Red lights mean stop

Last night me and the Glue were going to Marion a lot later than expected to eat at Logans in a rare visit to a chain restaurant.  As we were approaching the traffic light by Carbondale Walmart the light turned to yellow when we were pretty far back so I put my brakes on and stopped just as the light turned red.  I noticed the car next to me wasn't slowing down and I said something to the effect of "oh no".  All of a sudden here comes a semi by me too and in unison both of us said "oh no".  The light had just turned red when the first guy went through but had been red several seconds when the semi went through.
A few days ago the light turned yellow as I was approaching the turn lane in front of Hucks in Murphysboro when a car came zipping by me several seconds after the light was red.  There was a southbound car on 20th street that was halfway in the intersection when the guy went through and I thought there was going to be a collision but I guess the guy on 20th street saw him in time.
I see this kind of thing several times a week and most of the time they are accelerating as they go through.  A yellow light means that the the signal is about to change to red so that you'll have enough time to stop before it does turn red.   You're only going to be stopped a minute or so, is it really worth causing a wreck?