Speed Camera

[DR]

I was with a friend driving down a county lane to go kayaking - speed camera on other side of the road, Gatso (not a forward facer) and it flashes for some reason.... can this happen? whats the outcome? I thought they weren't supposed to do it....

So.... Legal issues? or has my mate just picked up some points?

[5lab]

probably can do it. cant really have a legal issue if you were speeding - perhaps it was a forwards facer discised as a normal one?

[DR]

Nope - 100% Gatso - not a FF.... thats the thing.

I thought they could not flash you?

[Matt]

gatso's cant flash you if your going towards them, so i shouldnt worry... bit weird why it went off tho...

[DR]

Thats what got us - very weird... I thought by law they couldnt flash you for the fact it is uhm, dangerous1

[Matt]

im sure they cant because of the way they work... they have to measure the time it takes you to cover the lines on the road, and you have to be driving away from it for that too work.

thats my understanding at least.

[DR]

Same as...

[Lowe]

Gatsos CAN flash you when you're approaching them. But, the photos they take aren't allowed to be used to prosecute you since Gatsos aren't approved by the Home Office for front facing use.

On a side note I heard something from a very well respected source (I'd rather not mention exactly who but they're in the Police) who said Gatsos run two "heads" which have radar units in them, i.e active.

One head costs a LOT of money. Many, many thousands. It's got a very accurate K band radar unit in it which is linked to the camera. It only goes off one way, since it can sense which way the speeding car is going. Once it runs out of film, it switches into dummy mode and will still flash, but obviously without film is useless...

The other head is far cheaper - couple of thousand. This one is a dummy unit. Still has a radar head, but isn't linked up to a camera. Since this has a cheaper radar unit in it, it can't detect which way the speeding vehicle is travelling. It just detects something going too quick, and flashes regardless.

How true this is I don't know, but I've no reason to disbelieve it..

[Richie]

If the road is narrow enough or the radar "cone" is offset a bit then you can easily set off cameras going towards them but they cant do owt as its not approved as Lowe says....

I had one do it to me in while it was kind of "half light" just as sun was going down and the damn thing blinded me.

[DR]

It was a wide road, I only saw it flash once...but at the end of the day a strange one for sure

[Matt]

wow i never knew that, learn something new everyday

thx lowe