Traffic police in France have finally managed to identify the cause of seemingly random vehicles being clocked by a fixed radar traveling at excessive speeds.
The investigation, carried out by the gendarmes in Marie-Ségolène Poitou, began when an off-duty police officer was caught doing 120 kilometres per hour in his Porsche. Convinced of his innocence, the officer challenged the report and found that there had been similar drivers in the same situation, although many of those had accepted their fate and paid the appropriate fines, whilst some had received bans, with some of the drivers recorded driving in excess of 200 kilometres per hour and one of those clocked at a staggering 304 kilometres per hour.
As the investigation continued, the officers inspected the evidence recorded by the cameras and noticed that on each one, there was an unusual and unexplained apparition, a shadow that appeared near to the vehicles.
As the location was near to an airfield, the officers believed that the most likely explanation for the shadow was that it was being cast by something airborne, which was a stroke of genius, a consideration that turned out to be true.
Having set a trap, it wasn´t long before the investigators caught the low flying pilot performing his manoeuvre above the road and triggering the radar. With an inflight chase then resulting in the pilot being identified, he was promptly arrested.
The conclusion of the subsequent interview was that the pilot admitted that he had taken the action “for revenge”, having himself lost his car driving licence having been caught speeding by the radar.
The pilot will be brought before the courts but emergency legislation had to be brought into force as the case is believed to be the first of its kind in Europe.
