The Road Safety (General) Regulations 2009 includes a tolerance for speeding offences. This means that an infringement notice is issued for less than the speed a person was detected to be travelling at.
NSW Police can issue a licence suspension at the roadside if you are caught speeding by more than 45km/h over the speed limit. Police also have the right to impound your vehicle or confiscate your vehicle's number plates. These offences carry demerit points that will be added to your record.
The cameras are accurate to +/- 2%, which means that you could receive a ticket in the mail for a speed infraction at little over the speed limit – so be warned.
Where a driver exceeds the signed speed limit by 45 km/hr or more, they may be charged with the offence of driving at excessive speed, see: Excessive Speed. A speed limit sign often indicates the speed limit [Australian Road Rules r 20] or if there are no signs, the default speed limit applies.
In NSW and Vic, the tolerance is 3km/hr for any speed limit under 100km/hr. For speed limits of 100km/hr and over, the tolerance is 4km/hr. Sources please! I got done doing 4km over in a 80 zone.
Technically, you can be issued with a fine for going just 1mph over the limit, although this is unlikely, particularly with fixed speed cameras.
The 10% rule
That's because the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) urges police officers to use their discretion when dealing with drivers who break the speed limit. To be more specific, they recommend only handing out speeding tickets if a driver surpasses the speed limit by 10% plus 2.
“So for example, travelling at 35mph or above in a 30mph zone will be recorded as a speeding offence. “However, Go Safe say thresholds vary and can change without notice. “Officially, any speeding offence occurs at 1mph above the limit, but most forces will allow a variance.”
The camera itself gives a speed measurement, but a court will rely on a technician's calculation of the distance covered over the ground, which is estimated to be accurate to within one mile per hour. Successful challenges have been made on occasion, however.
Answer: It is a common myth that changing lanes confuses fixed average speed check cameras, this is not the case. Police forces generally use ACPO guidelines these are speed limit + 10% + 1 or 2 mph. However, it has been know that some police forces use just above the speed limit.
How Much Margin for Error is There? At present some police forces allow 10 per cent of the limit plus 2 mph albeit, this is subject to change at any stage, with our without your knowledge from the relevant police forces. This leeway has always been discretionary.
Do mobile speed cameras have a 10 Tolerance? It's fair to say there is a tolerance for speeding, which is 10%+2mph above the speed limit. So, in short, a speed camera flashes you speeding but allows for this tolerance – in most instances, that is!
Some counties allow 10% +2mph. So if you're in a 70mph zone, for example, you're unlikely to get a ticket unless you're going over 79mph. Keep in mind though that this tolerance isn't the law, so you could end up being pulled up for doing 71mph.
What is the 'rule'? The 'rule' itself is quite straightforward: if the speed limit is (for example) 30mph, the rule states that you won't get a speeding ticket unless you are going 10% plus 2 mph faster than the limit.
If you're caught speeding by a camera, you'll be sent a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) within 14 days along with a section 172 notice. You have to fill in and return the section 172 notice within 28 days telling the police who was driving the car. Failing to do this may mean you have to go to court.
In order to be convicted a police officer must also provide evidence which corroborates his opinion that you were speeding. Speeding is the only offence under English Law which requires evidence of corroboration. This can be done in a number of ways.
Can a speed camera be wrong? Fixed Gasto speed cameras are estimated to be accurate within one mile per hour and other types of fixed road cameras are estimated to be even more accurate. Therefore these speed cameras can be wrong but only marginally.
40mph limit: between 46 and 53mph. 50mph limit: between 57 and 64mph. 60mph limit: between 68 and 75mph.
Average speed cameras work by recording your speed at two different points. They don't capture your speed in a single flash. Instead, they'll monitor your speed over a length of road. This is so people don't slow down just before they see a camera and then speed up again afterwards.
Do speed cameras always flash? Not all speed cameras give off a visible flash – front-facing Truvelo Combi cameras, for example, use a filter to prevent their flash from dazzling drivers.
First and foremost, speedometers in most vehicles are designed to overestimate the speed of travel. International law has long required modern cars to overstate true speed.
You'll either be offered a speed awareness course, be issued a speeding ticket, or – in the most dangerous circumstances – you'll be sent to court, where you'll receive a fine, points on your licence or a driving ban.
Don't believe the urban legend that most cameras are just empty boxes, but it is true that not all speed cameras flash. Ultimately, there's really only one way to tell whether you've been nabbed by a roadside speed camera, and that's the appearance of a fine notice in the post.
If you have passed an average speed camera, you will have been recorded by it. Only by ensuring that your average speed is below the legal limit can you ensure that a prosecution notice won't land on your doormat.
Where several speed cameras are deployed on the same road or motorway, the most obvious example being that of average speed cameras, drivers can run the risk of being caught speeding more than once on the same journey.