Snapped by FRONT facing Gatso!

crazycraig · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 05, 2007 Posts: 8

Has anyone else ever been, or ever heard, of being snapped by a front facing Gatso?

A friend of mine Wink

was coming into work this morning on the A430 heading into Gloucester, and as he approached 'Gatso 2286' which is on the right hand side of the road monitoring outbound traffic, it double blinked him.

Now as it was around 0630 there was no other traffic on the road at the time so the only person 'he' thinks it could have snapped was himself.

Does anyone have any ideas / thoughts?

mostdom · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:32 am Post subject:

If it was a fake camera it could be just chance that it flashed as he went past. It is doubtful that a camera on the opposite side of the road would be used for prosecution as the measurements on the road would be inaccurate.

My brother got done by a true front facing camera in a hired porsche, (completely different style of camera) and recieved a nice photo of him in his car. Cool

Have a look at the camera types at the bottom of the speed camera page and you'll see the differences in style to ordinary gatsos.
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Tim Buxton · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:36 am Post subject:

I once got snapped by a gatso camera (now removed) near Billingshurst. It was monitoring traffic coming into Billingshurst and I was driving out. It was at around 4 am and yes, I was exceeding the limit. Blooming think blinded me for a few moments but, thankfully, I didn't crash and didn't get a NIP either.
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PaulB2005 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:02 am Post subject:

Andy_P · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 10:38 am Post subject:

Agree with all the above.
Gatso:3371 on the approach to Kew Bridge in London does it all the time, especially with motorbikes.
I'm sure some bikers do it deliberately, just to scare car drivers going through it the "right" way into thinking they've been done!

GJF · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2007 Posts: 894

I have had this with a camera in Canterbury on several occasions, I'm not sure whether it is the light/shadows or just the angle it picks you up on the other side of the road - but it is not relevant for your side of the road, so ignore it.

On a forward facing camera, they wouldn't be allowed to have a camera flashing lights directly into your face.

As someone above wrote, forward facing cameras use invisible flash as infared so as not to 'dazzle' you.
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crazycraig · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 05, 2007 Posts: 8

Thanks for the input guys. Thumbs Up

Yes it was definately a Gatso, and yes he was on his bike. I just never knew that when going towards a Gatso you could set it off.

Not that I'd condone such a thing, but I bet you could scare one or two innocent people by doing this Twisted Evil

jeff-d · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:21 pm Post subject: Bi directional gatsos

My understanding is this:

Real gatsos with a camera fitted will never flash oncoming vehicles on the other side of the road. They only flash the rear of vehicles.

Fake gatsos which only contain a flasher unit and no camera have a speed sensor which reacts to vehicles travelling both ways. They will flash twice in the usual way but since no camera, no NIP.

Andy_P · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:38 pm Post subject: Re: Bi directional gatsos

jeff-d · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject:

Thanks Andy, I stand corrected!

Andy_P · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:52 pm Post subject:

What this means, of course is that whoever sets them up must decide to switch it to "both" just for devilment! Evil or Very Mad

mostdom · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:10 pm Post subject:

GerryC · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:29 pm Post subject:

dcgh2007 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 21, 2008 Posts: 16

Gatso cameras rotate between 4 or 5 sites. When there is no camera present, the housing contains a dummy which will flash and give the impression that a camera is present. However, it does not get calibrated to the same extent as a real camera (doesn't need to because nobody will ever get prosecuted) and so it goes off a lot more than the real thing does. It's not uncommon for them to go off at or less than 30mph. They can also be triggered by oncoming traffic.

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