Temporary Signals, a Waving Officer and a Night-Time Right Turn
It is 22:40 on a wet November night. You are driving a delivery van northbound on a two-lane urban street towards a four-way junction. Roadworks have been in place for three weeks: the permanent signal heads are switched off and bagged, and two portable signal units control the junction. The unit facing your lane shows a steady red. A uniformed traffic officer in a high-visibility jacket stands in the middle of the junction and is waving your lane forward with a circular arm movement. The stop line on your side is almost worn away; only a 1.5 m stub of white paint survives near the left-hand kerb. On the right-hand corner is a 'No right turn' sign with a supplementary plate reading 'except buses, 07:00-19:00'. Your drop-off is 300 m down the road to the right, and the customer has been waiting ten minutes. Cross-street traffic is light. A pedestrian in dark clothing is walking along the right-hand pavement, and the road surface is glossy with rain.
1. Which instruction governs your next move: the steady red portable signal, the officer's arm signal, or the 'No right turn' sign? Set out the order of precedence you are applying.
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Traffic control has a clear order of precedence, and the officer sits at the top of it. A police or traffic officer directing traffic overrides portable signals, permanent signals, signs and road markings, so the red aspect is no longer a command to stay put once the officer waves you through. The 'No right turn' sign is conditional: the supplementary plate limits it to 07:00-19:00, so at 22:40 the restriction is not in force at all. Even if it had been inside those hours, a direction from an officer on the spot would take precedence over a static sign.
The reason the hierarchy exists is that the officer can see things the automatic equipment cannot: a blocked exit, a queue, a pedestrian about to cross. Obey the wave, but treat it as permission to proceed with care, not as a guarantee that the way is clear.
2. The stop line is worn away. Where should you stop, and does the missing paint change your legal obligation?
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Worn paint does not change your duty; it only removes your visual reference. The signal governs the junction, and a red aspect means stop before the junction and before any pedestrian crossing, at the point where the signal head applies to you.
Use the surviving 1.5 m stub near the left kerb to reconstruct the line's alignment and stop level with it, far enough back to see the portable signal without leaning forward over the dash. Do not creep past the ghost of the line to 'see better': that puts the van's nose into the pedestrian route and into the path of cross-street traffic that may still be released. If you genuinely cannot see the signal from a correct stopping position, treat it as red and stay back until the situation resolves.
3. Assuming you obey the officer, what checks and hazards should shape the right turn itself?
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The wave releases you, but the hazards are unchanged. Before moving, check the right mirror and blind spot for a cyclist or motorcyclist who may have filtered up on your right, and check the right-hand pavement: a pedestrian in dark clothing on a wet night is hard to pick out and may step into the junction mouth. Signal right early.
Pass behind the officer, not in front, so you never put the van between the officer and the traffic they are controlling. Because the surface is wet, braking distances are roughly double the dry figure, so approach the turn at walking pace and keep the wheels straight until you actually turn. Watch for cross-street drivers who obeyed the red and are only now moving, and for anyone who never saw the officer at all.