Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/32/3286.asp

10/9/2010

Australia, France, Poland, UK: Speed Camera Accuracy Concerns Grow
Speed cameras falsely accuse drivers on the island of Guadeloupe and in Poland while courts toss bogus tickets in Australia and the UK.

A court in Melbourne, Australia has thrown out a speed camera citation over accuracy concerns, the Herald Sun reported. Broadmeadows Magistrates' Court last month dismissed the case against Robert Levasseur after he was able to show the same time codes were printed on a series of sequential camera photos. Despite the obvious error, officials insisted there is nothing wrong with the camera and it will continue to issue citations.

In West Dorset, England a motorist has succeeded in identifying a flaw in one of the country's most notorious speed cameras. Paul Snowball found that the automated ticketing machine on the A35 at Chideock relies upon improperly spaced pavement markings as a secondary accuracy check. Officials claim that they use lines painted five feet apart on the pavement to conduct a crude time-distance calculation to verify that the radar speed reading is correct. The lines on the pavement at this location, however, were 4 foot 6 inches or 4 foot 8 inches apart. Snowball's case was dismissed, the Dorset Echo reported.

In Silesia, Poland, motorist Wieslaw Rekowski was mailed a 150 zloty (US $53) fine for allegedly speeding in a Jeep. Rekowski, however, owns a Volkswagen Golf and never goes to the area in which he was accused of driving 72 km/h (45 MPH) in a 50 km/h (31 MPH) zone. Officials blamed the false charge on a "rare mistake," Super Express reported.

A woman whose car was registered in Guadeloupe, an archipelago in the Lesser Antilles, was accused by a camera of speeding in Paris, France -- 4,200 miles away. Police have rejected all attempts to resolve the bogus ticket and insist full payment must be made, DOMActu reported.