Victorian Police hand held radar calibration query

OK I'll bite. Why? What the hell you up to Gazz?

Gday Gazz
Your solicitor should be able to tell you that when you argue your case in court.

Gazz,have a look at ...drive.com.au " the truth about speed cameras " as a place to start.

Gazz,

Suck it up, pay the fine, move on. :)

Regards

Gazz, if you haven't had a ticket for two years and you were under 10 k's over you can write in and ask for leniency and an official warning. If you want to try to fight the accuracy of the radar all I can say after many years as a former wearer of the blue & specialising in that field is, good luck.

Cheers
Merv

Would be worth while finding out. Couple of years ago (so this info is dated), Mr Plod had to supply paperwork that listed the date of last calibration of the device used, before you go to court. Friend of wife's hairdresser's husband knows someone who took the paperwork to court and showed that the information was not filled in, hence the accusation of "exceed posted speed limit" could not proceed because a valid detection had not been obtained.

RACQ legal department gave me a whole lot of information on fighting dodgy detections. If you are in the RACV, they may be able to help. Long story but I got done by a group of 10 recruits on a practical exercise supervised by a senior officer. Multiple groups of 10 cars in a row were being pulled over for practice ticket writing by the students. "Feel free to take it to court" was the stern reply to my protest.

Back to the subject - Legal adviser, in the end, suggested it was less stressful to just pay the fine. "Have you ever been over the limit and not been caught?" did get me thinking. I'm pretty sure that ticket cost is now worth about 0.0003 cents per self-detected speeding offence. I do try to stick to the posted limit but often catch myself in a gray area because I am watching the road and other traffic rather than just being glued to the speedo.

Iza

G'day All

Having clocked up millions of kilometres in and around this big brown land I can say, generally speaking I have a very good driving record. I certainly did a lot of dumb and stupid things when I was younger ( mainly on motorbikes ) and deserved all the punishment that was dished out to me ! One time in court the bloke with the funny hairdo asked me what have I got to say for myself re: my offence - I said I was an absolute idiot for doing what I did where I did and deserved to be punished accordingly - I got fined nearly 50% less than what all the others did for pretty much the same infringement because I didn't fabricate a bulldust excuse like they all did !

The easiest, quickest and cheapest thing for me to do is just pay the fine - which I will do ! But it makes me wonder how many other people on the same day or week for that matter got done for something similar - maybe some actually got done for speeding and they weren't. Whose to say the officer didn't drop the unit on the ground when taking it out of its case and that altered the units accuracy ?

The amount of the fine is not an issue as I nearly drink that much in beer each week lol.

Doesn't matter - it's just another small stitch in the giant tapestry of life !!


Thankyou all for your replies and suggestions


Happy and safe travelling


All the best

Gazz

go for it Gazz and challenge it.
Speed cameras, while they could be used for their stated purpose of "improved road safety" generally are not.
How many times have we seen them placed in an area where there is no history of accidents (blackspots) and little or no risk from being 5-10ks over.
A classic situation in WA a few years ago was placing them on freeway on ramps.
For what?
Simple plain REVENUE raising is their actual usage, anyone who thinks otherwise is off with the fairies.

Look at all the poor buggers that "Copped It Sweet" and lost licences on the Western Ring Road because all the cameras are out of calibration ..

I wipe of 5 because I dont trust there cameras one bit. It will never be in you're favor, the government are cash poor, they don't care how they get it...




Cheers

People this is NOT a camera it is a hand held unit. Gazz I have said what you can do to get an Official Warning if you qualify, I would suggest that you take the advice and go along that route. To others, the new hand held units can target a single vehicle at nearly two kilometres with incredible accuracy.

Good luck
Merv

I'd be interested to know why the three vehicles behind weren't also pinged?

Hi Gaz
I'm a WA motorcycle traffic cop and the lasers are incredibly accurate. In WA we test them at the start and end of shift. They are checked by the techies every 12 months too. You can only ping 1 car at a time as they have a red dot sight similar to a rifle telescopic sight and you aim it at the vehicles number plate.
In court the prosecutors are always very positive about contesting laser cases as they are so accurate.

Cheers
Pete

Gaz and others,
be very careful using GPS readings as a reference to speed. I think many will know GPS's can jump around a bit. You can see say a 99Kph reading on your GPS and then look again and see say 85kph. They can vary quiet a bit depending where you are.

My personal GPS which is a Garmin 1450 has the max speed showing on the screen of 611 KPH, which I leave there and don't reset. Now I know it is a quick 4x4 but I don't remember getting over 500KPH and I haven't taken it up in a plane.

All the GPS's I have used have jumped around at one time or another depending where I was.

Gaz, Hope you get the right answer you requested in your post about the calibration.

G'day All


Got an email today from justice dot gov vic saying the road safety regulations 2009 require a hand held device must be tested within 12 months of its occasion of use and that the said device was tested 10 months prior to the offence ( date supplied ) and the test confirmed that the device was operating correctly and had been properly sealed in accordance with the regulations.

I happily paid the fine yesterday online and now only have 9 demerit points left !


Thanks to everyone who replied and especially to the former officers who gave their advice / opinions !


Cheers

Gazz