Speed cameras in Ireland - a guide

ironclaw · 27-04-2012 9:16pm

parttimer12 wrote: »

Hi Guys,
I have a quick one for you - can a speed camera catch you from behind another car ?

The reason I ask is that I was driving home today and there was a unmarked van with a speed camera parked on the side of the road (southern cross road near Bray). There were 2 cars in front of me but I could see the van so clearly I was probably 150m away. Obviously he could see me if I could see him! There was a flash while the 3 of us were still driving towards him. Can I assume the first car got caught or could the camera being pointing further upstream. As I drove right by him there was no flash (i.e the flash happened when I was 150 m away)... Just curious if anyone else has been in this situation. cheers

Thats a Garda van. Hasn't been there as often as it used.

As in the first post, it flashes the car directly in front of the camera (As in immediately in front of it, not 100m down the road) at the rear doors (Be that a car going towards or away) hey are fast enough however to take a sequence of photos as each car passes if they are all speeding.

If you had a clear view of the van, and if the car in front of you had past the van, and it didn't flash, your more than likely safe.

Actually re-read your post, if you were 150m away, saw a flash at that distance, with a car in front of you, you are more than safe. In fact being 150m away is more than safe regardless.

Common sense people!

opti0nal · 29-04-2012 5:01pm

Driving M1 southbound today, as usual, piles of cars are breaking the 80kph limit, not just the usual yellow plates but locals too.

Got passed by a Jetta, who's doing well over 80, when he pulls over hits the brakes...unmarked silver van on hard shoulder under the M50 interchange.

What do you think? Did he get caught?

parttimer12 · 30-04-2012 12:05pm

Thanks Ironclaw.... I think it was more the paranoia that was affecting my common sense!

thelionspet · 02-05-2012 5:29pm

Thank you so much for taking the time to put together such an informative piece. Absolutely brilliant!

Just to clarify...

I was never sure before... you actually have to PASS the van over the speed limit to be nabbed.

I was unsure of how far approaching them you can be caught, at say a couple of kms over the limit..

Thanks again...!

cara11 · 05-05-2012 10:15pm

Hi,

just stumbled upon this (very interesting). I was actually searching for an answer to my question but could not find a similar case.

I was driving along today and seen about 5 cars coming on flashing a warning so I was aware the Van would be up the road and it was in the spot where it usually sits. The position of the van is usually in an 80 kmh zone and the sign for the 60 kmh zone is about 30 or 40 meters further down. I was doing about 65 or 70 passing the van as I was in the process of slowing down for the 60 sign. (the rear of the van was facing the direction I was coming from, I could not see a flash but it was bright, so there might not have been one). I always slow down there but I don't see the reason why I should be doing 60 km in an 80 km zone just because the van is there. My question is: if I was doing 60 km passing the 60 kmh sign but between 65 and 70 when passing the van - would I get a letter?

I hope not, but it is annoying me and spoils my weekend slightly

. Why are they sitting before the sign? Or why don't they move the sign if they are using this position often?

I hope someone here can shed some light...

Galwayguy35 · 05-05-2012 10:28pm

cara11 wrote: »

Hi,

just stumbled upon this (very interesting). I was actually searching for an answer to my question but could not find a similar case.

I was driving along today and seen about 5 cars coming on flashing a warning so I was aware the Van would be up the road and it was in the spot where it usually sits. The position of the van is usually in an 80 kmh zone and the sign for the 60 kmh zone is about 30 or 40 meters further down. I was doing about 65 or 70 passing the van as I was in the process of slowing down for the 60 sign. (the rear of the van was facing the direction I was coming from, I could not see a flash but it was bright, so there might not have been one). I always slow down there but I don't see the reason why I should be doing 60 km in an 80 km zone just because the van is there. My question is: if I was doing 60 km passing the 60 kmh sign but between 65 and 70 when passing the van - would I get a letter?

I hope not, but it is annoying me and spoils my weekend slightly. Why are they sitting before the sign? Or why don't they move the sign if they are using this position often?

I hope someone here can shed some light...

Don't see why you would get caught as from what you say the van was in the 80km section of road. There is always a van parked on the 80km section just before it comes down to 50km as I am going to work and I always pass it at 80km and never got caught so you have nothing to worry about.

cara11 · 05-05-2012 10:32pm

Thanks Galwayguy,

now I can sleep tonight:). I just find it stupid that they are sitting THERE. Thanks, hope I don't get nasty post

have a nice weekend...

