Unveiled: france’s top speed camera

THE COUNTRY’S MOST PROLIFIC RADAR FLASHES AN AVERAGE 547 TIMES A DAY AND IT’S BASED IN… FRANCE’S busiest speed camera is based in the Var according to a regional newspaper. The Var Matin

claims that the radar on the A8 at Adrets-de-l’Estérel flashed more than 200,000 times during 2008 – making it France’s most prolific camera. With an average of 547 flashes per day it far

out performs the average daily radar haul of 41. The majority of motorists caught by the camera exceeded the limit by less than 20kmh – a figure that is no coincidence as this portion of the

motorway is reduced from the normal 130kmh to 110kmh. One speeding motorist said: “There is absolutely no reason to drop the limit, it’s a long stretch of road with good visibility, a

beautiful view actually. It’s just a form of taxation.” In total 320,000 speeding incidents were caught on camera last year in the Var – putting it in fifth place in a ranking of France’s

departments. The table is headed by Parisian departments according to magazine Auto Plus with cameras in Essonne hitting between 1,400-1,600 a day. A report in the magazine said that 40% of

speed camera photographs were not followed up because the quality was too bad or the number plate could not be read. The result is that around 4.2 million speeders escape prosecution.