Safe Speed Forums

I was driving this morning on a single carriageway NSL road which then drops to 40 and then 30. As is not untypical, the 30mph zone is rather extensive before it becomes a semi-built up area. While my speed was declining it could well still have been over 30, and it was at this point that I saw what I thought was a camera van in the distance since I have seen them there before. I scrubbed off speed rather quickly, though I was confident no-one was behind since the road is dead straight for a long way with no junctions, and moments earlier it was clear as far as I could see. Once I'd got a bit closer to the 'camera van' I realised it was in fact a Skoda Octavia estate with it's boot open. I felt rather silly.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Or has anyone seen it happen? Granted it wasn't a great piece of observation but in my defence Lancs SCP use Ford Galaxys by opening the rear door which aren't too dissimilar from many estate cars with their boot open.

Surely I'm not the only one to have over-reacted at the sight of an innocent car with the boot open. Or am I?

Indeed you are not the only one!

I'm paranoid about nearly every white van parked at the side of the road these days - even though my speed is acceptable by the scamerati standards. I find myself checking my speedo on my approach to 'workies' having a fly cup of tea in a lay-by!

Quite.

Perfectly normal in topsy turvey speed camera land where real road hazards are sometimes given less priority than parked constructors vehicles.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Regularly.



But they wouldn't tell you if they changed vehicles.

I've seen a Vauxhall Zafira used as a scamvan in West Yorks.

it has been suggested to place unmanned at specific sites in the past

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now retired

Hants Traffic police own at least one dark coloured octavia unmarked car so your caution was not wrong.

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

nah.

in times of old, travellers could become paranoid and nervous of highwaymen out to rob them...

nothing really ever changes. except the latter day type are hardly robin hood. just robbin'.

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

Well at least I'm not going mad. Like I said originally, I felt kinda silly as I passed this completely innocent car, but then I started to get angry that I'd jumped at the sight of someone having their boot open. While I very much doubt it would have caused a problem if there had of been a car behind, the driver could well have thought I did it on purpose to annoy him/her if they hadn't realised why I braked.

Good old Lancs SCP who have a nice blending in trick. During the summer they park on the sea front just south of the Pleasure Beach with all the other holiday visitors, who also have the tail gates open to unload their cars.

I drive through Wiltshire studying every white van and every motorcycle I see. They don't have the tailgates open there, they just open a specially modifed rear window and hide inside the van, filming you at great distances.

I was filmed with the infamous dodgyscope which missed my car altogether at 720+ metres and somehow managed to get a false reading at 10mph over what I was doing.

After spending nearly 18 months proving my innocence (innocent 'til proven guilty - yeah right) I am more interested in a little white spec in the distance than I am in real road hazards.

I drove from Cirencester to Swindon yesterday and passed through a very badly signed temporary 40mph limit on the A419? and because of its almost invisible signage I actually went back and videoed the whole length of road.

I travelled it doing 40mph and was nearly hit several times by traffic coming up behind me far too fast.

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If you're right, did your heels in
If you're wrong, admit it!

Sink the scameraships
Give us back our Police Force

Don't worry, you're not the only one! I've panic braked at the sight of (what turned out to be) innocent contractors' vans several times. Some of those times were on motorways

The SCP in my area use the Peugeot Expert pretty much exclusively, so when I see one of these with orange lights on the top it always grabs my attention, often at the expense of time looking at other potential hazards.

Camera vans should all be painted in an unmistakable standard pattern like (say) yellow with red stripes, to prevent this type of misunderstanding.

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“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” - H. L. Mencken

Forgive me if this is naive. However, if I see a vehicle with any orifice open (door, bonnet, boot...), I am typically coming slow and covering the brake, not for fear of a speed trap, but because this very situation is on the balance of probability likely to be obfuscating a potential hazard - someone jacking up the vehicle, baby having a wee at the roadside with loose dog/other children ... could be any thing or any combination of these, all of which can create primary hazards or secondary hazards by distracting other drivers. Oh yes - it might be a speed gun too!

On rereading this it looks like I'm preaching. sorry - not my intention, merely pointing out that a vehicle in an unusual state, speed trap or not, requiires due deference to the potential hazard(s) itr may hide. If one is anchoring up, then I submit one may not have had it all covered.

It's certainly true of a vehicle that you will pass shortly. But at 500m only the talivan threatens. At 60mph comfortable braking will bring you to a complete stop in about 100m.

And then there are all those case where you won't come into any sort of conflict at all, for example when the talivan is on an overbridge.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I even recieved a ticket from a van so far down the road that I had turned off before ever pasing it! The tallivan was hiding in the central reservation under a road sign. The justifing accident was a 3 X drunk.

There were no houses bussinesses,pavement or cyclists, it even had a fenced off cycle path away from the road, no schols nothing but three full lanes in each direction and a 40 mph limit. You could not imagine a more perfect bit of road, the best bit in the city!

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

I understand what you are saying, but it was as Paul suggested, the parked vehicle was quite some way in the distance, at the start of the semi-built up area. There are houses but they are set back off the road with lay-by parking. I would have slowed down further for this area but there was no immediate need(I was still in open fields) - until I saw what I thought was a camera van. I don't trust them one little bit when it comes to the distance they get you at.

In the end it was just someone putting boxes into the back, but I'd realised that before I needed to slow down further but after the distance I felt a talivan could get me. If that makes sense.......