11/18/2007

UK, Australia Speed Cameras Attacked
Three fixed and one mobile speed camera have been damaged or destroyed in the past week in Australia and the UK.

Vigilantes in the UK continue attacks on fixed speed cameras in the UK while a man was arrested yesterday for smashing a mobile speed camera in Australia.

In the West Midlands, a pair of speed cameras on Stratford Road in Solihull were rendered incapable of issuing tickets last week. The first, near the Plough pub, was re-oriented so that it took pictures of the sky. The second camera was completely destroyed. The Birmingham Mail reports that in just the past two months, six speed cameras have been torched or otherwise damaged.

In Malvern last Sunday, vigilantes burned a speed camera on the A4103 Worcester-Hereford road in Leigh Sinton. A gasoline-filled tire was used to ignite the blaze that firefighters extinguished with between £1500 and £10,000 (US $3000 to $20,000) in damage done, the Malvern Gazette reported.

In Victoria, Australia a 36-year-old speed camera operator sat in a Holden Commodore station wagon while the machinery issued automated tickets on Melrose Drive in Tullamarine. At around 6:30pm, a 42-year-old man began swinging and "damaged the plastic wind visor, bent the front number plate upwards and dented the roof of the vehicle," according to a police statement. The camera operator was not injured, but the vigilante has been charged with assault and criminal damage and must appear before Broadmeadows Magistrates Court on January 23.