Posted on 03/23/2009 7:48:28 AM PDT by george76
Three thousand motorists who were victims of a miscalibrated speed camera in the town of Lausanne, Switzerland were issued full refunds along with a letter of apology ...
After innocent motorists began complaining to the local media, police began to look into whether the automated ticketing machine may have malfunctioned. The investigation concluded that a manufacturer's defect had caused a "technical problem" forcing the detected speeds to read high.
Despite the false readings, the device had passed all of the standard calibration and approval tests required for issuing citations. Police insisted all other speed cameras in the area were perfectly accurate ...
The problem with the Swiss camera is not unique. Throughout the world, officials have been forced to refund tens of thousands of speed camera tickets issued to innocent motorists.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewspaper.com ...
What the problem, they were issuing tickets and making money?
Same thing happenned in Plano...they just never ADMITTED it.
True story from the Land of Cheese & Chocolate ...
a few months ago, the police set up a speed trap on a rural road with a posted limit of 70km/h (~40mph). At the same time they counted the number of cars passing the trap. While reviewing the data, they found that about 80% had exceed the limit. They also found that they had set the limit in the radar wrong. Instead of 70, they set it to 40 (~24 mph). Obviously, no tickets were issued. However, 20% of the drivers were driving over 30kmh UNDER the limit on a rural road!
Imagine, if you will my daily nightmare commute as I must travel just such roads before getting to the highway!!
Your story illustrates a point I heard many years ago - high speed does not cause accidents, speed differential causes accidents. I believe that there is technically a lower speed limit on most roads, particularly interstate highways, however, I also believe that it is seldom enforced. If everyone would “go with the flow”, even if that meant driving at or slightly above the posted limit, I’m betting that accidents would decrease, not to mention road rage. Alas...
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