What's the score with that copper / speed gun on the A31?

What's the score with that copper / speed gun on the A31?

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ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Monday 10th November 2014
quotequote all
Returning from yesterdays SS i passed a guy in the middle of the central reservation in that big dip just after Stoney Cross heading toward Ringwood. He was sporting a high vis jacket and a very long lense on a tripod. The van was on the eastbound side backed up into the bushes where it couldn't easily be seen. I have a sneaking feeling i got done (looked back at my Vbox data to check speed vs location) as i was unsure of my speed before i braked to 70 as i started coming down the hill toward him. I wasn't going supersonic over the top of the hill which is a plus but my god, what a place to set up shop!!

Any idea what system that is using? What are my chances of slipping through the net / what range can they get you at (i wasn't going beyond 3 points territory so im not that fussed)? He did bend down to write something on a board as i passed but it was quite busy and it may or may not have been related to myself.

Anyone else had dealings?

Edited by ecain63 on Tuesday 11th November 19:32

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Monday 10th November 2014
quotequote all
He was facing toward the east but he can turn 360 if needed. What time did you pass? How fast were you going?

Good thing with the VBox is that the gps data is logged on an SD card so should i get a ticket i can verify or deny with some (although maybe not bombproof) evidence.

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Monday 10th November 2014
quotequote all
zed4 said:
ecain63 said:
He was facing toward the east but he can turn 360 if needed. What time did you pass? How fast were you going?

Good thing with the VBox is that the gps data is logged on an SD card so should i get a ticket i can verify or deny with some (although maybe not bombproof) evidence.
I don't know. I often just bomb around in the TVR, don't keep track of the speedo!mthe thing is, the TVR takes a lot of concentration to drive, so I often forget to keep track of my speed. I was going much faster than the lane one traffic, then I saw the van and slammed on the brakes (good job no one was behind!), at which point the traffic in lane one shot past me! So I really slowed down quickly. i think I went past at about 10:00 ish.
Fingers crossed to both of us then. I passed at 12.29.

normalbloke

7,401 posts

218 months

Monday 10th November 2014
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Shall we meet again in 14 days to compare notes??
I don't suspect your GPS device won't give you any sort of leg to stand on as defence.

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Monday 10th November 2014
quotequote all
normalbloke said:
Shall we meet again in 14 days to compare notes??
I don't suspect your GPS device won't give you any sort of leg to stand on as defence.
No, it probably won't hold water as evidence but if needs be it could be used to compare what they think they saw me do and what i actually did. The GPS data comes with all the relevant info such as date, time, lat/long, speed, height etc. If I get a ticket i can compare notes. If it's out by much I can consider challenging the conviction on grounds of accuracy. The car also has in built GPS reading so i can go down that route too.

I know what speed I was doing and i made a point of staying below daft figures so im not bricking it about serious repercussions, more interested to see what they actually do. How far does the system read at, do they need head-on line of sight or can they work out speed on a car heading down hill when the camera is on the flat / in the dip. Was it speed gun or just a tax man?

Eddie

Edited by ecain63 on Tuesday 11th November 19:33

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Monday 10th November 2014
quotequote all
This is his (oncoming traffic headed west) view at the location i saw him yesterday.


PBM3

27 posts

168 months

Tuesday 11th November 2014
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I spotted him there on Sunday , circa 11:30 .
Saw him at the last moment , hit the brakes instinctively , but am still concerned that a letter may arrive .... but it will be to someone elses address , I was in a borrowed Macan Turbo .

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Tuesday 11th November 2014
quotequote all
PBM3 said:
I spotted him there on Sunday , circa 11:30 .
Saw him at the last moment , hit the brakes instinctively , but am still concerned that a letter may arrive .... but it will be to someone elses address , I was in a borrowed Macan Turbo .
Oopsie! Lol

Bart 124

527 posts

188 months

Tuesday 11th November 2014
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One thing guys, I wouldn't put on here anything that could be seen as a form of admittance?

