Gatso Van in Limerick?

Raiser

Saw this earlier and had not been aware that we had one operational in the area.

Just wondering if anyone has spotted this around Limerick City and Suburbs?

I'd be curious to find out if its in regular use and where in the City/County etc.

- I wonder if we are on the way to becoming more like the UK where there's more cameras than cars!!!

Hagar

I hope he doesn't get done for blocking the bus lane. :pac:

fryup

gatso van?? whats that??

TestTransmission

Hagar wrote: »

I hope he doesn't get done for blocking the bus lane. :pac:

Tis a parking space for bus's actually...... :pac::pac:

Berty

This is the back of Henry St Garda station and that Coach parking(not public bus) is always full of Garda Vehicles.

I must keep my eye out for this but this is not finished.

It first needs its Garda logo's and black/yellow chevron decals put on the van otherwise they cannot use it AFAIK

Raiser

fryup wrote: »

gatso van?? whats that??

Its a van with speed detection and camera equipment on board - designed to catch out drivers by being unremarkable in appearance/less obvious than a Garda in a high vis jacket standing under a bridge.

- You'll usually only be aware you've been caught when you get a letter with a nice pic of your car and asking for a large sum of money.

Opponents to systems such as this argue that they are a money making vehicle and say that speed reduction measures should be obvious and act as a deterrent rather than a sneaky consequence.

TestTransmission

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055664634

:pac:

trad

Are you sure it's a Garda van? Looks like an insurance disc in the windscreen in pic1. Garda vehicles don't display insurance discs.

puntosporting

Cheers for the heads up ill be wary of white vans parked up on the roads around limerick!
As far as im aware the van can be completely bare of any garda markings bit of a joke realy if their real aim is to slow people down they would be fully visible!

BravoMike

You found my photo's Raiser,
Berty as far as I know none of the 6 or 8 Gatso vans in use are in fact marked, I have seen them dotted all over the country for the past few months.
Also have a look at the front grill either side of the Ford badge, you can see the strobes found on other Garda cars
I have seen it on the Dock road a few times at 1 in the morning around Castletroy, just past Coonagh roundabout on the dual carriageway,on the Condell road.
I also heard it being used just at the bottom of Rutland street near the old Munster rugby store.
The only thing you can do to not worry about it is stay within the limit.
I dont really like the idea of these vans as if you are unaware that the van caught you speeding all you get is a letter in the post, at least if you are stopped by a Garda with the speed gun you can at least talk to him and state your reasons with a possibility of getting off and you would also take more from that expierience than a letter in the post

Azphyxi8

I know that this method is sneaky but it is a deterent. Now that we're aware that these unmarked vans are around, we should be watching our speeds, especially in the places listed in the above post.

If you know that these vans are on the road and you still speed, you deserve any fines that you get. After a fine or two, people will slow down. Nobody wants to be forking out cash for speeding tickets every other day.

Melion

Do penalty points come with the fine?

PCPhoto

Melion wrote: »

Do penalty points come with the fine?

YES..... 2

also if you look at the second pic - you can see the camera in the left window.

Melion

My girlfriend was snapped by a Gatso van on the way to Shannon. She got a fine but no points.

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Melion wrote: »

My girlfriend was snapped by a Gatso van on the way to Shannon. She got a fine but no points.

Eh when?

Penalty Points have been in quite a few years now,so if she got done for speeding she got 2 points aswell

Melion

Last December or January. The letter came with the picture of her licence plate, no mention of points and we havent heard anything about it since.

TestTransmission

LicensingQueries@rsa.ie

(with her licence number and address )they can confirm for you

Raiser

Melion wrote: »

My girlfriend was snapped by a Gatso van on the way to Shannon. She got a fine but no points.

I saw the snaps on the Intarweb - she sure is fine; I got the point.

jackncoke wrote: »

LicensingQueries@rsa.ie

(with her licence number and address )they can confirm for you

Isn't that kinda like a Burglar calling into a Police Station to ask if he has been caught robbing houses?

TestTransmission

I emailed them last week asking if/how many points i had on my licence.

And they replied with the answer,,,I bet they get a kick out of it :pac:

BravoMike

Melion wrote: »

Last December or January. The letter came with the picture of her licence plate, no mention of points and we havent heard anything about it since.

