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Don't worry about it. Gatso's aren't set to go off if you're travelling the wrong way towards you, and it won't be calibrated to catch you if for some reason it gets triggered from the wrong direction. Not only that, but a camera flashing at you from the front is potentially very dangerous (must be blinding at night..), so I don't think they'd be much inclined to own up to it having happened anyway..

I dunno, there was no-one driving towards me, and it definately went off in my face.... whos to say its not some new digital thing (truvelo with better hidden wires) thats setup to do face-forwards pics?

The "they cant do facing pics because of data protection" thing is all well and good, but in that case explain Truvelo and SPECS - both face-forward cameras, so they can prove who was driving and so exactly who to fine.

Went up and down that road with my radar on* twice, friday night and saturday afternoon and couldn't spot what would have been the one that got me though, so now i'm completely confused. Hopefully I was just tuckered and dreamt it. Very few of the cams up there have markings on both sides of the road though - indeed from the style of the marks which are on just the one side it looks like they were trying to save paint
(and how quickly they've worn away suggests a pressure washer would do the trick - just a case of finding a power and a water hookup)

Taking a ride as a passenger in a 4-up car to the cinema on saturday showed to me how rotten Staffs is with cameras however. You could happily lose your license two or three times over in the space of five minutes on one stretch if trying to get somewhere quickly or simply not paying attention to the limits, and it's just your regular type of semi-rural dual carriageway that would ordinarily be under a 70. But the limit changes several times, 60 - 40 - 60 - 50 - 40 - 60 - 70 or something like that, with some fairly confusing signing.

The guy driving was going fairly relaxed, 5-under to the limit most the time..... still had to warn him off at one point as he almost breezed through a 40 camera at 55, riding the brake downhill, convinced he was still in a 60 because of misreading one of the nobby signs as being a repeater rather than a "new limit" one. That would have been a perfectly safe (early 30s, lots of experience, would have trouble giving him more than a couple minors on the test), never-speeding driver getting 3 points and a fine because of a literal speed "trap", if one of the four people in the car hadnt clocked on to the situation with about 100 yards to spare. 60 of which were spent arguing the toss in fast-forward.

Went thru at 47 in the end after a brief stab of the brakes (him insisting it couldnt be any lower than a 50, til a small repeater hoved into view) and it didnt trigger - phew.

More annoyingly still, there aren't any signs explaining just why that bit of road is so dangerous it has to keep dropping down to 30mph less than the usual national limit. For something that needs such a restriction I'd really appreciate some kind of warning as to what type of severe hazard I might be running into - sharp bends, slick road surface, junctions hidden in dips where tractors might be turning, school crossings etc? Not much was in evidence... Just a mind bending array of equally-sized camera+limit signs.

*EDIT - i dont have an actual radar detector, i just meant i was looking

It's not a data protection issue - that was just the old cameras which took a photo which they then sent to your house, your wife saw and noticed the attractive blonde secretary with you etc etc... it's a safety issue. Neither Trevelo nor SPECs have a flash, GATSO's do which is obviously how you know you set it off. They can't have forward facing flashing cameras because they're blinding, simple as that.. And obviously if there were no markings your side of the road, whether it flashed you or not there's no way to prove what speed you were doing so it doesn't really matter

i doubt they care about the blinding - what if you're driving a bus, and someone speeds past the camera in the other direction... flash flash, you're blinded, you then plough your mostly-full vehicle through the nearest queue and off a cliff into a reservoir... poisoning it.

that would b worst than what groovy carrot suggested

Fair enough, this is true, but that is definately the reason that there are no forward facing flashing cameras

Is there a law against driving with your face obscured?

I have seen plenty of women (or at least i think they are) driving around with hoods over there faces. Surely if they were caught by a camera you would only be able to identify their eyes.

I thought i would conduct my own experiment today, so i drove round all day with a balaclava on to see if the old bill had anything to say...i wasn't pulled but i was dripping with sweat after a couple of miles.

you must have had the engine running for a while before you got in then?

Nope, no law against it as long as you can clearly see the road and your peripheral vision is not affected. If you get done by a front facing camera with your face obscured, then they'll still do you based on your numberplate anyway.. unless you can prove that someone else was in control of the car at the time you'll almost certainly still end up with a fine and a load of points, unfortunately.

no law... we drive bout in scream masks on halloween