APJ

M4 Westbound J23a Magor midday Saturday - a row of cars parked along the roundabout bridge over the motorway, so I slow down as usual. Pass a dark blue volvo parked on the verge of the hard shoulder with 2 men in, the driver looked like he was holding a laptop.

Same juntion eastboundat about 5.30pm, again parked cars on the bridge, and notice several police cars, so again I slow to 60 for a good look!

Over each lane of the carriageway there was a camera on a tripod, about 4 feet off the ground. Quite hard to see unless looking for something.

My Bel 550 remained silent throughout - so what was it?? Speedtrap or something else?

Ideas on a postcard please . . .

Mufasa

Definitely some sort of speed trap IMO.
As I understand it the police are not supposed to set up a trap and test every car until they catch a speeding driver. Instead the trap is for confirming suspicion that the driver was speeding (try telling them that )

So it could be that you were clearly not speeding so they didn't bother testing you, or more scarily it was a time/distance video device that doesn't use laser or radar

IWatkins

Possibily a DVLA trap for car tax evaders ?

Had one here locally, small camera on tripod looking at the front of the cars. Police car nearby, I guess to pull over people without valid tax discs.

Cheers

Ian

markcp

I too saw all of the police vehicles around this area on saturday, along with another 3 at the Coldra roundabout. Apparently, they were all in position for a drugs raid.

I think the tripod mounted camera is indeed a speed-trap of sorts, not sure of the type. The operator is very cunning and usually stands with it between his legs so you cant see it. Always with a green un-marked Mitsubishi Carisma.

Mark.

johnr

I saw this as well. Marked Volvo on the bridge so I backed off, then passed the unmarked on the hard shoulder with his laptop. Just a bit further along there was a knackered old VW Polo that had been pulled by two police bikes, don't know whether it was connected but it seemed a bit too coincidental to me.

The question is, if it was a speedtrap would you have been pulled instantly or might there be a nasty surprise in the post in a week or two? (based on the fact that by the time you see them it tends to be too late!)

John

Gizmo555

I've seen these before a good few months ago. Looked like a video camera on tripod - there was one over each lane.

Edited to say 'very nice people if it's gonna catch people nicking our cars'

[Edited by Gizmo555 - 3/20/2002 1:30:23 AM]

BuRR

Its not a speedtrap - its one of those new cameras that Forces all around the country are getting - the cameras can detect the registrations of passing vehicles, so stolen vehicles can be discovered more or less immediately.