Speed Trap Question

Cole

On the Cashel by-pass today, I drove past a Garda speed trap.
There was just one Garda leaning on the roof of his squad car, holding a speed gun.
He had the gun up to his eye, aimed at oncoming traffic, obviously. I was well over the speed limit, but was not stopped. He didn't seem to take any notice.

My question..can they take video/photos to record reg plates with these hand held guns?

Thanks

Seth Brundle

Yes they can but as the hardware is not widely available around the country, I would imagine he was just using a standard hairdryer and would have had to leave his donughts and go out and stop you in order to fine/punish you.

Big Nelly

Just a standard hair dryer....the one with camera is a big thing and they use it on a tri-pod so wouldnt be this....he was prob waiting for someone to come up way over the limit.....most of the time they will not bother if by themselves to go after everyone that is a few miles over limit.....

chrismon

i was told by a guard i know that they have to stop you if they are only using the standard hairdryer

5500

More than likely a lazer,hairdryers arent relaly that common here anymore except for the remotest parts of the aran islands,they only display your speed with no picture and a seperate gaurd would normally stand out and pull you so id say you got away with it alright

Our man in Havana

chrismon wrote:

i was told by a guard i know that they have to stop you if they are only using the standard hairdryer

That is correct! Photographic evidence is needed for postal punishment!

Pataman

Wasnt it changed recently, to allow the word of the guarda be enough?

Our man in Havana

Pataman wrote:

Wasnt it changed recently, to allow the word of the guarda be enough?

Nope. Its still Intercept for Garda with no camera or Photo for non intercept.

If it was Gardas word only, they could just sit at the doughnut shop and write down numbers and say they were speeding.

Pataman

Oh you cynic.

Our man in Havana

I was a traffic warden in a prior existance and I can confirm that it used to happen.

member101

if you get caught by a camera \ guard and not stopped - how long before you get the letter in the post? Days or months? (don't know how efficient their system is!)

Our man in Havana

Depends on the district that caught you. Some are very fast <1 week as others eg Dublin Metro area are very slow >2 months.

elexes

i was cought on that spot i think . i stopped . but it did take close to 7 months after i paid to get a notise that points had been added ..

Villain

He probably had the gun set very high, a garda I know told me a story one day about himself and the local Seargant doing a speed check near Kilkenny. He said they set the gun at 70mph (in a 60mph zone) and they were nearly stopping every car so the Seargant said turn it up so he went to 80 and still they were getting a lot of cars so eventually he said turn it up to 90.

Unless Gardai are looking for easy cash (i.e. before xmas to cover the overtime) they will give you 10-15 above the limit.

Victor

irish1 wrote:

Unless Gardai are looking for easy cash (i.e. before xmas to cover the overtime) they will give you 10-15 above the limit.

But the Garda gets no money from fines.

Villain

Not directly Victor.

t5pwr

I was talking to a guard who does speed checks in a 50mph zone and he said that they only pull people doing over 65mph, it was on a dual carriageway. It was back in the mph days :rolleyes:

But I think that it depends on the guard that is doing the check as well as you do hear of people being pulled over in in 30 zones doing about 32.

But they do have to pull you over unless they have photograpic evidence.

Seth Brundle

Victor wrote:

But the Garda gets no money from fines.

True - the money goes straight to the exchequer.

However, there is truth in the fact that gardai deliberatley choose easy prey when it comes to speed detection. This was confirmed at the recent AGSI conference where the audience was told that gardai are sent out to basically get statistics so that they do well in internal garda leagues. if a station does poorly then they could lose a man!