Wednesday 17th January 2007

Cameras distract, says official

Partnership member makes Gatso gaffe

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Gatso: crash generator?

Speed cameras can cause crashes just by existing, according to one camera partnership member.

Speaking on BBC Look East on Tuesday, Bryan Edwards of the Norfolk Camera Partnership said: "What does concern me is of course if people put up fake cameras, motorists could be coming along at 70, think it is a camera, brake, or get distracted and that could actually cause a collision."

While it is perfectly clear that Mr Edwards is referring to a fake speed camera, it's clear that a real speed camera is even more likely to cause dangerous distraction and panic responses among drivers.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign said: "It's long overdue that all the speed camera side effects were acknowledged and investigated. Everyone knows that there are serious side effects that can cause crashes, but I must say it is unusual to hear such an admission from a camera boss. At Safe Speed we're even more worried about subtle and insidious side effects that are tending to reduce driver quality.

"If it wasn't for massive spin and vested interests we would have scrapped speed cameras years ago. Speed camera are simply a distraction from real road safety. We won't get road safety back on track until we scrap the lot."

That said, might we not find that the government's response is then to hide the devices?

• www.safespeed.org.uk

[Petrol_fumes]

Odd on this.
I was actually driving last night and some bloke set a Gatso off going in the other direction, the flashes totally distracted me up me and i nearly piled into the car in front.

If they are investigating their effectiveness at reducing accidents, I'm fully behind a study looking at their influence on causing accidents

[andyinpembs]

I must admit then the first thing I noticed when I got my road angel years back was the direct correlation between the unit announcing ACCIDENT BLACKSPOT and just about to pass under a bridge.

I could only assume that the blackspot was actually caused by camera vans parked on the bridges and drivers slamming on the brakes causing a rear-end. Hardly suprising when you see all the vans sitting on the bridges on the M4 near Cardiff...

[Martin Keene]

Petrol_fumes said:

Odd on this.
I was actually driving last night and some bloke set a Gatso off going in the other direction, the flashes totally distracted me up me and i nearly piled into the car in front.

I have had that happen before, I was travelling along the A47 late one night and something travelling in the other direction set the camera off on the other side of the road and it went off right in my face... I couldn't see anything for what seemed like an eternity... but it was probalby only a few seconds. Scary...

[HUGE]

Martin Keene said:

Petrol_fumes said:

Odd on this.
I was actually driving last night and some bloke set a Gatso off going in the other direction, the flashes totally distracted me up me and i nearly piled into the car in front.

I have had that happen before, I was travelling along the A47 late one night and something travelling in the other direction set the camera off on the other side of the road and it went off right in my face... I couldn't see anything for what seemed like an eternity... but it was probalby only a few seconds. Scary...

Yup....one here on the A1....they've painted the markers on the other side of the road as it seemed people were driving on the wrong side to avoid the camera.
The net effect is you trigger the camera while it is facing you if you are going the other way...brilliant....
Can you imagine the Govt/police/scamera partnership's response if a private individual set up a powerful strobe light that blinded oncoming traffic....

[jasandjules]

Petrol_fumes said:

Odd on this.
I was actually driving last night and some bloke set a Gatso off going in the other direction, the flashes totally distracted me up me and i nearly piled into the car in front.

Yep, me too.

I wonder if Safespeed have a nice tape of that statement he made, if not, can anyone provide it to him? I suspect it is going to be played a lot in future (NOT by the BBC though I'll wager).

[thegamekeeper]

I wonder what would happen is someone claimed a Gatso had triggered an epileptic fit with its flashes and caused an accident. Surely the politically correct brigade would then be baying for them all to be torn down on safety grounds.. Just a thought sTeVeR

[supermono]

When I was exchanging emails with Edwards he once said of accidents that "...one recently happened in view of the mobile safety camera van happening at 83mph."

I think he was suggesting bizarrely that 83mph was the cause, not the blind panic caused by his revenue collecting machine suddenly appearing in view!

Maybe it's time I asked him again how exactly he justifies his existence since he's acknowledged a camera will cause just the effect he's already observed.

SM

[oogieboogie]

My 3 pts (which are due for removal in Feb) ocurred in Wycombe at about 11pm with a flash right in my face - fers - impaired vision for a couple of hundred yards. Clever tts aren't they?

[supermono]

Are you sure? I thought the only forward facing cameras that work flash some sort of megenta for this reason. A gatso (large square box, opposite carriageway) going off in your face might well cause the pile up but won't impose the speed tax.

SM

[autoart]

I posted this in the motoring section yesterday (sorry guys beat ya to it)...

