11/13/2010
Hungary, Poland, UK: Bogus Tickets, Faulty CamerasSpeed cameras are faulty in Poland and tickets are tossed in Hungary and England.
In Liverpool, England, magistrates at the Traffic Penalty Tribunal ruled that an automated bus lane ticketing camera on Lime Street has been unfairly trapping motorists, Click Liverpool reported. Set up in a location with confusing signage, drivers who entered the lane accidentally had no way to leave and were in return sent a bill for £60 (US $97) in the mail.
A court in Hungary has thrown out the speed camera citation issued to the driver of a Mercedes Actros long-haul truck in Zalaegerszeg. The automated ticketing machine accused the vehicle of driving 31 MPH faster than the truck's speed limiter would have allowed. In addition, the driver had tacograph and GPS evidence showing he had not been speeding. The judge concluded that the video of the incident proved that the prosecution's explanation was implausible and the speed reading bogus. Police were ordered to pay the legal costs of the appeal, Mandiner Auto Teszt reported.
In Swidnik, Poland last month police secretly removed a speed camera from service that had a cracked housing. According to Wiadomosci-24 police kept the withdrawal from service a secret to avoid undermining "the credibility of the measurements" of the photo radar device if the public had known it had been in use while damaged. The device has been repaired and brought back into service this week.