Free Traffic Legal Advice

I'd wait until the 6 months are up from offence date before contacting the camera unit.
Purely speculative but two options may have happened & someone somewhere will likely be prosecuted for an FTP charge as the process seems to have started.
1) Lease Co. reply nominating you was never received back to the camera unit - Lease Co. are then on the hook for the offence - they may not even know it.
2) Your own S.172 never reached you for whatever admin or logistical reasons. You will then have a possible defence but will need to attend court to ask to be sentenced for the original underlying offence rather than the more serious 6 points for FTP.

OP, neither you nor any of the other "thousands" could have known it was actually safe to move left. The incident before the gantry might not have been the only one.

Due to the cars funnelling slowly past the scene one at a time using the only available outside lane, It was a virtually empty maybe 1 mile straight stretch of clear sunny motorway after the incident.
I was on the opposite carriageway by the way, that's how I could see the constant flashes.

Interesting case summary - thx
In this day and age it almost beggars belief that TFL are still sending out DVD's - I thought authorities were supposed to be cutting down on environmental waste and streamlining services - how much extra effort does it take to burn a DVD from a file & then post it out? Maybe they have 60,000 unused & unwritten RW DVD's they have to get rid of? Who knows

Hello learned minds.

Strange one today and posting as I'm curious for your thoughts.

We all know that if a gantry has for example 50 displayed - that is valid until the next gantry displays anything other. If you are caught before a change by say a van on a bridge you have no legal legs.

Red X though? Usually yes - wait until the next gantry as there is a reason. Or can you move back once passed the gantry? this is the Q...

Scenario today was a lorry fire on the M1 Northbound - inside 3 lanes displaying red x and physically blocked - outside lane only available to pass directly under the gantry.

This was near Chesterfield between 28 & 29.

Key to this is that the incident happened maybe 10m before the gantry & no one could actually drive under the inside 3 lanes red X due to fire services still damping down.

I was travelling southbound slowly crawling at 0 - 5mph due to rubberneckers with a good 1/2 mile & maybe 15 mins straight visibility of the scene.

The HADECS was flashing non stop - almost every vehicle - apart I guess those who stayed in the outside lane.

Every truck, and most cars once passed the scene/gantry started slowly moving back to the inside lane of a clear motorway ahead and 'flash'

I know common sense isn't so common anymore, but the camera unit must have had several thousands today at that location - but what is the legal stance on a red X being enforced if anyone knows? I know none of the drivers physically passed under it - but the camera's were snap happy assuming they had.

Pic below from a news report where you can see the proximity to the gantry.

Cheers all

I'd say it's a scare tactic if you have walked the length and confirmed - Any devices would need to be sited in view of the lights anyway. Although ironically, it looks like you have caught the dude on the bike using his phone - ha you are the enforcement camera in this pic