Stating categorically that you know you were exceeding the speed limit on a public forum could prove costly - I think it's been catalogued before? Apologies - don't want to be 'that guy' but I'd hate to see either of you get the book over something like this frown

Either way - sneaky sneaky from the old police cash cows.

mehball

59 posts

178 months

Tuesday 11th November 2014
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zed4 said:
I saw the van but not the man. What direction was he facing? I was going very fast when I saw the van, bit worried it might be serious if caught. I was heading eastbound.
Good! To be honest, if you're driving around not knowing your speed way in excess of the speed limit, you deserve to get caught!

normalbloke

7,401 posts

218 months

Tuesday 11th November 2014
quotequote all
The camera will only ever read your closing speed perpendicular to the lense. It works perfectly well on slopes given the amount of time it reads your speed per second. Your GPS will only ever read horizontal distance, whereas your speedo will be showing the true slope distance. There are many other factors in GPS accuracy such as VDOP,HDOP and SA, meaning it isn't admissible. Talking to a camera operator at a recent event, they said the furthest they target out to is about 250m, which is a far smaller figure than I had in mind. However, they have also said they now use the cameras to prosecute for mobile phone offences too, which I like!

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Tuesday 11th November 2014
quotequote all
normalbloke said:
The camera will only ever read your closing speed perpendicular to the lense. It works perfectly well on slopes given the amount of time it reads your speed per second. Your GPS will only ever read horizontal distance, whereas your speedo will be showing the true slope distance. There are many other factors in GPS accuracy such as VDOP,HDOP and SA, meaning it isn't admissible. Talking to a camera operator at a recent event, they said the furthest they target out to is about 250m, which is a far smaller figure than I had in mind. However, they have also said they now use the cameras to prosecute for mobile phone offences too, which I like!
Sounds promising if they only record out to 250m. I can check that by my gps data.

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Tuesday 11th November 2014
quotequote all
Been doing some research. I'm not even 100% sure this is a speed camera. I can find no images or details of systems that look like what i saw. The lense was very long, more like a normal camera lense. Nothing i can find on the net looks like this. Might have been some other reason for the guy being there??

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Saturday 29th November 2014
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3 weeks and no ticket. Phew!

doorman

1,533 posts

190 months

Sunday 30th November 2014
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normalbloke said:
The camera will only ever read your closing speed perpendicular to the lense. It works perfectly well on slopes given the amount of time it reads your speed per second. Your GPS will only ever read horizontal distance, whereas your speedo will be showing the true slope distance. There are many other factors in GPS accuracy such as VDOP,HDOP and SA, meaning it isn't admissible. Talking to a camera operator at a recent event, they said the furthest they target out to is about 250m, which is a far smaller figure than I had in mind. However, they have also said they now use the cameras to prosecute for mobile phone offences too, which I like!
Conflicting information here, I was at The FOS a couple of years ago and the operator for W Sussex said 1km. Said he had also clocked a van driver eating a sandwich and recorded his action of desperation dropping the said evidence into his lap when he realised what was ahead, he evidently got done for speeding and driving without due care and attention.

corozin

2,680 posts

270 months

Sunday 30th November 2014
quotequote all
Well he didn't get me, and I was only a few minutes in front of Eddie.

That said it's a cheap shot - camera'ing people on a downhill.

That copper should watch himself... the central reservation is a pretty dangerous place. Who knows what might get thrown up from passing traffic and hit him. There's also a case that standing there with high-vis and a camera, so close to the lane is inherently dangerous to traffic in itself.

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Sunday 30th November 2014
quotequote all
corozin said:
Well he didn't get me, and I was only a few minutes in front of Eddie.

That said it's a cheap shot - camera'ing people on a downhill.

That copper should watch himself... the central reservation is a pretty dangerous place. Who knows what might get thrown up from passing traffic and hit him. There's also a case that standing there with high-vis and a camera, so close to the lane is inherently dangerous to traffic in itself.
From what ive been hearing from those that did get done it looks like the set up was multi-faceted.

Camera van parked up on eastbound downhill stretch doing people for speed offences.
Man in central reservation with the mega long lense was doing due care offences (mobile phones etc) on the westbound as they come over the hill.

Opinion too obvious to type.