Heads Up About The M74 North And South

[the squiggle]

Righto,this morning at about 11ish going down the old 74 between Blackwood and Lesmahagow. At the roundabout leading to the sliproad onto the M74 southbound there were 4 marked traffic vehicles. I turned right to go over the motorway and there was a Honda CR-V in Silver with an amber light on the roof fitting parked up over looking the motorway, parked behinfd the Honda was an unmarked Police BMW 3 series in Dark Blue. Between the Honda and railning over looking the motorway was a gentleman in plain clothes and 2 devices on tripods opointing at the southbound lane.

Same again at 4pm northbound only this time it was a Burgandy Large Ducato/Citreon/Fiat type van and parked at the flyover at Abington services. Again Police Beemer behind it, 1 gentleman in plain clothes and 2 devices pointing at the northbound lane. Only seen the 1 marked car sitting up the sliproad but about 2 or 3 miles up the road a Laguna had been pulled and just before Happendon an Impreza had been pulled, Impreza passed me just as we crossed the Lanarkshire border.

Seems they are having a major blitz on the stretch between Strathclyde Park and Crawford. Usually they sit either on the bridges over looking the M74 at various points but they usually do it in a heavily marked large Ducato style van but this technique is a new one to me, maybe some of friendly local boys in fetching blue may know, and reckon its worth a heads up to anyone heading onto the M74 for England-cester-shire

Also seen the unmarked Beemer prowling and snaring drivers on this particular stretch of road

May well be entirely innocent and they are only checking immigration visas and tyre tread depth on the way past or they could be acting like right sneaky and possibly illegal manouvers

Due to my van been governed now to a pathetic indicated 75mph i have nowt to worry about , apart from no seat belt, 1 tonne of Columbians finest marching power in the back along with about 84 and a half illegal immigrants from the South Pole, dunno might be penguins aint checked on them for a while coould possibly be dead now, and a stash of Ak-47s heading for a housing scheme near you.

If i spot them at it again next i will stop and take picrtures of them in situ but in the mean time watch your speed if you are going to be heading a really long safe bit of road that is quite steep in parts or better still come off at Blackwood and head down the old M74. Crackingly quiet stretch of road that needs to be used more often

Subaru related as it was an Impreza owner that was pulled and i see loads of Scoobs heading up and down that road, i wave at them but they never seem to wave back. I also look out for White Transits of either the Speedy Hire or Timbtra variety and even Black Vectra's with a special sticker on the back

[andy]

Sounds like ANPR rather than speed checks. They'll use the Scamera Pratnership for speeding stuff and not waste resource on that scale. Most likely looking for unlicensed/uninsured motors which I have absolutely no objection to and wish they did more of.

[st3ph3n]

Good heads up Grant. I'm between Bothwell and Motherwell or Larkhall all the time and I just stick it at 70 these days. Too many places for them to hide, especially when it's dark.

[terzo neil]

cheers grant

could be catching the roadtax cheats................. hopefully

changed vans, now running a speedy new shape transit

[marky.t.s]

spotted the silver CRV at 3p.m. today just after l/gow slip,but driver was fast asleep,orange lights on roof.an 03 plate,5 series dark blue beemer has been up and down there for a wee while now,usually early mornings 7-9 am,also a 55 plate 320d in dark blue.

[pmacFTO]

yeah sounds like they are checking tax discs then the police are pulling them. (Good!)

The police in West Lothian (I saw it on the A89) also have a 57 plate silver BMW or Merc estate now - I saw it as it had pulled someone over at Newbridge. (BMW and Merc just look the same now so can't actually remember which it was!)

Edited April 11, 2008 by pmacFTO

[the squiggle]

The camera's they were using were not the same as i have seen them use before for road tax detection

Both the Laguna and Impreza passed me at a fair rate of knots hence my line of thinking

[thefastone]

Yeah, the road tax vans are quite open about it too, not the same level of markings as the Scamera vans, as i don't think that they need to be...

[andy]

Yeah, the road tax vans are quite open about it too, not the same level of markings as the Scamera vans, as i don't think that they need to be...

The Scamera van markings are only "guidelines" which are abused daily. Brunstrom - the Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban - has taken it to a whole new level.

Click for video of how low they'll stoop to get your £60

And they tell us it's not about making money and wonder why we have no confidence in the Police...

[billyboy]

Seen twice this week on Haggs Rd.

Gunmetal coloured pick up with truckman top and CLOSED rear smoked window.Copper sits in cab and advises his mates up at the bus stop who to stop.TUT TUT!

Anything for money.

[diffbuster]

Apparently they are both speed and number plate recognition cameras they are usually on the southbound side at abbington to spot which trucks and vans they want to pull in at beatock weighbridge so chuck your columbians and ak 47s out at crawford.

[mic]

I've heard about these little camera things before as well, a mate of mine seen 3 unusual looking cams on the motorway one day, and sure enough further ahead there were 3 different cars all pulled by various unmarked cars.... Good heads up, i'm on the M74 a fair bit these days.

[micra_wrc]