Last night I was driving home from work, and as I approached some traffic lights, they turned amber. As I was going 40mph, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to slow down in time, so I decided to retain my speed.

Unfortunately, as I sailed through the traffic lights they turned red.

Unfortunately, there was a police car in another lane at the traffic lights.

So as I continued along, I saw the blue lights kick into action. As I pulled up at the next set of traffic lights, the police car stopped beside me and mimicked to wind my window down. On doing so, the police officer sitting in the passenger seat told me to pull up on the curb a bit further along. Shit.

I can safely say I’ve never been so scared in my life. Well, maybe. It was at least equally as scary as the time I was nearly mugged. I had to go and sit in the back of the police car.

They asked me my name, address and date of birth, and radioed in to check me out. Needless to say, I was apologising profusely and managed to reinforce my image of totally not being a boy racer. Which I’m not, and the two police officers knew because when asked if it was my car, I explained that it was my mom’s.

Apparently because it was a traffic offence, I’d get three points on my license - which is critical when you’re in your first two years of driving like I am, because if you get six points, you lose your license, as well as the respect of your peers. And there’s a $175 fine.

Thankfully, they were very nice police officers. They took the tone of being firm but fair in speaking to me, which is fair enough. They decided to let me off, which was nice of them. And they also gave me some advice about approaching traffic lights.

The whole encounter lasted maybe ten minutes, but it was the scariest thing ever. I learned a big lesson...don’t take risks when driving. Especially when there’s police cars around, as it’s bloody terrifying.

I apologise for this being badly written - I’m not particularly enjoying recalling the event in my head in order to write about it.