You will get the initial letter in the post telling you that you were caught speeding, fine is 80 euros. If you dont pay within the first 28 days the fine rises. If you dont pay after 56 days expect a court summons.
If you do pay the fine, you will recieve a letter from the RSA telling you that you have points on your licence

Melion

BravoMike wrote: »

You will get the initial letter in the post telling you that you were caught speeding, fine is 80 euros. If you dont pay within the first 28 days the fine rises. If you dont pay after 56 days expect a court summons.
If you do pay the fine, you will recieve a letter from the RSA telling you that you have points on your licence

Correct me if im wrong but last December or January is more than 56 days. The fine was payed the day it came through the door and she heard nothing more about it.

TestTransmission

Melion wrote: »

Correct me if im wrong but last December or January is more than 56 days. The fine was payed the day it came through the door and she heard nothing more about it.

When do the points take effect from - the date I committed the offence?

No. If you have committed a driving offence that incurs penalty points you will receive a written notification from the Department of Transport informing you of the fact that the appropriate number of penalty points are being added to your driving licence. This notice will include details of your name, address, date time and location of the driving offence concerned and confirmation of the fact that you either paid the fixed charge for the offence or were convicted in the court of such offence. The notice will also contain a date on which the notice was issued to you. This is the important date as the points will only be added to your licence 28 days after this date.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/travel-and-recreation/motoring-1/driving-offences/penalty-points-for-driving-offences

Berty

Here is a picture of the Gatso in use

BravoMike

By the sounds of it she either got off lucky or they could have forgotton to send out the notification in the post.

cul-2008

Got caught by one of these on the Dock road by the post boxes last December.

How nice it was to receive a lovely picture in the post a few days before Christmas...:rolleyes:

Skuxx

I would dearly love to burn all these vans! They serve no purpose only to bring in revenue for the government! A guard with a gun on the road will do a lot more to slow people down!

Do they have to be parked up to be working or can they do it while driving around?

BravoMike

They have to be parked up to be used, as far as I'm aware they are only opperated by one person.

Berty

There are not very many white transit going around with windows on the back and many white transits have their company logo's on them.

Advice really is to be wary of white vans parked on the side of a road, or illegaly parked mostly(see other threads in motors) and you should be ok.

Tinytony

Berty wrote: »

There are not very many white transit going around with windows on the back and many white transits have their company logo's on them.

Advice really is to be wary of white vans parked on the side of a road, or illegaly parked mostly(see other threads in motors) and you should be ok.

Or maybe just obey the speed limits.

Berty

Tinytony wrote: »

Or maybe just obey the speed limits.

Yes If you truly with to avoid the speeding fine then stick to the limits.

Of course Im innocent like everybody else who cares to post that comment. I never speed

Raiser

Tinytony wrote: »

Or maybe just obey the speed limits.

Ireland 2009AD

Anyone aged 17-22 drives like an inexperienced, know it all wanker - 7 gear shifts away from a tragic funeral.

Anyone older spends their time tail-gating because if you are 6 feet behind the car in front you will get home 2 seconds quicker.

The remainder are on their phones and have had 6 glasses of red wine.

- Not sure where speed limits even comes into the argument

Mc Love

Isnt there a website where they list the locations of where the gatso vans will be parked? I think some govt agency released them on to the interweb.

One of the spots is meant to be in Annacotty before the turn off to industrial estate near that Sisters/Bro's of Charity place!

wylo

alan1990 wrote: »

I would dearly love to burn all these vans! They serve no purpose only to bring in revenue for the government! A guard with a gun on the road will do a lot more to slow people down!

Well clearly its to bring in revenue but at the end of the day, if your speeding then you cant really complain about how you got caught. So the only reason youd love to burn the vans is so you dont get caught speeding. Not having a go ,just putting it how they would.

As for the guard on the road with a gun, fair enough, he might slow down traffic for a whole minute of a possible 1 hour journey. Its not like people stay slowed down because they saw a guard 20 minutes back.

If the government really really wanted they could probably save hundreds of lives a year with a serious clampdown, cameras everywhere, both obvious and hidden, massive fines for speeding (like 1 or 2k or something),etc. But at the end of the day its another income that they wont be in a rush to get rid of too soon.

