Margin Of Error For Handheld Lasers

[big col]

I recently got done for speeding along wanneroo road where a stretch of it drops from the normal 70 down to 60 (which I didn't know... thought all of wanneroo road was 70!).

I got pinged by a cop with a handheld laser doing 82km/h, and he only allowed a 2km margin of error bringing it down to 80km/h shafting me with a $300 fine and 3 demerit points. I know that multanovas must allow for a 3km margin of error, but the cop was being uncooperative and obviously wanted to get his quota up and put me in the 20-29km bracket rather than the 10-19km/h bracket which would have been less money and points.

Now my question is what is the margin of error police have to allow for HANDHELD speeding cameras? I've been searching on the net but can only find the margin for multanovas. A link to the source would be helpful.

I have no problems with paying a speeding fine if I get caught, but I do have a problem when I think the cop is breaking the law to penalize me more.

[inthisglass]

count yourself lucky he gave you the 2kms..

he could have stung you with the 30-39km bracket..

[SCR34M]

count yourself lucky he gave you the 2kms..

he could have stung you with the 30-39km bracket..

HUH????

[bnr#@]

count yourself lucky he gave you the 2kms..

he could have stung you with the 30-39km bracket..

That makes no sense... He wasnt anywhere near 30ks over and the 2 ks he did give made no difference to which fine bracket he was in...

[ztuned]

count yourself lucky he gave you the 2kms..

he could have stung you with the 30-39km bracket..

yeh and 2+2 = 6.3

[bnr#@]

yeh and 2+2 = 6.3

In bizarro world maybe

[br3ndan]

u serious they got quota???

[Mayuri Krab]

yeh and 2+2 = 6.3

I thought it was 2+2 = 100

Darn... looks like I need to retake my math class again

& which section of wanneroo is this on?

I know that the section where I travel alot on (the section near along dogswamp) there is a slight hill going up & they like to put their speed cams there. Was working along that road once & notice tons of cars getting flashed >_>"

Edited May 1, 2008 by Mayuri Krab

[xtc]

im pretty sure its 2km error as lasers are more accurate then mutinovas. shoulda said it was the car infront/behind, i got away from that excuse before which was darn lucky on wanneroo aswell just after morley dr. intersection. did 40km+ on tonkin hw and had 7 points taken off with 1k fine. since then ive bought myself a radar detector. they work good but only if your doing less than 90kms in order to stop in time.

[bryno]

haha.. dont learn a lesson.. buy a radar detector.. nice

Edited May 2, 2008 by brynj

[gazza750]

car manufacture allows for 10% speedo error and thats what they used to have to allow

now its only 2 % that police have to allow

[GODTHRILA]

Gazza is right with the 10% speedo calibration... they only have to make their speedos accurate within a 10% margin. You never know, you might have a speedo that is dead on but with 10% margin for error up their sleeve it's doubtfull.

The lasers and multanovas do not have any margin of error. Each unit (in a perfect world) is tested with a tuning fork and calibrated. There will be actually variences due to the angle the laser is fired from (eg two lanes of traffic, cars side by side... car closer will be slightly different to the car further away)... the good thing there is that cops kow this and they will usually (as they have in this case) removed a little for angular margin of error. Unfortunately with multanova's, as they are a basically an automatic letter in the mail after a quick photo review, there isn't anyone who will down grade your speed.

What this means is that you could be thinking you are doing the right thing on the freeway, putting along at 100km/h on your speedo and then get flashed actuall doing 110km/h... on a long weekend thats going to cost you $150 and 4 points thanks very much Mr Car Manufacturer.

Flip side is you could be over on your speedo and actually under the speed limit... fingers crossed all of our speedos are this way inclined.