Good evening!

I was driving home to Zürich on A1 early evening today. Traffic was VERY slow because of an accident somewhere in St. Gallen area. After that had cleared up there was a road construction (actually several) to slow down the traffic.

Do you know if there is a camera on the road construction area there (maybe about 20 kilometers after St. Gallen)? Because of the construction, the speed limit is 80. I was definitely driving about 95. I think I saw a red flash (only once!) but was not able to figure out if it was a camera or something else.

Please, someone, tell me there is no camera there!!!!! And what is this red flash anyway? I've managed to get NO tickets for a very long time and hope I won't this time either.

thanks, FinnMom

It's a camera I'm afraid. The one I saw recently was a static camera but was set up overnight in a village near Geneva. I think it is forward facing - i.e. it gets a picture of the front of the vehicle. As I was on the bike when I saw the flash I am hoping so anyway...

thanks for your reply - your description of the flash matches unfortunately....

Not correct. I have managed to sweep up 6 tickets within a year and no extra penalty or anything alike has hit me.

Taking me of the street would also be denying income to the kanton which would be very unswiss.

Three tickets for moving offences in two years will bring at least 1 month suspension in Fribourg and Bern.

Parking tickets, no Vignette, no back light, don't count. It used to be possible to do the porridge just at weekends, but no longer.

Should be no biggie then. 11-15 kph too fast on the Autobahn is a CHF 120 fine but most speedos read too much and there are always a few kph deducted to calculate the fine, so you might even get away with 60 Francs if you're lucky.
Just pay the fine within 30 days after the date on the bill and you'll be fine. No points and no rising insurance premiums to worry about.

Never heard of such a rule. Care to quote/link a source?

Unfortunately, it was at a roadworks spot. 11 - 15 too fast on such a 80 km stretch tends to be more expensive I'm afraid...

In kanton ZH, as long as you stay within the ranges that are handled administratively (no judge involved) you won't loose your license in case of several speeding tickets.

What is the limit for the ranges that are handled administratively, do you know? And is there an extra penalty as it was a roadwork area... (somewhere, maybe in California, the fines are doubled in such case)?

What a stupid mess I got myself into. Thanks for all replies, I will not be speeding for a while....

If you speedo showed 95 km (speedos tend to be rather optimistic) it is probably a bit less and on top of that a reduction will apply depending on the type of radar (2nd table). Based on below tables, it will probably be between CHF 100 and 160.

Überschreitung:Inn Aus Aut
um 1-5 km/h 40.- 40.- 20.-
um 6-10 km/h 120.- 100.- 60.-
um 11-15 km/h 250.- 160. -120.
um 16-20 km/h V 240.- 180.-
um 21-25 km/h V V 260.
-über 25 km/h V V V

Messverfahrenbis 100 km/h 101-150 km/ hüber 150 km/h
Radar fix 5 km/h 6 km/h 7 km/h
Laser fix 3 km/h 4 km/h 5 km/h
Radar mobil 7 km/h 8 km/h 9 km/h

Thank you again. I am still here with another question:
the 4th line on the table: um 16-20 km/h V 240.- 180.-,
what does the V = Verzeigung exactly mean?
(what if I was going 100 km on 80 km area?)

I do not mind paying a fine but hope to avoid any extra problems....(don't we all want that).

"V" means your case will be referred to a judge, who will take a decision. It also means that on top of the fine you will be hit with CHF 200 - 250 admin costs.

The V in the line you mention does not apply in your case. It applies to "innerorts", i.e. within the town/city limits.

Great! This camera got me a couple of Sundays ago. I was kind of clinging to the hope that maybe the camera was just being used as a deterent, not actually taking photo's (don't they normally send the fine quicker than 2 weeks later?) . I was the last car in a long line and everyone was going faster than me, so it was a good day for the St Gallen coffers.

Chill! Not every foreigner know's all of your rules, and yes, could you translate that for me.

The rule mentioned by Ittigen says that you will lose your license for at least a month if you received a formal warning or already got your license taken away in the last two years.

That means that this rule will NOT apply if you only got administrative fines (Ordnungsbussen, i.e. what everyone except Ittigen has been talking about in this thread.). Basically that's the kind of fines you get if you stay within 15kph of the limit in town, within 20 out of town and 25 on the Autobahn.

Nice change to the first line of your post there! I'm quoting this one too in case you want to "re-word" it again.

I you are going to post please make sure it's accurate.

This response is more applicable OP

The camera is a portable one. They move it from side to side every week or so. Since the opening of the new road after the first construction site (going to ZH) the favourite place has been behind the sign just inside the second construction. Coming from ZH they like to place it behind the sign for the Schaffhausen turn off.

Last night, going from ZH, the police were on the bridge (the one with the flashing amber lights) with a speed gun and their mates were pulling people over at the end of the construction.

For once, the cameras are about safety. For the last few weeks there has always been at least one accident on that stretch and the record, for me, was to see 5 in one morning = a 2.5 hour drive to work . Worst places are where joining roads filter on to the highway, the run on is too short and drivers misjudge their speed.

Is it right yet?

On a depressing note (for the OP and IBD) a colleague was fined for 92 km via that particular camera.

On top of the 92 in an 80 fine, he received an additional penalty of CHF 150 as it was inside a construction zone. I never heard of that before but it does sort of make sense.

I only sped coz everyone else was doin it .
I was thinking just before I got busted that since no one was actually working there, I might go a bit faster too..... I truely think they see me coming!