Safe Speed Forums

The Surrey and Hants Star reports:

http://www.shstar.co.uk/story.asp?intid=2380

SPEED CAMERA GETS IT WRONG - by CLIFF MOGG

A POLICE speed camera error on the notorious A325 road at Farnborough led to the wrong motorist being prosecuted, it was revealed this week.
Mrs Wendy Fitzpatrick was stunned when she received a fixed penalty notice claiming she had broken the speed limit on the 30mph dual carriageway section of the road earlier this month.
She protested that she had not been speeding – and after initially refusing to budge, the police now agree with her.
In an amazing admission, they said the speed limit was being broken by a car travelling in the opposite direction.
The speed device had clocked that car doing 36mph, but had photographed the number plate of her Vauxhall Astra Estate.
Mrs Fitzpatrick, who lives in Dorset, said on Monday: “How many other motorists has this happened to, with the result that they have been fined and had points placed on their licence?
“They say the camera never lies, but it did in my case.”
She said it was only her inside knowledge of the speed camera system, gained from her previous job, that forced police to admit they had made a mistake.
“If it hadn’t been for my persistence I could have lost my 45-year clean driving record,” said Mrs Fitzpatrick who lived in the Farnborough area until two years ago.
She has now written to Hampshire Chief Constable Paul Kernaghan protesting at the stress and worry the incident caused her.
Julian Hewitt, press spokesman for the Safety Camera Partnership which oversees the speed traps, blamed the incident on two human errors and one by a machine.
He said the initial slip-up was caused by the camera operator moving his camera too rapidly between the speeding car and Mrs Fitzpatrick’s vehicle.
“The digitising system that picks up the offences identified the wrong car,” he said.
Mr Hewitt said normally such an error was picked up during the rigorous checking system in his office.
“This is a very rare coincidence of three failures in that system, and we are confident that it does not represent a significant problem,” he added.

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Paul Smith
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