are police ignoring guidelines for speed cameras?

[Eevo]

this isnt a new article but i had not seen it before. i thought it was a good read.

https://practicalmotoring.com.au/voices/are-police-ignoring-guidelines-for-speed-cameras/

[debruiser]

Interesting read, not a huge amount there that I hadn't heard from different places before though.

I think at the end of the day, we just have to drive like LR owners and not speed, revenue raising is just another tax isn't it [bawl] it's bound to get worse.

[nismine01]

Eevo, as a resident of the Adelaide Hills myself and frequently driving Gorge Rd I think the line,

(In the Adelaide Hills, signs have gone up notifying motorists that “covert speed detection” devices have been deployed – covert means “hidden”. Such behaviour entrenches the belief that speed cameras are more about revenue than safety.) is well justified.

The number of fatalities of bikers who use that road as a racetrack and those that have scared the heck out of me when they have arrived unnoticed at high speed and just blasted past on corners, over double lines etc with no regard for their or other's lives deserve to be pinged, cameras covert or not.

Regards

Mike

[Tins]

Eevo, as a resident of the Adelaide Hills myself and frequently driving Gorge Rd I think the line,

(In the Adelaide Hills, signs have gone up notifying motorists that “covert speed detection” devices have been deployed – covert means “hidden”. Such behaviour entrenches the belief that speed cameras are more about revenue than safety.) is well justified.

The number of fatalities of bikers who use that road as a racetrack and those that have scared the heck out of me when they have arrived unnoticed at high speed and just blasted past on corners, over double lines etc with no regard for their or other's lives deserve to be pinged, cameras covert or not.

Regards

Mike

I agree about the speeding bikers bit, but it is a far more effective deterrent to have marked Police out there than to receive another bill in the mail, and Police presence might actually save a life on the day, whereas a windowed letter may just cause further distress to a grieving family, because "covert" cameras don't slow any one down.

[bee utey]

Aaah, makes me think of my misspent youth, fanging old bangers up and down Gorge Rd at very late hours.... just one low armco rail between a sliding sideways heap and the inky black water below, occasionally a rock fall to dodge. Never a cop bothered going out that way, no-one but the crazy yoof who couldn't sleep. Oh and it was of course a 110 zone not a 70. Kids these days can't have those sorts of thrills anymore, except if they do it in the Classic Adelaide rally. [biggrin]

[Pickles2]

I think that many of the points in that article are correct, & so could apply in many instances of speed camera use anywhere.
However, proving same would, in most cases, be a difficult & costly exercise, requiring a degree of technical knowledge not possessed by many.
Pickles.

[loanrangie]

My short stint in Adelaide 20 years ago had me frequenting the Gorge road quite a bit, my old GPZ750R did ok but my new VFR750 made it a pleasure [bigsmile1].

[Tins]

My short stint in Adelaide 20 years ago had me frequenting the Gorge road quite a bit, my old GPZ750R did ok but my new VFR750 made it a pleasure [bigsmile1].

Hmm. Back in my Army days I had a mate who lived somewhere near Talunga. Being a passenger with him in his Datto 1600 on that road is something that is etched in my memory, probably scarred me for life. Sadly, he and four others died in a head on with a truck somewhere near Cowangie, driving from Bandiana to Adelaide for the weekend. No open road speed limits in those days. Well, Victoria trialled a 70 MILE an hour speed limit around about that time, but it wasn't heavily enforced off the main highway, the Hume. Blokes used to be out the gate at 16:30 on the dot, drive to Adelaide through the night, spend the two days at home, and head off on Sunday night to back in time for Parade on Monday morning. Crazy. Even the main road through the Adelaide Hills was nuts in those days. I used to break the land speed record myself, but I was only going to Melb.

[AK83]

I apologise in advance for any rage I'm about to incite into the various members reading here, but that practical motoring article has to be the worst load of codswallop I've read in a long time!

Take this section of the article as an example of a lack of journalistic ability:

6.3.4 Responsibility of authorised operators
Authorised operators are to ensure that the speed detection device:
(v) Is not placed or stored on the dash board of a Service vehicle or carried externally of the vehicle whilst in motion except for a mobile radar device which is to be fitted in compliance with service policy.

Authors response:

A video shown on A Current Affair of a Porsche driver pulled over in Queensland clearly shows the speed detection device being placed on the dashboard. Quite simply, nobody checks or enforces the use, storage or placement of speed detection devices, and the guideline is regularly and blatantly contravened. This then raises the issue of how accurate the speed detection device may be if it has been mistreated or not handled in accordance with the manufacturer guidelines.

Does the author even know how to read?
Disregarding the silliness of using that doyen of journalism .. Current Affair!

