Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/18/1837.asp

7/2/2007

Australia: GPS Used to Defeat Inaccurate Speed Camera
GPS computer software saves an Australian motorist wrongly accused by an inaccurate speed camera.

A farmer in Victoria, Australia beat an unjust speeding conviction with Global Positioning System software. Police claimed that a radar-based mobile speed camera clocked Brett Pownceby, 47, driving at 121km/h (75 MPH) in a 100km/h (62 MPH) zone on May 12 on the Princes Highway near Warncoort.

Assuming that Pownceby would just pay the A$215 ticket, officials were astonished when he produced satellite tracking evidence in a Sydney court hearing that showed his exact location and speed over his entire trip. A judge validated the records and dismissed all charges.

"If I didn't have a GPS sitting on my dash, I'd have been gone," Pownceby told the Herald Sun newspaper.

Opposition Transport spokesman Terry Mulder called for an investigation of whether Victoria's radar guns are calibrated properly. Last year, the state government refunded A$180,000 in inaccurate speed camera citations. The year before it refunded A$26 million in wrongly issued tickets.

Source: GPS beats radar gun (Herald Sun (Australia), 7/2/2007)

Permanent Link for this item
Return to Front Page