Caught by a Speed Camera in a Rental Car???
 

We just returned from Norway. After spending 2 days in Oslo, we picked up a rental car in town and started out on our 6+ hour drive to Sognefjord. We had gotten out of Oslo center and were starting on the main roads where we thought the speed limit was either 70km or 80km. We were going approximately 75km when we drove by a speed camera in a gray box (first one we'd seen) which definitely flashed us. We then saw a sign ahead saying 60km.

We were extremely careful the rest of the trip and saw several more boxes. When we turned our rental car in at the end of the trip (9 days later) we thought the fine might be tacked on to the bill, but it wasn't. We even told the Hertz agent we thought we'd been flashed by a speed camera and she said they would simply pass on our address to the police if/when they were contacted. We made sure the address was correct and left.

We know that fines for speeding in Norway are outrageous...up to 10000 Krona and even jail or losing your license if the speed is high enough. We've accepted the fact we might get a huge ticket in the mail. My questions are:

1) Since the camera actually flashed, does that mean we definitely will get a ticket? I would assume most cameras are digital now and possibly pass on information immediately to the police?

2) How long should we expect it to take before receiving the ticket in the mail? Although I would love to not get this ticket, because we expect a very high amount I don't like it hanging over us. I'm worried about possible extra fines if they claim they can't find us since we are not in Norway (although we know Hertz had our proper address).

Anyone have experience with this?

The more usual posts about speeding tickets here are often focused on "do I REALLY HAVE to pay this?" so yours in refreshing for certain.

Some have reported getting an additional bill and sometimes a SERVICE CHARGE from the rental agency...sometimes MONTHS later.

Twice we were "flashed" in Germany, reported it to the rental agency but never heard from the German police. Both these incidents were years ago so I think we're home free. Try not to obsess about it. You may never get a ticket and if you do, it may not be as bad as you think.

We were "flashed" once in Queensland, Australia (not in Europe, as far as we are aware). But nothing ever came of it.

Ms_go keeps insisting that it's going to happen to us any day now. Even yesterday, on the Great Dolomite Road. So far, so good. Knock wood.

(Mr_go...posting on my LW's computer, under her login)

see the world -- also digital cameras flash. But whether it's on film or a chip, it always takes a bit of time. When the speed limit had been 60, the camera will start to take pictures at a bit higher speed. Going 15kph more than the speed limit is not enough to lose your license or go to jail, not even in Norway. If you get a ticket it should be in the vicinity of $550, not $1,500. The service charge of the rental car company should somewhat pale in comparison - you should find it on the terms page of Hertz' website.

crckwc1 -- you're legally off the hook. Tickets have to be issued within 3 months in Germany. It's not uncommon that you don't get one when the infraction had been at the lower end of the scale.

We were flashed twice in France. The first time it was clearly our speed that set off the camera. The second time there was a motorcycle that passed us just as we were approaching the camera on the way to a tunnel that crosses to Spain in the Pyrenees. My husband was sure that the motorcycle triggered the camera but that it was us who got flashed.

We waited for the other shoe to drop. It's been two years now. I was sort of hoping, because I told my husband I'd be happy to go back to fight the second ticket.

i think that i read that all fines charged to the rental car registration will be charged to our credit card
i think thats what it read in the manual they gave us

just wondering though - what if you wanted to contest it?

we were careful driving norway and mostly we never got over 50 or 60 except on the road to lillehammer from oslo
we didnt have a navigaional device to warn us of speed traps either - are they legal in norway?

dont sweat it
forget and if it happens...well thats that
how bout putting away some cash and saving towards the fine in the meantime and then splurging or putting it towards another holiday if the fine doesnt turn up

lol
a gaol sentence wont be so bad
cheap food and lodgings in norway!
might even have a view!

Thanks, Cowboy -- I'm glad to know the deadline for issuing tickets in Germany in case we get "flashed" when we go back in August. (Love Germany!)

