Thursday July 3 2003

Reflective license plate spray beats traffic camera tickets in a flash

Hate the idea of impersonal cameras ticketing you for running a red light or driving 36mph in a 25mph zone? The antidote might be in a red aerosol can.

A Harrisburg, PA company sells a spray to stop camera-generated tickets by making your license plates so reflective that they blind a spying camera when its flash goes off.

Tests show that “PhotoBlocker,” a product sold over the Internet by Phantom Plate, can help drivers beat traffic-enforcement camera tickets by coating their license plates with a spray.

Phantom Plate started selling the product three years ago. The company was born primarily out of anger over the growing number of places on the East Coast that were using cameras to enforce traffic laws.

“We had a lot of family members and friends who were getting tickets right and left, “ said Joe Scott, marketing director for Phantom Plate.

Knowing that a mirror reflecting a camera flash ruins a photograph, Phantom Plate founders experimented with ways to make license plates hyper-reflective, Scott said. After much testing, they struck upon the spray.

Since then, the company has sold thousands of the $29.99 cans that can cover up to six license plates, Scott said.

Scripps Howard News Service