Someone told me once that you could proceed over a red light if it is
not workign and you waited three minutes. I never found this in the
traffic law, but I did pass it on to a few people (by saying I have
never been able to officially confirm it...).

I did now find this in section 21800 in the CVC. The first one
unfortunately doesn't really apply b/c of the mentioning of failing
batteries. But at least closer than the three minute approach...


(d) (1) The driver of any vehicle approaching an intersection which
has official traffic control signals that are inoperative shall stop
at the intersection, and may proceed with caution when it is safe to
do so. This subparagraph shall apply to traffic control signals that
become inoperative because of battery failure.

(2) When two vehicles enter an intersection from different highways at
the same time, and the official traffic control signals for the
intersection are inoperative, the driver of the vehicle on the left
shall yield the right-of-way to the vehicle on his or her immediate
right, except that the driver of any vehicle on a terminating highway
shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle on the intersecting
continuing highway.