Galwayguy35 · 05-05-2012 10:38pm

cara11 wrote: »

Thanks Galwayguy,

now I can sleep tonight:). I just find it stupid that they are sitting THERE. Thanks, hope I don't get nasty post

have a nice weekend...

Same to you.

ProudDUB · 06-05-2012 12:05am

How does the points on your record thing work if you get one of these speeding tickets in the post?

I do not live here year around. When I am driving here, I do so on my US drivers license. Last month, I bought a car to use when I am here, as I was getting killed financially renting cars. The registration documents and the car insurance are in my name and Irish address. I also went into the motor tax office last week, and paid the motor tax on the car, again with my Irish name and address. They didn't ask to see my DL. The only party who has my drivers license deets are my insurance company.

So if I get nabbed by a speed van/camera, they know where to post the fine too, but how do they attach points to my driving record when no official govt agency knows who I am exactly?

Am not planing on doing any dangerous or speedy driving. I am just curious as to how it works.

NIMAN · 06-05-2012 12:34am

Couple of questions:

1) Can the van get you as you drive away from it? i.e. if its facing down a road, I assume its aimed at the cars coming towards it? Is it trained on cars in the other lane driving away from it?

2) Why are all the vans in my local area in the exact same spots? They are never more than a few metres difference when they set up. We all know now where they might be and so its clear when you need to slow down. After that you can speed up. Seems silly as I live on a main road, rural area. Cars pass my house at times doing in my estimation 80mph or 90mph, yet there won't ever be a speed camera on that road. Whats the point if you know where they will always be?

Galwayguy35 · 06-05-2012 4:04am

ProudDUB wrote: »

How does the points on your record thing work if you get one of these speeding tickets in the post?

I do not live here year around. When I am driving here, I do so on my US drivers license. Last month, I bought a car to use when I am here, as I was getting killed financially renting cars. The registration documents and the car insurance are in my name and Irish address. I also went into the motor tax office last week, and paid the motor tax on the car, again with my Irish name and address. They didn't ask to see my DL. The only party who has my drivers license deets are my insurance company.

So if I get nabbed by a speed van/camera, they know where to post the fine too, but how do they attach points to my driving record when no official govt agency knows who I am exactly?

Am not planing on doing any dangerous or speedy driving. I am just curious as to how it works.

You won't get points when your license is a US one as far as I know. You would still get the fine though.

Galwayguy35 · 06-05-2012 4:11am

NIMAN wrote: »

Couple of questions:

1) Can the van get you as you drive away from it? i.e. if its facing down a road, I assume its aimed at the cars coming towards it? Is it trained on cars in the other lane driving away from it?

2) Why are all the vans in my local area in the exact same spots? They are never more than a few metres difference when they set up. We all know now where they might be and so its clear when you need to slow down. After that you can speed up. Seems silly as I live on a main road, rural area. Cars pass my house at times doing in my estimation 80mph or 90mph, yet there won't ever be a speed camera on that road. Whats the point if you know where they will always be?

Yeah you can be got from both sides by the van.

It's the same around here there are 4 areas that they are always in. The vans can only work in the areas between the signs that are on the road to warn drivers that there will be a speed van ahead. The areas that are usually picked are locations where people have lost their lives over the years.

NIMAN · 06-05-2012 4:21am

Yeah I know that the vans are positioned where people sadly died, but surely having them practically in static locations is a poor deterrent?

That road I mentioned outside my house, me and my neighbours have a lot of very concealed exits from our homes. It can be hard to see a car coming down the road, and indeed us leaving our driveways. As I said, I would estimate that some cars can be doing 80mph on what is a 50mph road. Should one of those drivers have to make a sudden movements on the wheel, a serious accident could happen.

For me, that road is an ideal spot for a speed camera. Why don't they vary the locations? Surely it couldn't be seen as being unfair to position them randomly. After all, we are not meant to speed anywhere, not just where people have died previously.

I had thought about asking one of the van drivers to consider moving, but I am sure they are not allowed to.

Galwayguy35 · 06-05-2012 4:30am

NIMAN wrote: »

Yeah I know that the vans are positioned where people sadly died, but surely having them practically in static locations is a poor deterrent?

That road I mentioned outside my house, me and my neighbours have a lot of very concealed exits from our homes. It can be hard to see a car coming down the road, and indeed us leaving our driveways. As I said, I would estimate that some cars can be doing 80mph on what is a 50mph road. Should one of those drivers have to make a sudden movements on the wheel, a serious accident could happen.

