Gatso Camera Flashed Before I Was At The White Lines?

hmmark1984 | 00:43 Tue 27th Jun 2023 | Motoring

16 Answers

I was driving through Purley the other night, i was being very careful with my speed due to the amazing number of 20mph sections all around london.

I approached a speed camera and as i was just barely in front of it (it felt like i was level with it at the time, but upon reviewing my dash cam i was a little in front of it) the camera went off.

At the time i remember thinking "who's that for?" and when looking back at the footage, to my eye it looks like i'm only going about 30, possibly less, and the limit on that section was 30, by the time the second flash has gone off, the front of my car is only just about at the start of the white lines on the road, the first flash goes off well before i'm at the first marking.

Can a GAtSO be triggered randomly? there was no one coming the other way, that i can see, but there were a few cars behind me, but i can't see them setting the camera off as i was barely in front of it when it went off.

I'm just a little confused as, to my eye and memory, i wasn't going over the limit, and i'd assume the fact that i hadn't even made it to the road markings by the second flash would corroborate that as, and i'm assuming here, the markings and the camera are presumably set up to take photos of speeding cars when they're within the lines as i believe they're used as a secondary measure of proof and to calibrate the exact speed?

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barry1010

If you was in front of the camera it could not have photographed you because the camera is rear facing and takes two photos of the back of your vehicle

hmmark1984

Question Author

In regards to the above, either you or i are getting confused by what being "in front" of the camera means.

I was approaching the camera's. There were two in the middle of the road, one pointed in each direction. The one closest to the right hand side of my car, had it's lenses pointed forwards from my viewpoint of approaching it, in other words as i approached i could just see it's blank back and to see the lenses, i'd have to drive past it and look backwards.

The opposite is true for the other cam as it's set up to get traffic going in the other direction.

So, i approached the camera, it's back/blank side facing me, as i was just equal/barely past it, the two flashes went off, so depending on the cameras field of view, it would, potentially, be taking a picture of the back of my car, however it took both pictures before the front wheels of my car had even made it onto the first of the little white measurement marks.

It'd be a lot easier to explain if i could post a link to pics/video

hmmark1984

Question Author

hopefully this is allowed, a link to the dashcam footage https://imgur.com/a/tteN401

hmmark1984

Question Author

After looking it up online it looks like it might be a SpeedCurb camera not a digital gatso, apparently they work off embedded sensors in the road, but looking at the road, the sensors are embedded starting at the second white line in the road, looking on google maps you can clearly see the lines where they were embedded and sealed over, however both flashes went off before i was anywhere near them.

douglas9401

A great advert for 'early to bed, early to rise' up there.

-- answer removed --

barry1010

I know how Gatso cameras work, not other cameras, so can't help further.
Hope somebody else can answer your question

Old_Geezer

Haven't read it all, but I know for sure motorway cameras can go off erroneously. Have had a couple of incidents in the past where I was flashed clearly under the shown speed limit. Didn't get any further contact from authorities. (Can only assume they realised there was an error when they saw the ridiculous number of alleged speeders from that camera overnight.)

barry1010

I've just read that the SpeedCurb cameras flash three times, I can only see one flash in your dashcam footage.
Shame your dashcam doesn't record your speed

hmmark1984

Question Author

There looks to be three flashes to me, all very quickly one after the other, but still three flashes

hmmark1984

Question Author

@Old_Geezer ok, well at least i know it's possible, was very confusing to see it apparently flash me. As, i hope, people will see from the vid, i wasn't going fast at all.

bhg481

That's exactly why I have my dashcam recording my speed and I keep all dashcam footage for a long time before over-writing it. It serves for timing in car parks as well, particularly those which you might visit twice in a day and the ir camera not notice you leaving first time.

New Judge

Assuming you are the Registered Keeper, you should know within 14 days whether or not you are suspected of speeding.

Chairman2001

If it's any comfort, in the past I've been flashed by a Gatso but heard nothing (so as OG said, presumably faulty and recognised as such by multiple occurrences).

hmmark1984

Question Author

For anyone interested, i used google maps, to get the distance from the start of my clip to the end of the clip, and did the maths using the clips length (7 seconds) to work out that, even allowing some wiggle room, my speed was at most 26mph. I've also not heard anything yet, with the 14 days having past this last Tuesday, although there is still some time as i lease my car. Still unsure why the camera flashed me, considering the speed i was doing was below the limit.