Speed Camera Encounter

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Just reading the thread from XR8-290 reminded me of a strange encounter I had with a speed camera just before Xmas.

We went down to Morwell for our work Xmas function, travelling in our 2008 TX Territory. We ended up leaving about 11pm (2300 hours) and the road home was pretty quiet, so used my high beams whenever I could.

Just to set the scene, about halfway between Traralgon and Rosedale there are two sets of overtaking lanes, with overtaking lanes on both sides of the road. The first set is about a kilometre long, and begins just after a gentle downward-sloping corner. It ends just before another small hill, and then there is another set about 600 m long a further 500 m down the road.

Anyway, I was pretty much travelling by myself, and had just passed a car coming in the opposite direction as I was coming down the hill into the first overtaking lane, so switched my high beams on. Almost instantly, there was a fairly bright flash emanating from the right hand side of the road, about 500 m in front of me. Instinctively, I turned off the high beams, back to low beams, thinking that the flash had come from a car coming in the opposite direction. It wasn’t until I got a little closer that I realised the flash had come from a camera car (I travel this road every day to work, and the silver Commodore Sportswagon is a common sight).

Of course, my first reaction was to check the speedo, and I found that the car was sitting at exactly the speed that I had set the cruise to – 103 km/h, which I am pretty confident is actually around 100 – 101 km/h actual speed. The wife and I got talking about it on the rets of the run home, and we both thought that the flash had not come from the car’s lights, rather it was the flash of the camera flashes that are mounted on the front bar (it was more of a white light than the typical yellow of Commodore headlights).

I kept a watch of the car that was travelling some distance behind me, and it appeared that the same thing happened to it, too.

To this day, I have not received a fine (surely I would have got one by now?), but can’t really work out why the flash occurred. Sure, the operator might have been a little blinded by the high beams, but to flash me like that means he must have a manual button available to him.

Anyone know anything about this or encountered something similar? used:

Craig H