Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/71/7168.asp

12/19/2022

Motorists Free Themselves From Speed Cameras In France, Italy, Spain
Italian police threaten arrests over anti-speed camera Facebook comments. Cameras thwarted in Spain and France. Reprieve for Belgian motorists.

By Richard Diamond/Staff Reports

A number of speed cameras were disabled throughout Europe last week. Vigilantes in San Martino di Lupari, Italy, on Sunday obliterated the speed camera on the Via Sant'Andrea by setting it on fire. The blaze left nothing behind but a pile of ashes. In Arona, vigilantes bent the speed camera on the SS33 so that it pointed away from the road, removing its ability to generate automated citations.

Local officials in Tavazzano con Villavesco, Italy, were so upset at the joyous comments on Facebook about the destruction of several local speed cameras that police chief Claudio Festari and deputy chief Stefano Lavini began lashing out at the public, threatening to arrest anyone who insulted the department on charges of defamation. On Sunday, December 11, vigilantes in San Marino blinded the speed camera Via Costa del Bello with brown paint.

Belgium's four major police unions announced Thursday they would go on strike until January 15 next year. During the labor action, individual officers will pull over motorists for minor traffic violations, but they will not be issued citations. The purpose is to deny revenue to the state until it approves a salary increase, according to the union demands.

On the Balearic Islands, an archipelago in Spain, vigilantes in Palma blinded the speed camera on Carrer de Pompeu Fabra with white spraypaint on Tuesday. Cameras have also been disabled on Carrer Miquel Llado. Vigilantes in Les Loges-Marchis, France, blinded the speed camera on the RD977 with blue, white and red spraypaint on Tuesday. The speed camera on Ringwood Road in Dorset, England, that was torched in August 2021 and the camera on Magna Road in Bournemouth remain unrepaired and covered under an orange tarp.