"Speed has never killed anyone; suddenly becoming stationary... that's what gets you."
Jeremy Clarkson, TV presenter
Rather ironically, it was a Dutch rally driver, Maurits Gatsonides (1911-1998), who invented the speed camera. Gatsonides enjoyed most of his driving successes in the 1950s, and it was during this period that he came up with a device—known as the Gatso—to measure his speed while cornering in a bid to improve his driving, that is, to make him drive faster.
The camera works by using radar to measure the speed at which a vehicle passes the device, photographing those that break the limit. Two photographs are taken and, should the initial measurement be questioned, the position of the vehicle relative to the white lines painted on the road indicates the average speed that the vehicle traveled at during a set time interval.
Fixed speed cameras have been used widely in the United Kingdom, Australia, and France, but only marginally in the United States. Despite being billed as life-saving devices, speed cameras remain unpopular with large portions of society. Some people consider speeding fines an unethical source of revenue for the local law enforcement agencies or the private organizations that operate them. However, a research study conducted in 2006 estimated that "Gatsos" and other traffic enforcement measures have reduced road fatalities by about a third in the United Kingdom.