All those waste of money dramatic ads with people dying and family members crying at graveyards do nothing to stop speeding because we have it built into is that "itll never happen me". The only thing that will ever stop people is the fear of getting caught.

osarusan

wylo wrote: »

Well clearly its to bring in revenue but at the end of the day, if your speeding then you cant really complain about how you got caught. So the only reason youd love to burn the vans is so you dont get caught speeding. Not having a go ,just putting it how they would.

As for the guard on the road with a gun, fair enough, he might slow down traffic for a whole minute of a possible 1 hour journey. Its not like people stay slowed down because they saw a guard 20 minutes back.

If the government really really wanted they could probably save hundreds of lives a year with a serious clampdown, cameras everywhere, both obvious and hidden, massive fines for speeding (like 1 or 2k or something),etc. But at the end of the day its another income that they wont be in a rush to get rid of too soon.

All those waste of money dramatic ads with people dying and family members crying at graveyards do nothing to stop speeding because we have it built into is that "itll never happen me". The only thing that will ever stop people is the fear of getting caught.

Spot on, every bit of that.

Our man in Havana

trad wrote: »

Are you sure it's a Garda van? Looks like an insurance disc in the windscreen in pic1. Garda vehicles don't display insurance discs.

Some Garda vehicles do have decoy insurance disks for undercover work.
Also the van may be a lease/hire and is insured by the hire/lease company.

baza1976

these gatso vans have been around for years. I havent' worked in shannon for over 4 years now but when I did, I used to see a Gatso van regularly parked on the dual carraige way in bound towards limerick esp by that "highbury" (spelling) B&B and also at sethrights. About 3 years ago I saw one parked after the vistakon roundabout about 100 meters up thr road in a bus parking space, again inbound to limerick city. I haven't seen one in Limerick area since but hav come across them around the country.
all white vans with no obvious garda markings

old boy

how come there is no gatsos on country roads where the boy racers do wheelies, and where they time themselves racing over the same routes all the time.

puntosporting

old boy wrote: »

how come there is no gatsos on country roads where the boy racers do wheelies, and where they time themselves racing over the same routes all the time.

U taking the piss?
Do wheelies? you sure you dont mean bmx riders?

Berty

Having a Gatso pointing at a bunch of lads spinning their cars on a country road is not exactly worthwhile unless they manage to spin their cars over 80kph which is highly unlikely.

Also you cannot do speed checks on windy roads for a number of reasons which the AGS will tell you.

1. Would be the difficulty in the equipment being able to calculate your speed as they need to calculate this over a distance.(In the case of tripod cameras, they need to take a laser point from the left side and right side of your car.

2. They will find it hard to pull in to try to catch you.

3 They will find it hard to pull you over.

Raiser

old boy wrote: »

how come there is no gatsos on country roads where the boy racers do wheelies, and where they time themselves racing over the same routes all the time.

Hopefully its because Gatso vans are manned by at least one Garda and in Limerick we have epic Crime levels with almost zero rates of detection.

- I bet there's a pile of bitterness in Henry St. every morning competing over who is going to sit in a fcuking van all day reading the Star and occasionally performing Highway robbery on the poor taxpayer.......

AMIIAM

Check www.garda.ie for locations where speed cameras are used.

Our man in Havana

That list is not the true list.

wylo

just thought id muster up this thread, anyone else notice the gatso van from Limerick to Shannon on friday? I havent seen someone check speeds on that road for months now.

TestTransmission

They were at the parkway roundabout a 1:30am on Tuesday night...standing behind an unmarked squad car the cheeky buggers

zuroph

good they're setting up in the general castletroy region, all summer long theres been b-tards racing on the main road

supra 3.0tt

Raiser wrote: »

Ireland 2009AD

Anyone aged 17-22 drives like an inexperienced, know it all wanker - 7 gear shifts away from a tragic funeral.

Excuse me but that is a stereo type that i resent. once again youg lads have been branded "boy racers". you don't have to be under 22 to drive like a tit.

Mr E

Do you have to be under 22 to dig up 6 month old threads to pick a fight?

Closed.