Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/44/4425.asp

6/1/2014
France, Germany, Italy: Speed Cameras Degraded
Speed cameras become art exhibits and are disabled throughout Europe.

Italian art exhibitIn Gifhorn, Germany, a speed camera was damaged after failing to prevent an accident caused by a drunk driver last week. Just before midnight on May 23, a 29-year-old Latvian woman drove her Mitsubishi on Bromer Strasse, slamming into the back right side of a Volkswagen, spinning it off the side of the road where a mobile speed camera tripod had been set up. According to police, a blood test revealed the Latvian woman had a 0.15 blood alcohol content. About 11,000 Euros (US $15,000) in damage was done to the cars involved, but officials did not release information on the amount of damage to the speed camera.

In Como, Italy earlier this week, officials planned to place a speed camera on the Via Patrioti in Guanzate. Before the automated ticketing machine could be installed, sledgehammer-wielding vigilantes smashed the steel bolts that had been prepared on the concrete base for the device, La Provincia di Como reported.

In Florence, a sculptor who dislikes speed cameras decided to make an exhibit on top of an automated ticketing machine. Artist Clet Abraham set a bizarre pink man-like sculpture with the head of a toilet on top of the photo radar on the Viale del Poggio Imperiale. The sculpture is holding a scale that is tilted. Abraham's Facebook page calls the cameras "the worst way to exercise power."

In Nantes, France, vigilantes damaged a speed camera last week. Ouest France reports that the housing of the camera on the boulevard de la Prairie de Mauves was covered so that it was incapable of issuing tickets. On Tuesday, a speed camera in Auteuil was painted black to prevent it from issuing citations, Courrier Picard reported. Another camera on the RN19 in Pomoy was painted black, according to Est Republicain. On the same day, a camera on the RD461 in Fournets-Luisans was disabled, Est Republicain reported.