was I flashed by a speed camera?

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was I flashed by a speed camera?

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Last night I was driving up the M42 in the pouring rain, in the so-called "smart motorway" section, where the speed limits often change up and down every other gantry when it's busy. On the section just before you get to the toll road, within 2 minutes (I checked on my dashcam) the speed limits went 60,60,60,60, 50,60
Needless to say, even though it has quite hard at times in heavy rain and spray to see whether the sign reads 60 or 50, I made sure I was doing the limit, but as I went under the gantry that read 50, as the gantrys there are so close together I was probably doing about 58 at a guess, and 2 lights flashed from somewhere above, I assume the gantry. The distance between the two gantrys took about 13 seconds.
The next gantry was at 60 again just a few yards later.
I have seen elsewhere on the internet that these gantrys are notorious for random flashes, but I always thought those cameras worked on averages, in which case to be speeding I would have to have carried on at 60 from the first 50 gantry to the next one that read 60 or am I wrong? It has got me really wound up this morning to think I may have been done. Unfortunately I don't have gps on the dashcam so I can't prove the speed but I know what I was doing.
Any thoughts or should I just watch out for the postman and then argue the toss ?
 
I think gantry cameras are instant not avrages.
due to lines on the road
but 50 +10% =55 +4 discression in 59
if car speed o is 10% out 58 = 52.2 mph

besides, im sure their should be a law stating 2 ganrtys previous sateing speed before new speed is set

you sure that gantry had cameras?
 
I think gantry cameras are instant not avrages.
due to lines on the road
but 50 +10% =55 +4 discression in 59
if car speed o is 10% out 58 = 52.2 mph

besides, im sure their should be a law stating 2 ganrtys previous sateing speed before new speed is set

you sure that gantry had cameras?
Yes I think it did, but to be honest it was chucking it down so it's hard to be sure. I don't know if there are any laws or guidelines but it's blo*dy difficult to watch them, watch the traffic (more important!) and keep up with the changing up and down of the given speed limit, especially in the dark and P*ssing rain! And often these limits seem to have been set at random.
 
If you were doing an indicated 60 chances are you wouldn't have triggered it assuming as Daz says 10% speedo error (or even 5%), and the ACPO guidelines of 10% + 2mph you need to be doing an actual 57mph to get nicked .Source. Although that is obviously reliant on guidelines being followed.

However it's just a waiting game...it'll pitch up or it won't.
 
If you were doing an indicated 60 chances are you wouldn't have triggered it assuming as Daz says 10% speedo error (or even 5%), and the ACPO guidelines of 10% + 2mph you need to be doing an actual 57mph to get nicked .Source. Although that is obviously reliant on guidelines being followed.

However it's just a waiting game...it'll pitch up or it won't.
So that would be the equivalent of a gatso camera attached to the same pole as a speed limit sign. I.e no gap between the speed limit sign and the camera. That isn't right surely??
 
Earlier this year I heard that the +10% + 2mph rule had been changed, but I don't know what the new rule is, the police apparently don't want everyone to know!

Still quoted on the Crown prosecution service website, so unless they are spreading misinformation now, would still seem apply. Although they have always had guideline status i.e. ignore them as long as they do so consistently.

So that would be the equivalent of a gatso camera attached to the same pole as a speed limit sign. I.e no gap between the speed limit sign and the camera. That isn't right surely??

You can get nicked travelling at 60mph in a 30mph if you haven't passed the National limit sign yet even if you're 15ft away you're still in a 30. As for enforcement cameras they do all sorts with them so just because something isn't "fair play" doesn't rule it out to me.
 
Earlier this year I heard that the +10% + 2mph rule had been changed, but I don't know what the new rule is, the police apparently don't want everyone to know!

Still quoted on the Crown prosecution service website, so unless they are spreading misinformation now, would still seem apply. Although they have always had guideline status i.e. ignore them as long as they do so consistently.

Its only a guideline though isn't it, not an actual rule per say :confused:
 
Its only a guideline though isn't it, not an actual rule per say :confused:

I think you're right, didn't the chief constable of South Wales have an obsession with speed a bout 10-15 years ago and wanted a zero tolerance on speeding I,e 1mph over the limit = a ticket, I seem to think he was told he couldn't do that but they still had far stricter tolerance for speeding 2-3mph over reguardless of limit so 72 in a 70 would get you a fine

Edit: Note the device tolerance in the table in this document http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/uniformed/2013/201305-uoba-joining-forces-safer-roads.pdf
 
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I think you're right, didn't the chief constable of South Wales have an obsession with speed a bout 10-15 years ago and wanted a zero tolerance on speeding I,e 1mph over the limit = a ticket, I seem to think he was told he couldn't do that but they still had far stricter tolerance for speeding 2-3mph over reguardless of limit so 72 in a 70 would get you a fine

Edit: Note the device tolerance in the table in this document http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/uniformed/2013/201305-uoba-joining-forces-safer-roads.pdf

Reading that again gives 10% + 2, device tolerance is interesting, they only expect the detector to give within 2mph at 50 and below..and within 3 mph above 66.
 
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I think you are asking the same as me. If you go under a series of gantrys signed at 60, can you be "flashed" by the first gantry that says 50 if you are doing closer to 60 than 50?
I suppose yes is the answer however unsporting it seems, especially in torrential rain in the dark when it is difficult to tell the difference between the 2 speeds displayed.
 
....especially in torrential rain in the dark when it is difficult to tell the difference between the 2 speeds displayed.

If you did not have time to tell the difference between the signs, you were probably going too fast for the conditions regardless of the speed limit
frown.gif
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