I hate.....The Metropolitan Police!

They are all silly-billies, i got pulled for "going too fast round a corner" i was doing 20mph round it and it was in a 30! i got the "who do you think you are? colin mcrae" curse word and put in the back of the car and while they were threatening me at the end of the street 2 blokes were kicking the curse word out of eachother full on! DO YOUR JOB YOU STUPID PIGS!

I thought I was. No despite being dual carriageway (no pedestrians or anything) the road is 30mph. So I'm screwed!!!!!!!!!

The van was positioned approx. 50m before the 50mph speed limit signs. At the bottom of the slope down from a flyover - so pretty difficult to be doing 30mph!! Also the van was not conspicously marked and was sticking out into the road sightly.

My only hope really now is that they hadn't calibrated the camera recently prior to me being zapped - AFAIK if the camera hasn't been calibrated in the 48 hours prior to the "offence" then it's inadmissable as evidence.

Stupid thing is, if I'd been caught doing 43 down a residential street, then I'd gladly take the fine and the points - that IS naughty behaviour. But this is a freekin red-routed dual carriageway - why the frazzle does it need to be 30 mph???

These cameras are just for generating revenue for sure...

1. You're never gonna see speed traps in my street (also 30mph limit - where there are pedestrians, children playing and we are 100m from the local primary school). But the thing is, if they did AND ONLY CAUGHT ONE PERSON DOING 40 then it would be a worthwhile excercise surely - that person may not speed in a residential area again.

2. The siting of this camera at the foot of a hill shows it was cynically positioned to catch people out - especially give that I was flashed at TEN PAST MIDNIGHT

3. Cameras catch people going a bit quick. BUT NO-ONE ELSE. If there were proper Feds dealing with these traffic issues would catch people doing REAL driving offences.
Who is causing the greater danger in these circumstances?
Me, doing 43 mph in my well-maintained car which is MOT'd, taxed nd insured??
Or a guy driving along at 29mph having drunk ten pints smoked two biftas and snorted some charlie in an un-MOT'd car with no insurance or tax and no brakes. Hell they could even drive with their lights turned off. As long as they do 29.....then they are "SAFE".....Its a crazy, screwed up world, that's for sure!

The b*stards do these things in such a way that you know, and they know, they're only out to make money. Can't help noticing that most of these cameras are not placed where they should be stopping speeders, in built up areas, near schools, the local ned racetracks where people can and do get run over by drugged up eejits drag racing each other, but on deserted roads where they can ambush people who were going at a speed that wasn't dangerous to them or anyone else!

And as you say, you can't even act sheepish and say "very sorry officer" anymore since all the human beings enforcing the law have been replaced with spying devices Nineteen Eighty Four style!

Even then the human coppers aren't all that great these days. Not long ago I got pulled in a very good condition Volvo 740, on the way to hospital with a mate who'd been hurt at work and needed his back checked, and I wasn't even speeding, when a couple of FASCIST TOSSBAGS coppers pulled us and proceeded to start checking the condition of the car, and insurance and tax etc. I asked what this was all about, starting to get a bit raging, and was told that since they had saw a couple of young guys in an old car they had thought they'd better make sure it wasn't an old banger. Bad mistake. By this time I was well raging, and told them that the car had been in my family and perfectly maintained for the past 16 years, and was in better condition than the heap of a clapped out mk3 diesel Fiesta panda car they had pulled me in, and that if they didn't get to f*ck right away and let me get on with what I was doing then I'd report them for pestering me without a reason, which really isn't on considering the current state of this town, there are plenty of things a couple of coppers could be doing with their time, such as finding the guys who sell ecstasy to 13 year olds and the b*stards who wait outside the post offices and stab old grannies who've just got their pension money, at which point it was them who got a bit sheepish and said that that would be all, then promptly got into their sh*theap panda and drove off. I took a not of their number plate and did report them by the way, what they think they're doing robbing people blind with cameras then treating us like sh*t like a bunch of f*cking Nazis is beyond me!

my special constable friend at work informs me that mobile cameras have to be recalibrated EVERY DAY - to allow for packing them away and being moved around in a bumpy van. So ask for the calibration certificate.

It was at night - is there only you insured for your car? Chances are the picture will be complete poo so if they can't show you driving and there is more than one named driver, it would be perjury to incriminate someone based on 'best guess'.

how long did it take for the notice to arrive? more than 14 days, just send it back with a note stating this.

ask for the photos anyway - draws it out a bit and p'sses them off plus you can frame it.

For the time being paper licences are valid... so don't worry too much about that, mate.

Can I just take the case *in favour* of the fuzz for a moment <pauses for deluge of empty beer cans, kebab wrappers and insults>. More often than not, the Police themselves don't agree with these damn speed cameras, after all these things have meant less coppers on the road and hence less coppers employed. And yes, they are just for revenue generation, we all know this - and I am old enough to remember the days pre Gatso of being pulled over for speeding (and being let off a very silly speed in my Imp cos the copper "couldn't believe it could go so fast") and it was fairer - if you were polite and couteous to the fuzz, saying that you wouldn't do it again they did occasionally let you off with a warning. And you slowed down for the rest of your journey.

A Gatso camera just fines people for committing a crime. It does not slow motorists down, as most floor-it around until they see a camera then slam on the anchors! Yeah, safe! It doesn't actually do anyting about the curse word driving that you have to put up with these days, as the coppers aren't out to keep an eye on the traffic any more.

Contraversial view time: I believe that EVERYONE should retake their driving test every five years. It would keep the wallies off the road who just scrape through after 30+ tests and would improve everyone's awareness. The ban speed cameras - use the money to employ decent policemen to police the streets, not sit in offices & canteens waiting to scrape the mess off the motorway (I have a mate who's a road traffic officer, y'see). And then rather than give people fines for speeding & points, give points to idiots that drive dangerously. There is a difference between speeding (such as 43 on a 30mph dual carriageway.. I mean WTF?) and weaving between the cars on a busy motorway cos you are too impatient to go with the flow.

I'm certainly not in favour of slowing down the roads - speed doesn't kill anyone, but rapid deceleration does have its problems! ;D And show me a man driving a fast car in the slow lane - and I'll show you the man who should be driving a Daewoo Matiz... diesel automatic.

Nick, I really sympathise - its f*ckin unfair. But I'm not sure its the Police's fault. They only uphold the law that is thrust upon them and FWIW, I'm sure that most coppers would have let that one go - or at least given you a warning - if it had been the 'traditional' method.

As an aside - isn't it slightly ironic that one of the few Dutch racing driver families should invent such a thig as the speed camera?

Its a f*cked up world!

Yes....but it's got the wrong jeffing address on it! They can fine you heartily for that!

I feel like "necklacing*" the feckin' things every time I pass one!

*Necklacing: Sling an old car tyre around the camera, filling with petrol and ignite it. £3k worth of damage for 5 mins work. Can't be bad.

That speed-trap.co.uk site is really good! Really helps to "know your enemy".
Apparently there is a shady organisation of hacked-off motorists who go around taking the cameras out. I fully support them! Wish they'd come to Nottingham...
Having said that I have seen plenty with the lenses sprayed over with paint which makes me smile .

My OH only passed her test about 18 months ago, so she's super careful about speed limits.... (for the first 2 years you only get 6 points and then banned ) She sticks to dead on the speed on the speedo, so you get some numpty right on her tail or overtaking in a stupid place.....

My argument against speed cameras is they do nothing to catch the people with no licence, tax MOT, insurance Ect that are the real danger on the road.