For me, that road is an ideal spot for a speed camera. Why don't they vary the locations? Surely it couldn't be seen as being unfair to position them randomly. After all, we are not meant to speed anywhere, not just where people have died previously.

I had thought about asking one of the van drivers to consider moving, but I am sure they are not allowed to.

To be honest I think the Gardai could be more visible on the roads as they can set themselves up in any area they choose. I get what you are saying though as I know myself exactly where the vans will be as well and see the cars speeding up when they get past them.

mickdw · 06-05-2012 11:33am

I think it very important that the private company operating the speed cameras are only allowed setup at specific locations. What we don't want is a company who are probably on some sort of performance related pay being free to set up behind bushes etc.

Galwayguy35 · 06-05-2012 12:05pm

mickdw wrote: »

I think it very important that the private company operating the speed cameras are only allowed setup at specific locations. What we don't want is a company who are probably on some sort of performance related pay being free to set up behind bushes etc.

Why not? If people aren't speeding they have nothing to fear.

Bohrio · 06-05-2012 12:12pm

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Why not? If people aren't speeding they have nothing to fear.

Beacuse they will probably try setting themselves on tricky locations, trying to catch people speeding, like after a turn where the speed limit has gone down from 100 to 60 and is hard to see the sign until is too late, etc...

I have never met anyone whos never driven over the speed limit, never, either on purpose or by mistake

Galwayguy35 · 06-05-2012 12:21pm

Bohrio wrote: »

Beacuse they will probably try setting themselves on tricky locations, trying to catch people speeding, like after a turn where the speed limit has gone down from 100 to 60 and is hard to see the sign until is too late, etc...

I have never met anyone whos never driven over the speed limit, never, either on purpose or by mistake

I agree and I wasn't trying to take the high moral ground. But I notice that in areas where people know the vans will be that now they are keeping to the limits. If they didn't know where the vans would be then I would think that people would do the same. I think we got away with not being caught here in Ireland for so long that over the years we started to ignore the speed signs. I'm guilty of this myself.

Bohrio · 06-05-2012 12:48pm

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

I agree and I wasn't trying to take the high moral ground. But I notice that in areas where people know the vans will be that now they are keeping to the limits. If they didn't know where the vans would be then I would think that people would do the same. I think we got away with not being caught here in Ireland for so long that over the years we started to ignore the speed signs. I'm guilty of this myself.

I know what you mean. In UK they are called safety cameras, here they are called speed cameras. Of course the reason why is beacause in UK cameras are set on black spots to prevent people from having accidents and here, in most cases arent.

Im from Spain and it was was quite common for people to go over the speed limit, back then if you were to drive at the speed limit you would find yourself going much slower than the rest. Doing 160 was common practice, even 180 and 200 in some cases (talking about typical drivers not boy racers)

A few years ago the started increasing the number of speed cameras, fixed and mobile, they are everywhere now, they also increased penalties, both economically as well as pointwise, as a result, u rarely see anyone going over 120, and nobody will even think of doing 200 kmh as it could mean jailtime. I wouldnt like to see this in Ireland.

Just imagine it does, for example, there is a point in the n11 going down to wicklow (think is killmacanoghe) where the speed limit goes from 100 kmh down to 60 kmh. Lets say you are going slighty over the speed limit (within the safe limit), so your doing 115 kmh and you faile to see the 60 kmh sign, a speed van catches you at that speed, if you were in spain, youd be getting a 450-520 euro fine and 6 points. Here is only 80 euro and 2 points.

Funny enough after all the fuzz with speed cameras, they have realized its not the way to go and they are even considering increasing the speed limit to 140... oh well...

cara11 · 06-05-2012 5:08pm

ProudDUB wrote: »

How does the points on your record thing work if you get one of these speeding tickets in the post?

I do not live here year around. When I am driving here, I do so on my US drivers license. Last month, I bought a car to use when I am here, as I was getting killed financially renting cars. The registration documents and the car insurance are in my name and Irish address. I also went into the motor tax office last week, and paid the motor tax on the car, again with my Irish name and address. They didn't ask to see my DL. The only party who has my drivers license deets are my insurance company.

So if I get nabbed by a speed van/camera, they know where to post the fine too, but how do they attach points to my driving record when no official govt agency knows who I am exactly?

Am not planing on doing any dangerous or speedy driving. I am just curious as to how it works.

Hi, that happened to me a few years back (annoying as I was only over 10 kmh on a quiet road

). I have a German licence, driving a German car with Irish registration. Point cannot be applied to your licence (as Galwayguy said) but they will send you a letter and they kind of "open an account" in their system where the points are stored for the same time as if you have an Irish licence. And you have to pay the fine

.

