Wednesday 13th April 2005

Faulty cameras won't be checked

Suffolk's massively incorrect scameras to be left alone

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Wrong, wrong, wrong...

The Institute of Advanced Motorists, normally a fairly conservative organisation, has called on speed camera operators to review their operations to ensure that procedures were robust. It follows the attempted prosecution of Trevor Martin, who was told he was travelling at 81mph, when in fact it was 29mph. He was driving a bus at the time.

After being told he would be prosecuted, Martin said that his bus was limited to 62mpoh maximum, and his tachograph showed he was under the 30mph speed limit on the A140 at Earl Stonham, Suffolk.

The accused won't be prosecuted because the local speed camera operator investigated after Martin complained and found that two errors had been made. The camera was wrong, incorrectly recording his speed, and an error by a member of staff double-checking the camera's reading compounded the problem.

A project manager of Suffolk SafeCam said the incident was a rare mistake. He added that the county's cameras in the county didn't need to be switched off or their technology checked.

[BigGriff]

This is the very same camera that also tried to do a guy actually sat in stationary traffic !!

The public confidence in these devices can only be harmed by such a response.

The A140 is overloaded with traffic (at certain times of the day), but at others is almost totally clear, as such variable speed limits would be appropriate, but oh no Suffolk County Council brought out temporary restrictions which seem to have become permanent. What happened to honesty?

The ridiculous thing is that this is an 'A' road and you can turn off at almost any point onto 'B' roads and enter a 60mph limit. Many people I know do this and use cross country routes, which simply is moving the problem elsewhere. Those that currently use the A140 spend more time checking their speedos than keeping their eyes on the road. The result is accidents caused by inattention and a general dumbing down. I have not noticed any reduction in the road traffic incidents on this road since the restrictions were introduced, but I suspect they are here to stay regardless!

Bring on Capt Gatso.

"Gets off Soapbox"

Richard

[autismuk]

Anyone who uses the A140 will simply have been driven off elsewhere onto better roads ; it's a dangerous road not because of "speeding" but the unbelievably crap road junctions (with the A1120, B1077 and B1134 at the top of the list).

There's an article in the paper about it ; basically no-one believes Suffolk scumeras.