I'm curious as to how the police managed to pull over the Porsche driver whilst still in motion?
The guidelines state that the speed detection device shouldn't be placed on the dashboard of the vehicle [B]whilst in motion .. which as I remember my physics education ... is hard to be in motion AND pull a driver over?
Unless the cops have some secret weapon that allows them to be able to pull a car over whilst in motion.

And the then the double standard he's advocating with the the general article .. that, according to his point of view, it's unacceptable for the police to ignore guidelines ... yet it's ok for everyone to break the law and speed.
Last I remember guidelines are just that .. guidelines, and in general many guidelines are a major waste of time!
But the law is the law ... break it, get pinged .. cop it on the chin ... move on with your life.
Don't break the law, don't be a hoon, not speeding generally never hurt anyone, give yourself a bit more time to get to your destination .. why is it the idiot mob that always complains about the speeding laws.
And really who gives a carp if other countries have 130k/h or faster speed limits .. if you want to drive faster just friggin move to those countries for christs sake!
At the least, get a proper education and learn how to read what you just wrote. Don't write tripe that makes you look like a fool!

[Tins]

I'm curious as to how the police managed to pull over the Porsche driver whilst still in motion?
The guidelines state that the speed detection device shouldn't be placed on the dashboard of the vehicle whilst in motion .. which as I remember my physics education ... is hard to be in motion AND pull a driver over?
Unless the cops have some secret weapon that allows them to be able to pull a car over whilst in motion.

Err, it's called lights and sirens, and I used to see it every day. ( Bear in mind, I haven't seen the vid in question, but, I suspect ,neither have you




And the then the double standard he's advocating with the the general article .. that, according to his point of view, it's unacceptable for the police to ignore guidelines ... yet it's ok for everyone to break the law and speed.
Last I remember guidelines are just that .. guidelines, and in general many guidelines are a major waste of time!


Police MUST follow the "guidelines", or their prosecutions will fail upon challenge, and that is how it should be, unless you are happy to be penalised for something that you didn't do. I am not. Police ignoring guidelines means that the accuracy of their speed testing devices can be questioned. There is no double standard.

No rage, you'll notice.

[Eevo]

yet it's ok for everyone to break the law and speed.


where did it say that?





But the law is the law ... break it, get pinged .. cop it on the chin ... move on with your life.

the police need to prove that law was broken. not that their poorly setup detector went off.



And really who gives a carp if other countries have 130k/h or faster speed limits ..

sour grapes?

[Pickles2]

Err, it's called lights and sirens, and I used to see it every day. ( Bear in mind, I haven't seen the vid in question, but, I suspect ,neither have you




Police MUST follow the "guidelines", or their prosecutions will fail upon challenge, and that is how it should be, unless you are happy to be penalised for something that you didn't do. I am not. Police ignoring guidelines means that the accuracy of their speed testing devices can be questioned. There is no double standard.

No rage, you'll notice.
Agree 1000%,.....that speed detection MUST be used in terms of user instructions/legality etc, because if they're NOT, it may be a case of "Do the crime, do the time", being unfairly enforced.
A retired friend of mine, who is very persistant, very conscious of his rights, challenged a speed camera reading, over the legality & accuracy of the reading, including several of the issues raised in that article.
He had no legal representative, represented himself, utilising some of the stuff in this article, and, after two years, the infringement was dropped, because the Police were lacking in several compliance issues, placement etc etc. Was it worth the trouble?,....to him it was,....He is like a dog with a bone on issues like this. Me?.. i don't think I could stand it over two years, but it DOES highlight that the subject title of this thread is obviously correct in some instances,......IF you have the tenacity, knowledge & determination to prove it!
Pickles.

[Gordie]

. Was it worth the trouble?,....to him it was,....He is like a dog with a bone on issues like this. Me?.. i don't think I could stand it over two years, but it DOES highlight that the subject title of this thread is obviously correct in some instances,......IF you have the tenacity, knowledge & determination to prove it!
Pickles.
Had a mate driving a speed limited(100) b-double on a flat piece of road, and as law abiding truckies on here will know, he couldn't really have been doing much more than that on a flat road....mobile radar (car full of cops on a mobile radar training course) pulled him over and booked him for 125kph. He stated that was ridiculous, fined anyway. Went straight to an agent for that truck engine manufacturer and had it downloaded, download said that the truck had done no more than 102kph that day. Sapol insisted on taking it to court. He fought it, he won. two day trial and $10k in costs, some of which he won back. Definitely out of pocket compared to the original fine. As I said to him, well done, you have more tenacity than me...I would have paid it and griped that I had been done an injustice, rather than go through all of that. But it goes to show...speed detection, especially mobile radar is not 100% and open to human operator error.

[Eevo]

and open to human operator error.


bingo. i've contest 3 speeding fines, gone to magistrates court and all 3 times the fine was dismissed as police/human error.