Accident in Front of Camera Van
Discussion
I saw the aftermath of an incident in the middle of last Friday afternoon that may give some of you cause for comment. A large camera van had been set up at the side of the road on between the West Ham and Worting Road roundabouts on the B3400 in Basingstoke. I don't think it was a scamera van as it was a large white truck without much in the way of markings and two cameras pointing out of the slit at the top of rear. It looked like it was operating in conjunction with a police motorcycle and marked car.
The speed limit has recently been reduced on that section of road from what was an NSL to 50 MPH, there are reminder signs attached to the lampposts. It was raining steadily and had been for some time but I had plenty of warning of the camera's presence due to the two vehicles stopped in the road about 50 yards in front of it, that and the little traffic cones that the police car was able to supply very promptly !
I suspect the first one had slammed on his brakes in a panic when he saw the van but the second hadn't been so observant/was following too closely for speed and conditions. It looked like a fairly hard impact and afer I passed I observed an ambulance heading in that direction. I do hope it didn't add to the KSI statistics for that piece of road...
A couple of hundred yards further on it looked like the bike had pulled over a tatty dark blue Clio, the kind of vehicle that may well have been without tax or insurance but was probably unable to accelerate above the limit by the time it reached the van !
The speed limit has recently been reduced on that section of road from what was an NSL to 50 MPH, there are reminder signs attached to the lampposts. It was raining steadily and had been for some time but I had plenty of warning of the camera's presence due to the two vehicles stopped in the road about 50 yards in front of it, that and the little traffic cones that the police car was able to supply very promptly !
I suspect the first one had slammed on his brakes in a panic when he saw the van but the second hadn't been so observant/was following too closely for speed and conditions. It looked like a fairly hard impact and afer I passed I observed an ambulance heading in that direction. I do hope it didn't add to the KSI statistics for that piece of road...
A couple of hundred yards further on it looked like the bike had pulled over a tatty dark blue Clio, the kind of vehicle that may well have been without tax or insurance but was probably unable to accelerate above the limit by the time it reached the van !
Sounds like ANPR (automatic number plate recognition), which electronically "reads" number plates using optical character recognition technology (the same way the Post Office scan your post codes so the first class mail arrives the next day...).
The reads (or hits) are compared against various Police and DVLA databases, and matched vehicles can be stopped for further checks.
The reads (or hits) are compared against various Police and DVLA databases, and matched vehicles can be stopped for further checks.
Thanks, I couldn't remember the acronym at the time of writing ! I don't know how effective it is in wet weather. The spray from preceding cars would surely have distorted or masked many of the plates of the following vehicles. The first car in a line would be readable but how about the others ?
tonyrec said:
It works fine.....its not too bad when fitted to the Trafpol cars either.
There have been some good results already in the short time that the database has been 'live'.
Given that DVLA database takes up to six weeks to update renewals from post offices, how many vehicles have you stopped that were taxed, but showing as not taxed?
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