefully works now…. (He says)

Thanks. Yes ; I was intending to follow the blue sign but, in the moment with the flashing blue lights in front (which I didn’t know was a police incident or serious accident), I made a call to turn right.

Hold fire: the second sentence under the picture is wrong. They cannot serve a charge certificate as expressed.

2240512370.