Gatso Speed Camera

The Gatso speed camera is the speed camera that the authorities seem to prefer in the UK. In fact, Gatso speed camaeras account for about 90% of the 4,000 fixed speed cameras currently in current use. The Gatso speed camera uses radar technology and has the camera and flash pointing away from the on-coming vehicle to prevent dazzling anyone with the powerful flash. A Gatso speed camera is therefore often invisible from the front. A Gatso speed camera can take about 400 photos before it has to be reloaded with wet film.

Gatso Speed Camera

Gatso is the name that the Dutch Gatsometer company uses on their traffic control devices, which include speed cameras, most of which use radar beams to measure the speed of passing vehicles. If the vehicle is travelling faster than a pre-set amount, one or two photographs are taken by the Gatso speed cameras as evidence to be used in any prosecution of the driver or owner of that vehicle for a traffic offence. The number of photographs that Gatso speed cameras take is also pre-set to match the legal requirements of the area or country in which it is located.

Gatso speed cameras take their photographs of the rear of vehicles because they make use of a powerful flash which could be blamed for causing temporary blindness to on-coming motorists. Older Gatso speed cameras used wet film which meant that the rolls of film had to be replaced quite often, which contributed to high maintenance costs, but newer versions use digital cameras allowing many times more photographs to be taken before changing the flash card. It is expected that in the future, these images will be transmitted to the authorities over the Internet or by phone.

Gatso speed cameras were invented by the late champion rally driver Maurice Gatsonides to help him to analyse his driving results. He placed speed cameras in bends and other obstacles such as chicanes to measure his speed through various lines. He used the resulting information to optimise his driving skills. He later formed the Gotsometer BV to market the devices as speed enforcement tools. It is still very much a family business, with the family taking a hands-on approach to running it.

Gatso speed cameras have achieved deep market penetration in many European companies. In some countries this has happened to such an extent that the word Gatso is synonymous with the phrase ‘speed camera’. They have had less success in America, but they now have an American subsidiary which could increase their coverage outside the Washington area where they are currently used the most.

Gatso speed cameras are designed to help the authorities enforce laws that they think will reduce the hazards caused by the high number of vehicles on the roads today. Although road traffic accidents or RTA’s affect all age groups, they affect younger people disproportionally. For example, for children between the ages of four and fourteen, RTA’s are the second biggest cause of death after bronchial infections and before malaria, but in the fifteen to twenty-nine age group, road traffic accidents are the number one cause of death in the world.

Not only that, but the World Health Organization blames traffic pollution as one of the main causes of bronchial infection too.

Some traffic reports state that if speed is reduced by just 5% fatal crashes will be reduced by 20%, which shows that Gatso speed cameras can have an important role to play in traffic and health management.