Just watched a local news piece in TV in East Anglia region. A guy who lives on a country road that has a legal limit of 60MPH was getting fed up of cars travelling at this speed. He decided to take action into his own hands and build a full size Gatso in bright yellow, but being a country man, he made it from wood so he could turn it into a birds nest at the same time!!

The lense was made from the bottom of a jam jar and he positioned it near to a telegraph pole and had a false cable hanging from the Gatso/Birds nest to the pole. It had the desired effect in making drivers slow down. However, anti-camera bods tried to burn it down, and the official authorities do not like it either.

They kind of put their size 12 foot in it because they had a representative from the Gatso brigade explaining why they did not like it, and guess what his answer was...

... we think this will become a hazard to road users because drivers will see this camera and slow down, which could cause a collision!!!

At last they admit what we have always been saying about the hazards of speed cameras

ROFLMAO

[BliarOut]

Anyone ever travel on the A1 northbound towards Grantham? There are signs of a huge fireball on the tarmac directly under the Gatso. It's the most visible sign of cause and effect I've seen when you're talking about scameras. Would make a brilliant publicity picture

[fats25]

BliarOut said:

Anyone ever travel on the A1 northbound towards Grantham? There are signs of a huge fireball on the tarmac directly under the Gatso. It's the most visible sign of cause and effect I've seen when you're talking about scameras. Would make a brilliant publicity picture

You sure this was not an attempt to burn the thing down!

[oogieboogie]

supermono said:

Are you sure? I thought the only forward facing cameras that work flash some sort of megenta for this reason. A gatso (large square box, opposite carriageway) going off in your face might well cause the pile up but won't impose the speed tax.

SM

Yes it's set up that way. When I was flashed I wondered how I'd managed to set it off since I was oncoming, but the letter duly arrived in the post.

[Strawman]

BliarOut said:

There are signs of a huge fireball on the tarmac directly under the Gatso.

Was that a RTA , or someone trying to burn the Gatso down

[BliarOut]

Strawman said:

BliarOut said:

There are signs of a huge fireball on the tarmac directly under the Gatso.

Was that a RTA , or someone trying to burn the Gatso down

Deffo an RTA

There are two such marks on the A1 north both on the carriageway and they don't look like attempts to burn the scamera down.

[chrisbr68]

If there is a gatso on the other side of the road it can go off if you are doing a certain speed! Dont know the details, but I was in a friends car one night and he said watch this... accelerated and it went off, I think you had to do something like 45 in a 30. Its in Ickenham.

[cj_eds]

BliarOut said:

Strawman said:

BliarOut said:

There are signs of a huge fireball on the tarmac directly under the Gatso.

Was that a RTA , or someone trying to burn the Gatso down

Deffo an RTA

There are two such marks on the A1 north both on the carriageway and they don't look like attempts to burn the scamera down.

Suspect its an RTA since I've had all 4 locked up past one of those Truvelos approaching Grantham. Was caused by someone overtaking me, pulling in far too close in front and then slamming on the anchors cos he suddenly saw the devil box.

Bl**dy dangerous. And if it was meant to slow people down on the approach to the roundabout to avoid folk going into the back of a queue of traffic, then its not worked. All it has done is form two queues - one at the camera as everyone slows down (usually unnessecarily for the speed their doing) and then a second queue within 100m after folk have booted it away from the camera to suddenly hit the back of the queue.

Edited by cj_eds on Wednesday 17th January 13:23

[apache]

Bryn Edwards will probably be a tad embarassed by his gaffe (if he has a shred of decency) but that's all that will come of it. For some time now the SCPs have got away with murder (literally) and don't really give a fig for what the general public think.

A standard GATSO usually has white markings either side of the camera, not sure why, and they can be triggered if you bomb past them in the opposite direction (done it many a time) but I've never heard of anyone getting an NIP for it. Worth asking to see the evidence I'd say.

[james_j]

"...Speaking on BBC Look East on Tuesday, Bryan Edwards of the Norfolk Camera Partnership said: "What does concern me is of course if people put up fake cameras, motorists could be coming along at 70, think it is a camera, brake, or get distracted and that could actually cause a collision..."

What an admission! What a complete an utter idiot. To have admitted that your entire business, which is supposed to be in aid of safety is, as most intelligent people have worked out, a load of spin to justify an existence.

[lord summerisle]

Petrol_fumes said:

Odd on this.
I was actually driving last night and some bloke set a Gatso off going in the other direction, the flashes totally distracted me up me and i nearly piled into the car in front.

If they are investigating their effectiveness at reducing accidents, I'm fully behind a study looking at their influence on causing accidents

I've had that - passing a Gatso on a dual carrageway (thats been reduced to 30!) someone set the camera off as i was passing...double flash of the camera on a barely lit dualcarrageway! have you any idea how blinding that is? couldnt see.