Still, Ireland is pretty "generous" compared to my native country where speedcams are to be expected everywhere. They do hide behind bushes, walls and parked cars, fixed cams are even hidden in specially designed bins or fenceposts etc. along the road or at bridges. Here the vans usually are pretty visible and even signs all over them, never mind the other companions on the road who warn you. I only wonder about some of the locations where they are sitting. Some of them are in no way dangerous whereas I would appreciate to see them more often outside schools.

And looking at the continuously rising fuelprices - driving slower gets you further:D

Our man in Havana · 06-05-2012 5:09pm

Do they still store points indefinitely for non Irish licences?

eringobragh · 06-05-2012 5:33pm

cara11 wrote: »

Still, Ireland is pretty "generous" compared to my native country where speedcams are to be expected everywhere. They do hide behind bushes, walls and parked cars, fixed cams are even hidden in specially designed bins or fenceposts etc. along the road or at bridges. Here the vans usually are pretty visible and even signs all over them, never mind the other companions on the road who warn you. I only wonder about some of the locations where they are sitting. Some of them are in no way dangerous whereas I would appreciate to see them more often outside schools.

And looking at the continuously rising fuelprices - driving slower gets you further:D

Too true this is the sort of ****e I had to deal with in Australia when I was there...now theres an anti-motorist country if ever there was one.

gman2k · 06-05-2012 6:05pm

ironclaw wrote: »

Anecdotally, I've heard Garda vans (And Garda vans only could have the authority to do this) have done people for bus lane usage and seat belt non-compliance.

This of course is an urban legend, and fortunately it is an untrue one.

Now a couple of points,
With the mobile vans (operating on K-Band Radar) the image capture area is quite close to the rear of the van. Also, the radar spread output from the van is quite small also, much smaller than static cameras.
The Gardai predominantly use LASER for detection, and contrary to the first post in this thread there is a bit of spread from the beam. Although they are meant to aim at the number plate, there is generally a bit of spread over the distance that will be picked up by someone using an illegal Radar/LASER detector.
AGS will pull the trigger from some way off, and if the recipient slows immediately upon detection (as long as he was not going excessively over local limit) they will not pull him in for ticketing.

cara11 · 06-05-2012 6:10pm

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Do they still store points indefinitely for non Irish licences?

As far as I know, yes. Unless it changed in the last 2.5 years.

pa990 · 06-05-2012 6:24pm

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Do they still store points indefinitely for non Irish licences?

yes they do

dillo2k10 · 06-05-2012 7:24pm

Hi,

I was in the car with my mum on Tuesday on the N4 westbound. Just as we got to palmerstown and right after the limit changed from 80 to 60, parked outside the garage there was a speed camera.

The car in front jammed on when they seen the camera, we got pretty close to them as we had to jam on too. It oonly flashed once but I'm not sure which one it got.

If there are two cars close would they usually catch the first or second? Or could they get both In the same go?

gman2k · 06-05-2012 7:38pm

One picture one car

ProudDUB · 06-05-2012 10:46pm

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Do they still store points indefinitely for non Irish licences?

yes they do

As far as I know, yes. Unless it changed in the last 2.5 years.

Could you clarify what you all mean by this please?

I am driving here on my US license. Does this mean that if I am hit with points for a speeding offence, they stay on my driving record forever?

I asked a question earlier about being hit with a fine for speeding if I do not have an Irish DL. A poster replied that I am liable for the fine, but can not get any points as my DL is not Irish. There was an article in the Indo recently about people being exempt from getting points on their record as their DL was from a foreign country & Irish computer systems were not set up to keep track of non Irish DLs

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/dangerous-drivers-avoid-penalty-points-3095416.html

How are the points on your record stored or assessed? Is it done by your cars registration, your PPS number, your name and address, your DL number?

Am really confused here.

Our man in Havana · 06-05-2012 11:23pm

I was told that points stay on ice until you get an Irish licence. Once one is issued any stored points then become active and then start running for 3 years.

ProudDUB · 07-05-2012 2:10am

Our man in Havana wrote: »

I was told that points stay on ice until you get an Irish licence.

How exactly is this done? How do they put someones driving record 'on ice' and store it for future use? Is it done by your name, address, PPS number, foreign US license number, car registration details, insurance documents etc?

Surely if you change any of these details (buy a new car, get married, change addresses, change insurance companies etc etc) that makes it very hard for them to add on old offences to a new license?

Speed cameras in Ireland - a guide

Comments