Remember Will Foreman? The guy who appeared in the AAA press conference to complain against City’s speed camera program (see the video) saying that the cameras were exploiting drivers?
Well, a Maryland District Court judge upheld the accuracy of speed cameras and handed him a defeat. Understandably, AAA is not happy either, seeing one of their prime “witness” getting a beating.
Read the full story here on the Washington Examiner. Camera operator Optotraffic’s press release is here.
Ron Ely
Bull.
College Park’s claims that Optotraffic cameras are reliable were “invalidated” by a disclosure by the town of Cheverly, whose contract with Optotraffic was canceled after teh town confronted them over as series of technical problems… including speed measurement errors:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/maryland/2011/11/speed-camera-company-quits-cheverly-equipment-challenged
You can see the actual documents disclosed by Cheverly here, documenting errors going back over a year:
http://www.stopbigbrothermd.org/2011/11/optotraffic-contract-with-cheverly.html
Residents of the town had previously complained that they had gotten tickets with erroneous speed measurements
The only thing Foreman’s case proved is that the county and Optotraffic intend to play hardball now that they are in bed together and defendants will no longer be humored with fair hearings now that so much is at stake. Optotraffic, Prinec George’s, and College Park all have MILLIONS on the line. Only an independent investigation by an agency from outside the state can be trusted. I will bet anything if an independent investigator looks at the citation images which were filtered out by Optotraffic, they will learn that there were many similar incidents to the ones referenced in the Cheverly disclosure, And if huge speed measurement errors are possible, then there is no telling how many “medium sized” errors pass through such filters and leave defendants with no way to prove themselves innocent. The supporters of these devices have simply decided that a few innocent drivers need to suck it up “for the greater good” (ie College Park’s bottom line).
The wall of silence around Optotraffic’s cameras has cracked. Optotraffic will not be able to hide the truth from the public much longer.
Joesph Osborne
I refuse to believe that any of these people were not speeding and that they are all “the example of how to drive” I just wish that a police officer would catch them so they would get bigger fines and more points on their licesne and eventually not be allowed to drive any more. If you don’t want a ticket don’t speed. Fanatics I think. My company has proven GPS equipment in my fleet of vehicles to monitor my drivers. They have gotten tickets from these cameras..and guess what. They paid the fine because the records show they were speeding. So I fail to see what the argument is here except the fact they do not want to be held accountable for their actions. If they feel that strongly about it invest in a GPS system for their fleets. Not only will they save gas on their delivery routes, but they can track their drivers everywhere and see how they are driving.