RE: Scamera partnership messes up

RE: Scamera partnership messes up

Friday 23rd June 2006

Scamera partnership messes up

'I knew it wasn't me caught on camera'


'We rarely mess up'
'We rarely mess up'
A driver accused of speeding has had her ticketing decision reversed as the local camera partnership admitted its mistake.

Donna Frampton was driving on a dual carriageway -- Wessex Way in Bournemouth -- and passed a speed camera she knew about, ensuring that she was driving at no more than the 50mph limit. Despite this, she got a ticket accusing her of driving at 58mph.

She called the central ticket office to complain, said it wasn't her, that there was a car in the other lane, and demanded to see the photo taken by the scamera. Two hours later, she got a call to say that the system had messed up, and that she was in the clear. The ticket should have gone to an overtaking car, according to the story in the Dorset Echo (link below).

The scamera partnership said that it had made a mistake, that an investigation would be held, and that it was normally very very accurate, honest.

Naturally, this begs the question as to whether the scamera should have been there in the first place, and how many people just pay up without checking that the photo is actually of them at all. There's a moral there for us all.

Author
Discussion

Stubby Pete

Original Poster:

2,488 posts

247 months

Friday 23rd June 2006
quotequote all
Anybody willing to bet that the other car didn't initially get a ticket too and the car parked on the side of the road and any other number plate that could be read within the picture!!!???

These Scameras just try it on sometimes, if they get away with it more money, if they don't, tax payers foot the bill for the paperwork.

The whole thing is a joke, (not that I'm pi$$ed off with being caught or anything), I'm willing to bet that in the next ten years there will be franchises for vans/static cameras for sale by local authorities.

peter pan

1,253 posts

225 months

Friday 23rd June 2006
quotequote all
I thought if two vehicles appeared in a scamera photo, they couldnt proceed with an NIP owing to reasonable doubt especially if a car was undertaking as posted elswhere on this forum.

james_j

3,996 posts

256 months

Friday 23rd June 2006
quotequote all
Now there's a lesson...always question their attempt to extort your money from you, despite their threats of worse if you do and lose.

SWoll

18,512 posts

259 months

Friday 23rd June 2006
quotequote all
Don't they take 2 pictures a second apart and decide who is guilty by measuring the distance covered by the vehicle between the 2 pictures? Then undertaking isn't an issue.

10 Pence Short

32,880 posts

218 months

Friday 23rd June 2006
quotequote all
The ACPO guidelines say that if there is a risk that two vehicles are in the beam, then the evidence should be discarded.

I also didn't realise, that GSM phones interfere at different levels with nearly all the approved devices, and the guidelines state that the digital TETRA radios must be either switched off or set to 'transmit inhibit'.

fnegroni

29 posts

219 months

Friday 23rd June 2006
quotequote all
This shows that:
1) If you get NIPped, it is in your best interest to demand photographic evidence.
2) If it was you, and you think there was something wrong, let the Police know in your statement and take the case to court.

I am myself fighting my case and as all people with some brain, I can't wait to see the day when speed cameras will be banned forever.

XTR2Turbo

1,533 posts

232 months

Friday 23rd June 2006
quotequote all
The problem is that alot of the partnerhips refuse to give the evidence (even though they must) and just intimidate public into confessing.

Appalling situation

David

Bl4ckR4t

1 posts

217 months

Friday 23rd June 2006
quotequote all
10 Pence Short said:
The ACPO guidelines say that if there is a risk that two vehicles are in the beam, then the evidence should be discarded.


That's only partly right. It should be clear from the first photo which vehicle has triggered the shot. In that case it's OK. Where two vehicles are in the shot, *and* level with each other in the first photo, then the ACPO say the evidence should be discarded. But even so, the guidlines are as the name suggests, purely 'guidelines', which can be ignored or altered by local policy!

Ultimately, the offending vehicle can be identified on a time distance calculation using the second photo.

MrsMiggins

2,816 posts

236 months

Friday 23rd June 2006
quotequote all
Bl4ckR4t said:
10 Pence Short said:
The ACPO guidelines say that if there is a risk that two vehicles are in the beam, then the evidence should be discarded.


That's only partly right. It should be clear from the first photo which vehicle has triggered the shot. In that case it's OK. Where two vehicles are in the shot, *and* level with each other in the first photo, then the ACPO say the evidence should be discarded. But even so, the guidlines are as the name suggests, purely 'guidelines', which can be ignored or altered by local policy!

Ultimately, the offending vehicle can be identified on a time distance calculation using the second photo.

I thought you needed primary evidence, the triggering of the camera, and secondary evidence, the photos, to get a conviction? If there are 2 vehicles in the first shot how can you prove which one triggered the camera? That leaves you with secondary evidence only.

Hard-Drive

4,098 posts

230 months

Monday 26th June 2006
quotequote all
EXACTLY the same thing happened to me, last year, A45 Coventry. Charges also dropped as "the photograph was not clear".

99.99% accurate my arse.

cdp

7,465 posts

255 months

Monday 26th June 2006
quotequote all
Stubby Pete said:
Anybody willing to bet that the other car didn't initially get a ticket too and the car parked on the side of the road and any other number plate that could be read within the picture!!!???

These Scameras just try it on sometimes, if they get away with it more money, if they don't, tax payers foot the bill for the paperwork.


I doubt they deliberately "try it on"; they're not that clever! It's probably more as you say where anything with a readable plate gets a NIP. If a stolen number plate was left in the road it would probably receive a ticket too....