It is dangerous to approach any controlled intersection, regardless of signal conditions or right of way laws. They put the controls at the intersection for a reason. A red light is just a light, it can't make another car come to a stop. Any time you approach an intersection, your foot should be on the brake pedal and you should be decelerating, not coasting or accelerating. While I'm at it, leave some distance between yourself and the car in front of you. The red light can't make the car behind you stop, either.
I'm tired of scraping people off steering wheels and I don't want to do it no more.
AMEN! We can quibble about technicalities of where your foot should be at what moment, but the bottom line is USE COMMON SENSE when driving.
By the way uncontrolled intersections can get ugly too. I buried a friend whose HMMWV got T-boned by a 5-ton wrecker at one of those. He was driving too fast and the wrecker's driver and co-driver did not see him due to sun glare.