UNMANNED TRAFFIC CAMERA SURVEY
MOBILETRAXX ELECTRONICS
Enter subhead content here
WTOV9.com SPECIAL
ASSIGNMENT: Beating The Speed TrapPOSTED: 4:16 pm EST February 6, 2006 STEUBENVILLE,
OH -- Steubenville's traffic cameras have been so controversial, a pending lawsuit has temporarily shut them down.But if they come
back, would you try to beat the system? And do products designed to do that really work?Beating traffic cameras
has become big business and one of the hottest countermeasures is a spray called "PhotoBlocker."
It's supposed to put a high-gloss
finish on your license plate, overexposing it when the flash goes off.If police can't read your plate, they can't send you a ticket.Former Ohio state
Rep. Jerry Krupinski tried to outlaw traffic cameras in his final term in office.Now he's selling PhotoBlocker at a local
flea market."I've sold lots of cans of this stuff and i've not had one person come back to me and say, Jerry, I got a ticket,
so it doesn't work," said Krupinski. "But with all the testimonials the company put out, I have no doubt that it
does work."Because of the lawsuit, Steubenville police can't even talk about the cameras, let alone let us test out the spray.So we set up our
own test.Following the instructions on the can, we washed an old West Virginia license plate up and sprayed it down with four
coats of Photoblocker.For comparison purposes we also had an untreated West Virginia plate handy.When we attached the untreated plate
to a NEWS 9 vehicle and used a digital camera with a flash to photograph it, the plate was still legible.When
we did the same thing with a plate treated with Photoblocker, the plate showed up glowing white in the digital image and was
unreadable for our camera.Before you buy this product, which costs around $30.00 per can, there's one more
thing you should know.The surest way to beat the speed trap, it seems, is to just slow down.The other question is is it legal?Certain license plate
frames are illegal in Ohio, because they obscure the numbers on your plate, but because photoblocker is clear nobody would
even know you're using it.There's no law saying your plate has to be "photogenic."To learn more, visit
http://www.phantomplate.com/photoblocker.html.To purchase PhotoBlocker from Krupinski, visit the Treasure Island Flea Market in
Wintersville or look up his web site www.sprayorpay.com.Eric Minor, NEWS 9 Joe ScottMarketing Directorwww.PhantomPlate.com703 624 9318
X
X
|
||||||||||||||||||
12%