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.

Often the picture is taken but the case is dismissed if the sum you have to pay is small and the receiver is outside of Germany. They are not going to start a search for you and monitor airports etc for an outstanding 15 € bill. The police know it and just don't send out small tickets if it looks like it's hard to get to you - it's within their discretion to drop the charge.

As mentioned, rental agency might receive a claim, then it is up to them to charge you. If not mentioned in contract I doubt if they can do this legally. And as a foreigner you will not go to jail in Norway, no worry. And you will not lose your license.

Easiest solution of all for the future: DON'T SPEED. No need to get special instructions, maps, or even a new GPS

We didn't think we were speeding!! We knew the default limit was 70km or 80km if not marked. We were outside the city and hadn't seen a sign so we were going about 75km, which felt very slow. Obviously we missed a sign since after the flash we saw a sign up ahead for 60km.

What does it look like when the camera flashes you? Like a bright standard flash? I am just wondering since today I was driving to Sweden and I saw a green light blink on the cameras as I passed them. One of them did when I was going close to exactly the speed limit.

I don't know about Sweden, but where I live, they are just a bright standard flash. You might not even notice them, of course, as they tend to flash when you are a bit past them so you'd have to be looking in your rearview mirror to see them.

I imagine the green light blinking was just showing it was working and had you in its sights and was measuring your speed.

Indeed! Germany has a 90 day statute of limitations on traffic infractions. The ticket will find you if you have an address within the EU. If your address is in the U.S. it is not likely they'll bother. To mitigate this particular problem I have a portable GPS from Tomtom. I subscribe to their EU speed camera service for $39 a year. My GPS gives me an audible warning when I approach any of the thousands of cameras in the EU. The camera service for the U.S. is free. Garmin has a similar program.

I was flashed in France in a rental car and received the fine within 2 weeks (plus a 25€ service charge from Europcar for "processing"!). But being flashed does not mean that you will actually be fined. I read that only about 40% of the photos give a clear image of the license plate, so many fines never go out.

I got one in the Netherlands a couple of minths after I returned home. It came from the rental company with a letter stating that they had charged it to my credit card along with their fee for finding me and then there was some sort of tax on it (double dipping if you ask me! but they didn't.) Just paid and I've been much more aware and careful since then.

On another trip, our B&B host in Scotland warned us about a camera that we would pass on our way that day. Good thing he did as it was on a steep downhill patch of road and it would have been very easy to get going too fast.

Does anyone know if there is statute of limitations on traffic infractions in Norway?

I just got a summons from April 2011 for going through a toll without paying.

We had used up all our Swedish coins at the earlier manned toll and had no Norwegian coins and there were no manned booths. We pulled over at a rest stop that had a tourist office, but no one was there. We didn't know that we could have paid somehow, by going off at the next exit. Not a lot of excuses here, I realized that we did wrong.

Anyhoo - got a bill in the mail yesterday. The toll was $3.21 the fine is $55!!

Seems like a long time - 16 months to send the ticket. So, based on what was written above about Germany, just wondered if there was something similar for Norway. I have tried to find info online, but not coming up with anything.

Oh, the car was NOT a rental, but rather our own Volvo that we had just picked up in Sweden.

statute of limitations is that not an American statute , rather than a Norwegian one?
Just pay the fine; 55$ is not a great deal especially after purchasing a brand new car.

Cheap

I beg your pardon? Did I say I wasn't going to pay? But I don't want to pay a penalty that was not my doing.

It now seems that many people that bought Volvos last year are now getting these summons; I have found this out on FB and on a Volvo message board.

It is "possible" that Volvo sat on these tickets for well over a year before releasing owner's name etc.

My letter says "Original Invoice Amount" for the $3.21 and then a penalty of $55, presumably for not paying on time.

My post was questioning how long they have to send me a ticket. I wondered if there was some limit, as it appears above in the case of Germany.

I don't know what the time limit is, but all of the Europeans countries are definitely cracking down now. They are signing bilateral agreements to enforce fines. On the French news yesterday, they mentioned that France had just signed with Belgium, and it was a jackpot, because something like 53,000 Belgian fines were outstanding already this year.

I would contact Volvo about it DebitNM.

Pay the fine but find out from Volvo why it has taken them so long to send it to you, and ask if they will compensate you for the late payment penalty (if any).

Presumably you were on temporary plates whilst in Norway - which may also have delayed things as they are often re-used and it is necessary to find out who was driving on those plate at that time. Then Volvo has to track you down and get the fine off to you, but a year seems excessive.

>>>Does anyone know if there is statute of limitations on traffic infractions in Norway? <<<

I think in Italy they have a year from the time they track down your info. It seems Germany only has three months. This is from a web page about Italian traffic tickets.

4) In Italy, the authorities have up to one year after they have obtained the offender's details to issue a traffic ticket to an offender in a foreign country (unlike in Germany, for example, where there is a three month limit). Italian bureaucracy being what it is, the ticket usually does take a year or more to arrive. The first notice will be a "friendly" letter that arrives unregistered. The second notice will be registered.

>>>My letter says "Original Invoice Amount" for the $3.21 and then a penalty of $55, presumably for not paying on time.<<<

No, I would think the $3.21 is the toll you didn't pay and the $55 is the original ticket fine for running a toll. I wouldn't think the original fine would be less than $55 since it seems Norway is known for very high fines for speeding. Another penalty may get tacked on for paying the $58.21 late.

**Norway & Iceland
Highest Fines: 10% of annual income and jail time (Norway), $2700 (Iceland)
Travelers already will know that Norway is absurdly expensive in many ways, as Iceland used to be before its banking system collapsed last year, and their speeding fines are no different, at 10 per cent of annual income and $2700 respectively. But Norway distinguishes itself by imposing a mandatory minimum jail term of 18 days for speeding offenses deemed excessive alongside the hefty fine. Speeders can also face community service or a license suspension of more than three years. In Iceland, higher fines are justified by their supporters by the danger of driving on roads that can turn quickly from tarmac to gravel, often leading to unintended consequences for fast drivers.**

I know of at least 2 others who also got letters and they have toll only. The plates are special plates, that stay with the car until they get to US. They are non-resident red plates.

I have contacted Volvo; we'll see what happens. They are usually top notch in customer service.

Apparently the Italians are more up top date since I got a ticket notice from Siena I was actually able to go on line and pay it.