One of the dozens of the new, permanent speed cameras in use on Arizona freeways was found knocked on its side Monday on westbound Interstate 10 at 16th Street. While stuck in traffic Irwin M. Fletcher, a member of the activist group CameraFraud.com, noticed the stricken machine on the side of the freeway. He used his iPhone to document the incident before Australian camera vendor Redflex had the chance to recover its expensive ticketing hardware.

"Looks as if someone got pissed off and took out some aggression on the scamera location," Fletcher wrote.

State officials have not issued a statement whether they believe the device was disabled by a deliberate attack or a hit-and-run accident. Although the speed camera in this case does not appear to have caused any direct injuries, falling photo enforcement devices have proved deadly elsewhere. In a May 2005 accident, a red light camera fell on a twenty-four-year-old woman in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The woman later died of the injuries inflicted by the camera. In May this year the camera victim's family filed suit against Fayetteville and Dallas-based contractor Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) because they "knew or reasonably should have known that mounting a red light camera weighing approximately 300 to 600 pounds to an aluminum pole designed to 'break away' upon impact presented a hazard and an immediate threat of injury to drivers and passengers," the lawsuit stated.