Driving north up the M1 yesterday, I went under a flyover, and standing on the flyover right at one end was a person taking flash photographs of the traffic on the motorway. The flyover was pretty high - at least 10m - and it was broad daylight, so there's no way the flash would have reached the cars down on the motorway, but it was incredibly distracting...

I'm reckoning the chances of it being some kind of hand-held Gatso that no-one knows about are pretty remote, but it got me thinking that maybe it was some loon making an existential protest about the traffic (he/she might just have forgotten to turn the flash off and was taking photos entirely innocently, of course!). Anyway, taking flash photos within the line-of-sight of traffic seems REAAAAALLLLLLYYYY flipping stupid to me, but does if he/she was doing it as some kind of protest, do you think it would constitute an offence? I thought it was really dangerous...

Hi

It would be interesting to find out. Was the camera flashing at regular intervals, as I guess they would still have to give proof over a distance if it was a hairdryer?

There are many distractions while driving - not least of which are the hardstanding gatso IMO. I personally hope it is not an offence to take photos as an individual since that would surely be the police state gone mad wouldn't it?

Mo

Sound like a saddo truck/eddie stobart spotter to me

You're probably both right - and chances are he/she didn't even know the flash was on what with it being daytime... No harm done, I guess!