Unsatisfactory Methods of Speed Trapping
Page 36
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THE police are becoming very active in their trapping, not only of drivers who exceed the limit of 30 m.p.h. in built-up areas, but also of van and other commercial-vehicle drivers both in and outside these districts.
Some of the methods employed are unsatisfactory and inconclusive. Already a number of magistrates has expressed objection to the system of " gonging" any vehicle passing a police car or other police vehicle which is travelling at a steady speed of 30m.p.h., and in some cases summonses based on this method have been dismissed.
Even in the heart of London and other big centres vehicles are being timed over distances as short as 220 yds. and a driver who traverses such a length of road in under 15 secs. may be stopped and warned that he will be summoned. We understand that an allowance of 5 yds. is usually made, but a trap of this length appears to us to permit grave opportunity of error. A. slight advance or delay on the part of the officers at the ends of the measured distance might easily give stop-watch readings appreciably less than the time actually taken by the driver. The question of comparing for accuracy the two watches which are employed does not enter into the matter in such a case.
As is usual, the measured distances are often situated not in places where any danger might exist, but where the police consider that they are most likely to find victims. One such trap was worked recently over a Thames bridge, and took in the crest, because it is well known that a driver automatically speeds up slightly to surmount a slope, and a slight declivity on the other side keeps up speed unless the brakes be applied.