Speed Van - Blue Light

steps_3314

Was coming up the Mallow road today and approaching a section where there was a fast lane so accelerated from 100-120 into the Fast lane to get ahead and pull back in again. Out of sight was a speeding van and a blue light flashed on the van.

Pretty sure i was caught but not sure what the blue light means. Deserve the fine/points tbh but was surprised to see the van so near to where a lot of cars would need to pick up the speed to make use of the fast lane with the intention of pulling back in and doing the 100km.

Also wondering if the van can focus on 2 cars in line with each other (one car in the normal lane, and the other car in the fast lane)

Indricotherium

steps_3314 wrote: »

Was coming up the Mallow road today and approaching a section where there was a fast lane so accelerated from 100-120 into the Fast lane to get ahead and pull back in again. Out of sight was a speeding van and a blue light flashed on the van.

Pretty sure i was caught but not sure what the blue light means. Deserve the fine/points tbh but was surprised to see the van so near to where a lot of cars would need to pick up the speed to make use of the fast lane with the intention of pulling back in and doing the 100km.

Also wondering if the van can focus on 2 cars in line with each other (one car in the normal lane, and the other car in the fast lane)

You were surprised to see a van in a place where people habitually break the speed limit?

Big Nasty

In before *passing lane* :pac:

steps_3314

Indricotherium wrote: »

You were surprised to see a van in a place where people habitually break the speed limit?

Yeah..imagine that

Max Power1

steps_3314 wrote: »

Was coming up the Mallow road today and approaching a section where there was a fast lane so accelerated from 100-120 into the Fast lane to get ahead and pull back in again. Out of sight was a speeding van and a blue light flashed on the van.

Pretty sure i was caught but not sure what the blue light means. Deserve the fine/points tbh but was surprised to see the van so near to where a lot of cars would need to pick up the speed to make use of the fast lane with the intention of pulling back in and doing the 100km.

Also wondering if the van can focus on 2 cars in line with each other (one car in the normal lane, and the other car in the fast lane)

So you were driving somewhere that doesnt exist?

keithclancy

The Blue flash was an IR Lamp going off.

Idea being it doesn't dazzle you and lights up your license plate light Christmas.

No sympathy to be honest, that Cork - Mallow road has had a number of deaths on it and is treated like a motorway.

P.S. There is no fast lane

steps_3314

Max Power1 wrote: »

So you were driving somewhere that doesnt exist?

Point taken

steps_3314

keithclancy wrote: »

The Blue flash was an IR Lamp going off.

Idea being it doesn't dazzle you and lights up your license plate light Christmas.

No sympathy to be honest, that Cork - Mallow road has had a number of deaths on it and is treated like a motorway.

P.S. There is no fast lane

Can't argue with that and like my original quote says it will be fully deserved but just was'nt sure if the blue light flashing is a confirmation that a photo was taken and you were indeed nicked.

Agree the road has seen alot of tragedy and I do make efforts to stay within limit but there are times when i just find myself going over the limit.

corktina

there's just two places northbound that they park up....all you need do now is find the other one and you're set. (hint they are both immediately after the fast lane sections (i know, I don't care :-) )

goz83

The limit is 100kmph on the road you were driving. If you were already driving 100kmph behind someone, what's the point in overtaking, breaking the speed limit on a road that sees lots of deaths, only to cut back in and reduce speed back to 100kmph?

Another poster already said that road is treated like a motorway. This is the kind of stuff seen everyday on motorways. People overtaking and then slowing down, usually only to be overtaken by the vehicle they just passed.

daaaycent boy

Passed that speed camera this morning, alot of people really speed up that hill! A Mallow young wan was killed earlier this year around that spot.

keithclancy

That road also had those steel rope barriers, not sure if they are there anymore.

There was an accident on the same road where a guy on a bike got cut in half by them.

daaaycent boy

keithclancy wrote: »

That road also had those steel rope barriers, not sure if they are there anymore.

There was an accident on the same road where a guy on a bike got cut in half by them.

They are still there!

Conmaicne Mara

Wouldn't an IR light be a dull red if visible at all, and not a blue flash?

ironclaw

keithclancy wrote: »

The Blue flash was an IR Lamp going off.

Idea being it doesn't dazzle you and lights up your license plate light Christmas.

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Wouldn't an IR light be a dull red if visible at all, and not a blue flash?

Unless the laws of physics are broken, you could not have seen blue or a flash. The flash is IR, which lives to the right of the spectrum. Blue is close to UV which lives to the left of the spectrum.

You may have seen off white, which in that case may have been an older Garda van. Some of which do in fact still flash white. The vast majority of vans however are IR and you never see a flash. Except perhaps a very dull red. All GoSafe van do not visibly flash.

Popoutman

The filtration on the IR flashlights has a good bandpass in the deep red and IR as you would expect, but it's not unusual for the filtration to leak a bit in the blue - at 2x the frequency of the IR bandpass.

So it's not impossible to see a blue flash from the IR cameras.

(as an aside, the flash would appear blue/white if captured by most DSLRs, given the bayer matrix on the front of the camera chips leaks IR equally through all the colours, and every pixel would pick up any IR that gets through the IR cutoff filter)

misterdeeds

steps_3314 wrote: »

Was coming up the Mallow road today and approaching a section where there was a fast lane so accelerated from 100-120 into the Fast lane to get ahead and pull back in again. Out of sight was a speeding van and a blue light flashed on the van.

Pretty sure i was caught but not sure what the blue light means. Deserve the fine/points tbh but was surprised to see the van so near to where a lot of cars would need to pick up the speed to make use of the fast lane with the intention of pulling back in and doing the 100km.

Also wondering if the van can focus on 2 cars in line with each other (one car in the normal lane, and the other car in the fast lane)

If you did 120 overtaking you are still speedeing, hence a fine
it's kinda stupid tho imo u hav to go "faster" to overtake .

Markcheese

Yeah it was definitely a go safe van this morning, (I passed it too)
Heard the vans can track 6 lanes at once, not sure if they can do two directions at once though...

goz83

misterdeeds wrote: »

If you did 120 overtaking you are still speedeing, hence a fine
it's kinda stupid tho imo u hav to go "faster" to overtake .

It's not stupid that you have to go faster to overtake, it's necessary. But it IS stupid to break the speed limit to overtake and then be annoyed by getting caught. The OP atleast saw that he was wrong and deserves the punishment.

If the driver in front is doing the limit, there is no need to overtake. If the driver in front was doing 99kmph, then you can legally do 100kmph to overtake if necessary in a 100kmph zone.