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Speeding Fines


Quillan
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I have just got done again in the same place for speeding and have had to pay a €45 fine on each occasion but I am getting a little worried and here is why.

Firstly my TomTom warns me I am in a 'dangerous area' which it did on both occasions.

Secondly and yes I know you have all heard it before but I do not intentionally speed. If I go anything faster it is only by about 5kph and when I realise I slow down. Both my tickets state I was doing in excess of 100kph in a 90kph limit.

Thirdly, being 'done' in the same place before I was obviously wary and ensured not only that I was not going faster than 90kph but actually slower.

Fourthly about 50M past the speed camera is one of those light up panels that tell you how fast you are going and I remember it was green (means you are inside the limit, if your over it gives your speed in red) and it said 80 something kph.

As I said I have paid the fine because I reckon it is the same as the UK, there is no form of evidence you can give therefore your are guilty.

My friend runs the local test station and has a rolling road so I am off on Monday to see if he can check the indicated speed against the road speed but I am getting rather worried.

Has anyone one had similar problems. I noticed they don't appear to be the same make of cameras in France as the UK, do the French cameras have a 'history' for problems and bum fines? By the way the calibration date and number are the same on both fines, 14th Nov 2012.

It just seems odd, same camera, same speed, same place. I did think when I got the first ticket that it was a bit high, I thought how odd, I might have been doing 95 by accident but over 100! I just can't see it but then the camera never lies as they say, but twice for exactly the same thing!

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[quote user="suein56"][quote user="Quillan"] By the way the calibration date and number are the same on both fines, 14th Nov 2013.[/quote]
Well, unless the camera is clairvoyant, that is definitely a mistake and surely gives you grounds to challenge its veracity.

Sue
[/quote]

Yes sorry habit, should be 2012.

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If the camera is faulty there should be a lot more people than you being caught so perhaps the shear number will prompt complaints from more people and the camera being rechecked. However I wouldn't hold my breathe about a refund either in France or the UK\ if\ the camera proves t\o be faulty
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I have never had a problem being wrong, or caught if you will, and putting my hand up. It's just a bit strange is all and I just got a feeling if you know what I mean. Just means in future I shall go through that area at 60kph which in my mind is equally as dangerous at times as speeding. My TomTom also tells me how fast I am going but I hardly ever look at it, I just go on what it tells me rather than what it shows me. I also suspect that there is nothing wrong with the car speedo but I shall still get it checked all the same.
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Some points to consider Q,

1. Your car speedometer is very likely 'out' by up to 10% in your favour.

2. Your GPS will indicate a much more accurate speed reading.

3. If the camera is at fault, chances are there are quite a few who are also being stung! Problem being trying to find out exactly how many, and if complaints have been raised.

I'd report the matter. There have been successful appeals relating to faulty cameras in GB, including false readings with some cameras when subjected to low operational temperatures.

Whether a successful appeal is possible in France however .............

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I know it doesn't help your situation but we have a speed camera near us that we witnessed flashed at nothing. We were approaching it down the hill and it just flashed, we were to far away and well under the speed limit anyway and there was nobody else within the area.

Maybe it was this..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvYxXBMqEOM

Sorry
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Coming into this a bit late but from what I can see, unless there is a lack of precise information on the PV concerning the location, serial no, type no, date of calibration and name of the organisation that calibrated it (which must apparently NOT be DRIRE or the manufacturer), it looks like you are on a hiding to nothing. Having said that, if the radar is not pointing at the correct angle, (25 degrees?) then it is reported that it can give significantly inaccurate measurements. It may be possible to work out the angle from the photo that you can obtain by writing to the national centre that processes the fines. However, to prove your innocence you would have to go to court.

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Thanks Pickles. As I said I have paid both fines anyway because having had a chat with one of our past guests who is a senior Gendarme the only normal way an individual can get out of paying is if it was not them driving at the time. In which case you need a statement from the other driver stating that he/she was driving the car at the time the offence took place. Considering it was me driving I couldn't see anyway out and his comments suggest I am sadly right.

Although as I said I am hopefully putting my car on a rolling road on Monday there is also the matter of the roadside speed indicator (some 50m from the camera) which was definitely green (I think it was showing something like 85 or 87kph) and I had not de-accelerated. The other funny thing was that because I was doing less than 90 a young chap in a car overtook me and I remember thinking that he was in for a ticket. I also didn't see a flash either but then it was only lightly overcast.

Oh well super slow next time I pass the place I guess.

Just as a matter of interest do these devices know if it is raining and adjust to the lower limit automatically? Nothing to do with this incident, it is just something I always wondered.

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That could explain it, he overtook you and tripped the camera and you get the ticket because yours was the only vehicle showing in the photos.

If thats the case I bet that by carefull examination of the 2 photos it will be seen that you were under the limit, the software however just reads the reg plate and sends out the amende, there is supposed to be human verification but................

I think that I got someone nicked like you did, I was descending a hill at 90KPH where there was a speed camera at the bottom, the car that was stuck to my rear bumper overtook me and then slammed on their brakes when they saw the camera, they locked up smoking the tyres, I chose avoiding action and overtook them as the next car behind might well not have braked, in doing so I accelerated to avoid inconveniencing the oncoming traffic, I set off the camera but never recieved une amende.

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Two cautionary tales:

1. A neighbour who had a right hand drive car could not reach across to pay at a toll booth. So she put on the hand-break got out, walked round and paid. A watching gendarme gave her an instant fine for not having turned-off the engine.

2. Same lady, on another occasion was pulled over by a motorcycle cop. "You did not stop at that stop sign".

"Oh I am sure I did", she replied.

He straightened his back, "Madame, I do not tell lies". Another instant fine.
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I did get fined for using a mobile phone even though I was in a traffic jam because of an accident further on. My engine was off and my door open and even after using it I had to wait another 30 minutes before we moved. My 'crime' was I used the phone on a public road in a car while being 'in control' of it, if I got out the car or moved the car of the road (obviously impossible at the time) it would have been OK. Think the fine was about €29. I told the Gendarmes I thought they were being a little overzealous and just got the old shoulder shrug. We used to have an older grey haired one with a mustache (made him very easy to spot) down town who would book anyone for anything however small. I said to a friend of mine as a joke that he would probably book his own mother given half the chance, my friend said he already had for not wearing a seat belt.
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Some of these comments have made me smile. In my village the gendarmes would lie in wait during the school run and get all the maman's on their way to and from picking up their sprogs. My friend was stopped on her way home from work....... and her son drove past, speeding and no seat belt and the gendarmes ignored him. In fact they exclusively stopped women, and usually found some reason to fine them.(No one ever saw them stop a man)

Sounds as if there is something wrong with this camera. What you should do about it, I'm not sure. Don't you know any gendarmes or people with a family member who is a gendarme? I'd be having a word with someone first, then I suppose asking at the Prefecture what happens if someone believes that there is a problem with a camera.

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[quote user="Quillan"]

I have just got done again in the same place for speeding and have had to pay a €45 fine[/quote]

See the problem is that you are subject to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.  Since you knew your exact location, it is impossible to precisely measure your speed [geek]

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You might well be right Pierre. Anyway I have just got back from my friends 'rolling road' and if anything my indicated speed is slightly higher than real speed so that theory is blown out. I did think the result was OK because we have a speed panel in my local town and when I approach at dead on 50 it says I am doing 47 or 48kph. I view that there is no evidence to the contrary I must have been speeding but I still think I wasn't and I would have been stupid not to pay attention especially when I knew there was a speed trap around. So to get in first, I am stupid. [:'(]
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