Curious self-defense

Dummy speed camera in the garden to slow down speeders

This is what the dummy radar box looks like.

(Bild: GEH)

Woe betide you when it's a day out: then the B138 in front of the house of Werner Rohregger (57) from Klaus an der Pyhrnbahn turns into a racetrack. His creative self-defense: a dummy speed trap has been standing in his garden for one and a half years. However, it doesn't do as much as he thought, says Rohregger: "But most of them do slow down a bit."

The privately installed dummy radar box "lurks" at the entrance to a house next to a long straight stretch of the Pyhrnpaß federal road (B 138) between St. Pankraz and Steyrling. Two small viewing windows, reminiscent of a speed camera box, have been built into both sides of the metal box.

"I've already heard that a local resident has set up a dummy. From what I hear, it helps a little so that people don't speed so much there," says Rudolf Mayr, mayor of Klaus an der Pyhrnbahn. 

 We spoke to the owner
"Friends made this box and put it up a year and a half ago," says owner Werner Rohregger (57). He has lived next to the B138 all his life: "In the past, when there was no A9, there was naturally more traffic. Now, when the Pyhrnautobahn is closed for maintenance work in the tunnels, it's pure chaos here."

The really bad days are the excursion days: when the weather is perfect, people step on the gas pedal or tighten the throttle, says Rohregger: "150 or 160 km/h are no exception. Since the wrong radar box has been there, some people slow down and only drive at 130 km/h. Sometimes someone even turns around and checks to see if it's a real speed trap," he smiles. 

According to the police, dummy speed cameras are generally legal as long as they are on private property, do not obstruct the view of road users and do not emit any disruptive light signals or flashes.

You can also buy fake radar boxes
The company Puchegger from Lower Austria specializes in dummy radar boxes: A radar cabin like the ones used in the past, but which are now slowly being phased out, costs around 1000 euros. For the luxury model "Puchegger Kabine NEU", on the other hand, you have to fork out a hefty 4200 euros.