Speed van camera's flash at night?

seantobin43

Hi

Do speed van camera's flash at night? And do they read the speed for the front of the van?

Thanks

Lardy

They have an Infrared flash, so you wouldn't really be able to see it. They detect vehicles traveling in both directions.

Garda speed vans do have a traditional flash and can operate at night time. The camera/flash is at the rear of the van but it can catch you in both directions either travelling toward or away from the rear of the van.

ironclaw

Visible flash is fairly rare these days. There are a few old Garda vans on the go but I haven't see one in yonks. That said, if you have sensitive eye sight, you can see a faint red or blue glow from infrared 'flash' units.

obezyana

Yes they do flash I got flashed and a fine in the post a few weeks later.

RandomAccess

I saw one quite recently and it was flashing quite a lot.
I don't know why that was the case as I understood they used infra red flash.

So yes some of them do flash.
This was on the M7/M8

seantobin43

ironclaw wrote: »

Visible flash is fairly rare these days. There are a few old Garda vans on the go but I haven't see one in yonks. That said, if you have sensitive eye sight, you can see a faint red or blue glow from infrared 'flash' units.

Aww feck I saw a red little light when I passed it

Ri_Nollaig

seantobin43 wrote: »

Aww feck I saw a red little light when I passed it

Were you actually speeding though? [or do you think you were] They can "flash" anyway and nothing might come of it. I believe the go-safe ones record every car that passes and they review it later.

dougie-lampkin

The Go Safe vans do give a small non-IR white flash for every car that passes, just above the back doors but not from the IR box. I presume it's a safety thing, a lot of them seem to park with side lights/hazards on also. The flash isn't bright enough to illuminate anything, it's no brighter than a regular 5W sidelight.

I passed one last week on the M7 outside Naas doing 100 km/h and it flashed, so it's definitely not a speed related thing. My dashcam didn't pick up an IR flash either.

seantobin43

Ri_Nollaig wrote: »

Were you actually speeding though? [or do you think you were] They can "flash" anyway and nothing might come of it. I believe the go-safe ones record every car that passes and they review it later.

I was doing 100 in a 80 zone but the minute I saw him I put my foot as hard as I could on the brakes. Then I looked at the clock and I was doing 50 but I don't know if it was too late or not

L-M

Same thing happened me before and it flashed as you said. Never heard a thing.

Ri_Nollaig

seantobin43 wrote: »

I was doing 100 in a 80 zone but the minute I saw him I put my foot as hard as I could on the brakes. Then I looked at the clock and I was doing 50 but I don't know if it was too late or not

Well if you saw him, he definitely saw you too and braking at that point [unless you are talking about the front of it?] is too late really.

But there is nothing you can do about it now, if you hear nothing within the next two weeks I'd say you got away with it.

fatherted1969

What sort of range for they have in day and night. There's always one set up just up the road from me and i always wondered how near you actually got to it before it took the necessary info off your car to do you

seantobin43

fatherted1969 wrote: »

What sort of range for they have in day and night. There's always one set up just up the road from me and i always wondered how near you actually got to it before it took the necessary info off your car to do you

Yeah I second this! are they different distance at night and day time

seantobin43

Ri_Nollaig wrote: »

Well if you saw him, he definitely saw you too and braking at that point [unless you are talking about the front of it?] is too late really.

But there is nothing you can do about it now, if you hear nothing within the next two weeks I'd say you got away with it.

Yeah it was the front of the van I was driving towards

Ri_Nollaig

seantobin43 wrote: »

Yeah it was the front of the van I was driving towards

Well once you were going <= 80 km by the time you passed him then you have nothing to worry about. It can detect cars approaching and driving away but only from the back of it.

Lardy

seantobin43 wrote: »

Yeah I second this! are they different distance at night and day time

Day/ night, makes no difference at all to the distance at which it detects you.

V.W.L 11

Lardy wrote: »

Day/ night, makes no difference at all to the distance at which it detects you.

whats the official distance it can catch you at if you approach the van from the rear???

Lardy

V.W.L 11 wrote: »

whats the official distance it can catch you at if you approach the van from the rear???

Couldn't give an exact figure as I don't really know. But, the radar is positioned at 20 degrees from the back of the van to the road. You'd need to be close enough anyway.

V.W.L 11

Lardy wrote: »

Couldn't give an exact figure as I don't really know. But, the radar is positioned at 20 degrees from the back of the van to the road. You'd need to be close enough anyway.

so if you are over when you spot it and get the speed down on the approach to the speed limit or less you should be ok???

Lardy

I honestly couldn't tell you. If you spotted it 100 meters away, you could be fine. 50 meters, I might be a bit worried.

CJhaughey

Got done at night in Kildare, just a tiny red flash like a very weak LED.
Fine came about a week later.

seantobin43

Ri_Nollaig wrote: »

Well once you were going <= 80 km by the time you passed him then you have nothing to worry about. It can detect cars approaching and driving away but only from the back of it.

Hmmmm my friend got caught by the front because he got a picture of him in it

ironclaw

seantobin43 wrote: »

Hmmmm my friend got caught by the front because he got a picture of him in it

The camera is in the rear of the van only. It can detect you coming towards or driving away from the rear doors of the van only. Hence why you can have a nice snap of your front or rear. There is no camera in the front (drivers) end of the van.

The 'faint red' glow is the Infrared flash of the van. However, they are known to flash every car that passes. The 'photo' is actually just a frame from a continuous sequence of photos. Hence why you can't really say if you are caught or not by the van based solely on the presence or absence of a flash. I've heard reports from some members here of amber and white lights illuminating as they pass. I haven't had the pleasure of passing one in a while, but I'll investigate when I do.

The distance for detection, roughly speaking, is twice the width of the road you are on. Thats rule of thumb based on the publicly available specs of the system. Its not 100's of metres lads, the danger zone is less than 50m. Basically if you are caught your probably legally blind.

seantobin43

ironclaw wrote: »

The camera is in the rear of the van only. It can detect you coming towards or driving away from the rear doors of the van only. Hence why you can have a nice snap of your front or rear. There is no camera in the front (drivers) end of the van.

The 'faint red' glow is the Infrared flash of the van. However, they are known to flash every car that passes. The 'photo' is actually just a frame from a continuous sequence of photos. Hence why you can't really say if you are caught or not by the van based solely on the presence or absence of a flash. I've heard reports from some members here of amber and white lights illuminating as they pass. I haven't had the pleasure of passing one in a while, but I'll investigate when I do.

The distance for detection, roughly speaking, is twice the width of the road you are on. Thats rule of thumb based on the publicly available specs of the system. Its not 100's of metres lads, the danger zone is less than 50m. Basically if you are caught your probably legally blind.

Perfect answer I was looking for