Caught speeding? BBC1 at 7:30 tonight
12 September 2005, 03:36 PM
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Caught speeding? BBC1 at 7:30 tonight
From the BBC:
'Slipping' speed guns may result in innocent South West drivers being fined
Claims that a hand-held speed gun - used by Police and Camera Safety
Partnerships across Devon and Cornwall - can give an inaccurate reading by
'slipping' are made by BBC South West's Inside Out programme tonight at 7.30pm on BBC ONE.
The 'slipping' effect is caused when the gun's infra-red pulses are disrupted
by the operator moving the beam down the side of the vehicle instead of keeping it steady. When this happens the gun can be effectively tricked, interpreting the movement of the beam as speed, and the length of the car is added to the distance actually travelled.
With the LTi 20-20 speed gun being used across Devon and Cornwall this could lead to South West motorists receiving unfair fines.
In tonight's programme Dr Michael Clark, independent consultant to the traffic
and communications industries, commenting on the effect of a potential
'slipping' error, says: "If someone’s doing just below 70 mph on a motorway
that puts him up in the 90’s and they’re going to be done by the police for
sure."
Professor of engineering and author John Brignell believes that for an
operator, pointing the gun at a car 500 meters away, the movement needed to slip off the number plate and down the side of a vehicle is minute. He says:
"Very roughly, without doing any calculations, we are talking about the camera moving about the thickness of a human hair."
And even in an experiment carried out by Inside Out presenter Samantha Smith, pointing the gun along the side of a stationary car, the device registered a speed of six mph. When the test was then carried out on a truck travelling at about 30 mph, a false result was obtained 7 out of 22 times. Wrong speeds of up to 56 mph were displayed by the gun.
Teletraffic, the importers of the UK approved LTi 20-20 speed camera, claim it
is impossible to register a false reading from a moving target. The company
adapts the American LTi 20-20 guns to follow British specifications.
Presenter Sam Smith says: "Unfortunately Teletraffic, the Police and the Home Office declined to take part in the programme which meant we were unable to obtain a British version of the LTi 20-20 for our experiments, so Dr Clark simply proved such misreadings can happen with the American speed gun too."
The Association of Chief Police Officers claim the experiment was 'misleading'
as the UK approved speed gun uses different 'error-trapping' software.
Yet a report, obtained by Inside Out and written by Frank Garratt, Managing
Director of Teletraffic, strongly suggests both versions of the LTi 20-20 are
the same. His report says the gun used by British Police is identical to the
version used by NASA. And NASA then told Inside Out that the version they use is the American version. All of which seems to suggest that the UK and American speed guns are identical.
Using the Freedom of Information Act the Inside Out investigation has also
discovered that the Home Office does not test for the 'slip effect' as part of
the approval process for these devices.
'Slipping' speed guns may result in innocent South West drivers being fined
Claims that a hand-held speed gun - used by Police and Camera Safety
Partnerships across Devon and Cornwall - can give an inaccurate reading by
'slipping' are made by BBC South West's Inside Out programme tonight at 7.30pm on BBC ONE.
The 'slipping' effect is caused when the gun's infra-red pulses are disrupted
by the operator moving the beam down the side of the vehicle instead of keeping it steady. When this happens the gun can be effectively tricked, interpreting the movement of the beam as speed, and the length of the car is added to the distance actually travelled.
With the LTi 20-20 speed gun being used across Devon and Cornwall this could lead to South West motorists receiving unfair fines.
In tonight's programme Dr Michael Clark, independent consultant to the traffic
and communications industries, commenting on the effect of a potential
'slipping' error, says: "If someone’s doing just below 70 mph on a motorway
that puts him up in the 90’s and they’re going to be done by the police for
sure."
Professor of engineering and author John Brignell believes that for an
operator, pointing the gun at a car 500 meters away, the movement needed to slip off the number plate and down the side of a vehicle is minute. He says:
"Very roughly, without doing any calculations, we are talking about the camera moving about the thickness of a human hair."
And even in an experiment carried out by Inside Out presenter Samantha Smith, pointing the gun along the side of a stationary car, the device registered a speed of six mph. When the test was then carried out on a truck travelling at about 30 mph, a false result was obtained 7 out of 22 times. Wrong speeds of up to 56 mph were displayed by the gun.
Teletraffic, the importers of the UK approved LTi 20-20 speed camera, claim it
is impossible to register a false reading from a moving target. The company
adapts the American LTi 20-20 guns to follow British specifications.
Presenter Sam Smith says: "Unfortunately Teletraffic, the Police and the Home Office declined to take part in the programme which meant we were unable to obtain a British version of the LTi 20-20 for our experiments, so Dr Clark simply proved such misreadings can happen with the American speed gun too."
The Association of Chief Police Officers claim the experiment was 'misleading'
as the UK approved speed gun uses different 'error-trapping' software.
Yet a report, obtained by Inside Out and written by Frank Garratt, Managing
Director of Teletraffic, strongly suggests both versions of the LTi 20-20 are
the same. His report says the gun used by British Police is identical to the
version used by NASA. And NASA then told Inside Out that the version they use is the American version. All of which seems to suggest that the UK and American speed guns are identical.
Using the Freedom of Information Act the Inside Out investigation has also
discovered that the Home Office does not test for the 'slip effect' as part of
the approval process for these devices.
12 September 2005, 10:01 PM
#5
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This was on an Inside Out programme a while back I thought. www.abd.org.uk have the details I think...
12 September 2005, 10:11 PM
#6
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HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!
I have yet to hear someone on this BBS say, "I got caught speeding and I am innocent!!"
What we DO hear is, "I was doing 60 in a 30 outside a school at 8:45am - how can I get off?" - "It's so, so, so, so unfair!!" BoooooHooooooo
Pathetic!!
Pete
I have yet to hear someone on this BBS say, "I got caught speeding and I am innocent!!"
What we DO hear is, "I was doing 60 in a 30 outside a school at 8:45am - how can I get off?" - "It's so, so, so, so unfair!!" BoooooHooooooo
Pathetic!!
Pete
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12 September 2005, 11:40 PM
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Originally Posted by pslewis
HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!
I have yet to hear someone on this BBS say, "I got caught speeding and I am innocent!!"
What we DO hear is, "I was doing 60 in a 30 outside a school at 8:45am - how can I get off?" - "It's so, so, so, so unfair!!" BoooooHooooooo
Pathetic!!
Pete
I have yet to hear someone on this BBS say, "I got caught speeding and I am innocent!!"
What we DO hear is, "I was doing 60 in a 30 outside a school at 8:45am - how can I get off?" - "It's so, so, so, so unfair!!" BoooooHooooooo
Pathetic!!
Pete
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