We were flashed in Germany in 2006. Middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. It scared the crap out of me. Never heard from them.

Thanks for the replies. We looked through the contract with Hertz and didn't find anything regarding tickets. At the counter, the lady said they have nothing to do with it and would just pass on our info if they were contacted. I recall other contracts with other rental companies have mentioned a service charge. Regardless, as Cowboy mentioned, the service charge would probably be small in comparison to the ticket.

We're mainly worried about extra fees from the police for any reason. We are setting money aside as lanejohann suggested, so I guess we'll see.

This is the first I heard of this. When did these start going in and how prevalent are they, particularly in France? What do they look like? Are they just on the autoroutes?

We got flashed by the cameras twice on a trip to Germany, we did receive notices from the rental agency that they provided the our name, etc to the authorities and that we were being charged an "administrative fee" by the renting agency but we never were issued tickets. We have since returned to Germany and did not have any problems with renting an auto, and no camera flashes this time! Funny that in our 20+ trips to Germany and surrounding areas we had never been photographed and on that trip we got it two times.

We got two tickets this way on our last trip to Germany. We received the tickets and had to wire the money. It was good my wife is German because the instructions were not clear to me.

There was no fee from Avis.

jgwagner4: How long did it take you to receive the tickets?

Not looking forward to possible Norwegian instructions!!

What can happen?

1) Sometimes the camera flashes but no photo is taken. (Due to a technical problem or it flashes just to warn speeding drivers.)

2) Sometimes the camera flashes and a photo is taken, but they do not issue a ticket because the photo is bad, they cannot decipher the license plate or there are two vehicles on the photo.

3) Sometimes they ask the rental agency for the address but they dismiss an action when they see it was just a minor infraction and the driver lives overseas.

4) In your case, they will probably hire the Men in Black to transport you to a Vogonic prison.

Each country has a limitation of actions. In Germany, it is three months - I do not know the limitation period in Norway.

Italy is a different case. Several times I got demands for payment from a dubious firm for infractions which I have not done (e.g. for not paying the toll on the autostrada, which is technically not possible). I always ignored these letters.

see_the_world7,

Sorry about the delay in my response. It probably took a month or so for the tickets to get to us. In both cases the fees for getting the money transferred where more than the actual tickets.

surfergirl, many places in the world have cameras now, including in the US, for speeding and running lights and other infractions. You can't spend all your time driving trying to see them in advance, they aren't that big and it would be dangerous to do that as you should have your eyes on the road. They aren't big enough that you would see them that far in advance, and they are metal colored so aren't going to stick out that much ahead of time. They are rectangual metal camera boxes that can be on an overpass or sticking up alongside the road about the height of a car. Some have gold and black striping around the edges of the box.

I'd say there are lots of them in France. I know there are several around the peripherique in Paris as well as on some of the big major streets (like the ones leading out of Paris to the peripherique, eg, quai de Bercy and ave d'Italie. They aren't just on the A routes, but also D routes and N roads, as well as within cities, as I said. In Provence, there are some on the A7, A8, A51, etc. YOu will never be able to depend on seeing them in advance in order to avoid tickets.

My husband got one in the Netherlands and received the ticket in the mail about a month later. He wired the money to the given address and it was returned two weeks later. He also was concerned about renting a car again but he had no problem.

The speed camera locations in France are marked if you get driving directions on line (at least on www.mappy.com they were). And there are signs on the road before you get to the cameras teling you that there is video surveillance, although I forget the exact wording. Unfortunately, it wasn't until after we got flashed that I realized the significance of the signs.

They are not just on the autoroutes. We had avoided those because they were marked on our map and thought we were safe on the smaller roads. Wrong.

Get a GPS unit with up-to-date maps of the countries you are driving in. Most warn you of fixed and mobile cameras and some flash up the speed limit of the stretch you are on. Don't rely on it entirely as new cameras may have been set up since the maps were last updated, but at least they warn you of main ones.