From what distance can the police laser?

It’s like shopping at Albert Heijn with a Jumbo bag. You’re not doing anything wrong, but it still feels that way. So if you see a reflective vest with a laser gun on a roundabout, you automatically slow down – even if you’re not speeding. And if you did go too fast, it might be too late. Or not? From what distance can the police actually use lasers? We went to investigate to see what the police speed traps are like.

From what distance can the police laser?

The police use several laser guns. They can use the widely used UltraLyte model for a distance of up to 610 meters. The UltraLyte LR has a longer range and can measure the speed of a car up to 1,000 meters away. So a full kilometer. From which distance the police can use lasers, therefore, depends on the type of laser gun. There are now also measuring pistols that can shoot 1.5 kilometers far, but you don’t have to worry about this yet. It is currently legally established that an officer may only laser at a maximum distance of 1,000 meters.

While we are talking about distances: there is also a legal distance that officers must keep from a traffic sign. When you drive past the ’50’ sign, the check may not take place within 140 meters of the sign Lawyer traffic criminal law. The higher the speed limit, the greater the distance to the board must be. For example, the police must be more than 280 meters from a 100-marker on the highway, to name but a few, if the applicable speed at that spot changes. This gives motorists time to slow down and adopt the correct speed.

Can you brake fast enough for a laser gun?

A laser gun measures the distance to a car with pulses. After a first pulse, a second pulse follows a fraction of a second, and the device calculates the speed of the vehicle on the basis of the difference in distance. According to the website Lasergunhuren, a gun can determine its speed in 0.3 seconds. According to the physics website I-Nask, a human reaction time is 0.2 seconds on average. So you have to observe, then with your foot to the brake pedal and then also slow down to the legal speed. If you see the laser gun within measuring distance, you are actually too late.