Motorist receives counseling for speed camera phobia
Despite being an advanced driver who has never had a speeding ticket, Mr Gant is terrified of the fixed-point Gatsos – just in case they incorrectly flash him.
Driving 500 miles a week, he regularly takes huge detours to avoid camera sites and said that if he sees a speed camera he suffers a panic attack and has to pull over.
The situation became so serious that eventually he was invited by a local camera safety partnership team for a “behind the scenes” look at how the cameras worked in a bid to debunk the myth and cure his phobia.
Mr Gant, 41, said: “Every time I drove past one I started worrying about what would happen if I was caught speeding: would I lose my job? How would it affect my family?”
[…]
Insp Marcus Rowe said: “We invited him to the office and basically just explained how we work and tried to remove the mystery surrounding this.“One of his concerns was that he could be unfairly prosecuted so we explained that we work to thresholds designed to eliminate room for error.
“We always allow for at least 10 per cent of the speed limit and even beyond that we offer driver training to those who only just break the threshold. Prosecution is not our only focus.”
Found by Brother Uncle Don
Speeding should just be legalized, then it could be taxed.
Between gasoline tax, mileage tax, carbon tax and rising insurance rates we should just all stay home and collect unemployment.
Sounds like some serious mental problems stemming back to childhood. Maybe his uncle beat him with an 8mm camera.
Just spray-paint the foolish things! Next…
It’s a real condition for which the States will have to pay for individuals to receive treatment using the funds collected from cameras and also additional taxes.
Speaking as a driver that uses several high risk intersections, I’ve seen a decent decrease in speed and red light runners here in Sacarmento due to the camera and their prominent postage of signs.
The fact is we have so many drivers and many of them reckless and so few traffic enforcement officers, drivers taking advantage has become deadly.
If Mr Gant is terrified at the thought of getting a ticket he should have a car that records his driving so he can contest the ticket.
@N74JW
I prefer paint balls with black epoxy inside. Do we have the technology to invent thermite paint balls?
As someone who also does a lot of driving, I would like to see more speed cameras. Most accidents are directly related to excess speed.
Sure maybe there is a decrease in accidents in the middle of an intersection but there is a huge increase in rear end collisions from people slamming on their brakes in fear of receiving a ticket in the mail. My area is filled with overpaid cops and the mayor was proven to be paid off by the red light camera company. But yet, no one seems to care.
Dogday, you said it all…although, as stay-at-home couch potatoes we’d surely get hit with a fart methane fee.
Teenagers in our town have been paintball gunning the cameras. You can also print fake license plates (like people you hate), put them on a car, and speed through an intersection.
These cameras are no end of fun.
Just completed a defensive driving class and most wrecks are at intersections where people are more inclined to take the right away rather than to give it. THANKS HIGH SCHOOL DRIVER’S ED TAUGHT BY DUMBASS COACHES.
The course said that on a green light DO NOT immediately go into the intersection…due to all the moronic idiots trying to gun through the yellow light.
@ Improbus
Glass marbles???
“Prosecution is not our only focus.”
Yeah, they have no interest in arguing these things in court. They just want you to pay the extortion.
In Washington DC the cops heroically sit in their speed camera-equipped cars at certain parking spots and let the camera roll.
Why bother pulling someone over when you can just take their picture and avoid any possibility of counseling the driver?
I just received my first speed camera ticket yesterday. I didn’t drive at this particular intersection for about three months, and a couple days ago I drive to this intersection and it has a right turn lane. It says “No turn on red while pedestrians are present”, I turned on the red. The problem was that I didn’t stop for 2 seconds at the red light which is the law I guess. So I got a ticket in the mail yesterday for $100. It even includes a website I can go to and view the video of my offense. (redlightviolations.com)
The funny thing is in the video I can see the guy behind me made the same offense. I bet they make a killing at that stoplight.
Welcome to life. I have gotten 3 speeding tickets in the past 3 years, 2 of which were in areas of least risk of an accident. Isn’t a speed limit supposed to help prevent accidents? It hasn’t been that way for about 30 years. Speeding violations have been a source of revenue for local governments for a long time.
I despise this fact of life, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it. We can only hope that good people are hired to enforce the law, such that they use judgment before giving a ticket. I got off on a warning on my first-ever speeding ticket. I’ve had about 9 since. I know, I have “donated” to several local governments in my time.
Isn’t a speeding ticket is similar to an indulgence? Speeding violations are a product of Catholicism!!! 🙂
#9 Sure maybe there is a decrease in accidents in the middle of an intersection but there is a huge increase in rear end collisions from people slamming on their brakes in fear of receiving a ticket in the mail.
When these cameras start showing up in my area and I come to an intersection with one, I’ll STAND on the brake pedal at the first glimpse of yellow I see and sue the insurance company of the guy who rear ends me. I’d like to get out from under that car loan, anyway. After enough of that, I’m sure the insurance industry will pay to have the cameras outlawed.
#15 Scammed
I often wonder how many rapes, murders and robberies occur within easy walking distance of those “heroic” officers sitting in their cars.
If it makes you feel any better, DC police are required to pay tickets they receive driving their patrol cars through red lights or speed cameras unless they can prove via the dispatch log that they were responding to a call.
Just take a bus
#8 – Just because the person was speeding in the majority of accidents doesn’t mean that speeding was the cause of the accidents. Most of the accidents I’ve witness was caused by rude and inconsiderate drivers who cut others off and run red lights.
When these evil things first appeared in my foul little hometown I feared them too. Would I get snapped if I lingered in the intersection turning left? Or got caught with the light still yellow? What would the fine be? I know I wasn’t the only one. These devices are immoral and dectructive for many reasons, decreased driver mental wellness among them.
#18 & 21,
Both of you refer to incidents where the speed of the vehicles are the cause of any collision. Extra speed is the major factor in the severity too. If you can’t stop because the guy in front did, you were traveling too fast for the conditions.
Simple.