# Hand held speed gun: Can anybody confirm how these work?



## megabyte (6 Apr 2009)

Can anybody confirm how these work.
Do they take a picture of the car and number plate and send fine in the post?
I was told that these hand held  type do not take pictures and are for pointing at approaching traffic from a distance and if you are over the limit they get out of the car and stop you and inform you of the speed you are doing and issue a fine.Is this so.


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## Smashbox (6 Apr 2009)

*Re: Hand held speed gun*

Thats my thoughts on it, that with the handheld guns they have to stop the offending cars. 

Its the camera, either mounted or in a van, that take pictures and send you out the fines.

Have you been naughty OP?


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## megabyte (6 Apr 2009)

*Re: Hand held speed gun*

No Smashbox  but passed one sitting at the bottom of a hill 
(two lane road) at a roundabout pointing this up the hill at cars coming down and was wondering what the set up was.I was within the limit but I was informed that if you are over the limit they have to stop you with the hand held out the window job. Fixed cameras are different (white Van Job) they have video and pictures. So you seem to think this also.Thanks.


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## Smashbox (6 Apr 2009)

*Re: Hand held speed gun*

S'ok 

I asked a similar question a while back. A garda car was sat on the opposit side of a dual carraigeway to me, and a car flew past me. 

The Guards woulda seen them (not necessarily pointed the camera at them) and I wondered if they would have any way of catching them other than racing to the next exit, and then coming back 'my' side, to which the reply was pretty much that the speeding car had a lucky escape as the 'guns' can't register registrations/photos etc


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## mik_da_man (6 Apr 2009)

*Re: Hand held speed gun*

If it is a hand held device then they have to stop you as the gun only registers the speed.
If it is mounted on a tripod then it can take a photo and they don't have to stop you.


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## trishandmac (19 Apr 2009)

I've been driving the world for forty two years, yesterday got stopped and told l was doing 95 in a 60 going up a hill on a two loane stretch.....new to Ireland, can it be contested? Garda girl had a hyand held gun...l don't have a n Irish d/l, so no penalty points correct? she said the 80Euros stands, do they have a system like in the US where, for a first offence, you can appeal and offer to send a donation to a charity? or am l dreaming with the big governmental charity bin!!


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## trishandmac (19 Apr 2009)

sorry for the spelling errors, two lane stretch, Garda girl had a hand-held gun, and an Irish d/l......sorry, i'm so messed-up about this! did l/do l go that fast on a road l use three times a week?highly doubtful...


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## scuby (19 Apr 2009)

doubt you will win an appeal.
might get away with the points but there was some story a few months back about applying them to UK/Northern drivers, not sure when/if it will be coming in.


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## jimbobwalton (10 Feb 2010)

Sorry to bring this back up but passed a Garda today holding a speed cam. not on a tripod it was held in garda hand .was maybe doing 55 in a 50 zone......Do they have to stop you?


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## werner (10 Feb 2010)

Hand held speed guns are notoriusly unreliable due to operator error, if the Garda as much as breaths when you are hit with the laser it will upset the reading. If the beam hits any number or areas on the car it will give a false reading, due to a simple "slip effect"

Good BBC program research here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/southwest/series11/week2_asbestosis.shtml

"We also asked an engineering professor how easy it would be for an operator 500 yards away to miss the front of a vehicle with the laser beam and instead hit the side - where slip is more likely.
Professor Brignell believed that just the movement created by pressing the trigger could result in a false reading."


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## jimbobwalton (10 Feb 2010)

Take it thats means they have to stop you!


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## busyboy (10 Feb 2010)

trishandmac said:


> I've been driving the world for forty two years, yesterday got stopped and told l was doing 95 in a 60 going up a hill on a two loane stretch.....new to Ireland, can it be contested? Garda girl had a hyand held gun...l don't have a n Irish d/l, so no penalty points correct? she said the 80Euros stands, do they have a system like in the US where, for a first offence, you can appeal and offer to send a donation to a charity? or am l dreaming with the big governmental charity bin!!


 

 Regarding the non irish driving licence. They issue points against your licence and they remain in the system until such a time that you decide to exchange your licence for an irish licence. And when you recieve your irish licence it will be endorsed with points for said offence. I stand to be corrected, but that's what i was told.


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## sse (10 Feb 2010)

busyboy said:


> Regarding the non irish driving licence. They issue points against your licence and they remain in the system until such a time that you decide to exchange your licence for an irish licence. And when you recieve your irish licence it will be endorsed with points for said offence. I stand to be corrected, but that's what i was told.



I think this is correct, there was a thread on this a while back. The upshot seemed to be that if you have a UK paper (non-photo, up until age 70) driving licence you appear to be "immune" from the application of points until the time you decide to exchange your licence for an Irish one (a "shadow" licence is created on first offence to which the points are applied). The proposed exchange between UK/IE only applied to bans as far as I know, not points.

I have a UK paper licence and when I finally moved residence to Ireland in 2005 it didn't actually seem _possible_ to change the licence over!

SSE


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## huskerdu (11 Feb 2010)

jimbobwalton said:


> Sorry to bring this back up but passed a Garda today holding a speed cam. not on a tripod it was held in garda hand .was maybe doing 55 in a 50 zone......Do they have to stop you?



Given that the handheld speed detectors are not very reliable, the Gardai might have a policy of  only stopping  cars which are well over the speed limit, so there is no dispute.


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