10/6/2013
Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, UK: Speed Cameras DisabledSpraypaint and burning tires take speed cameras out of service across Europe.
Vigilantes in Swansea, Wales set fire to a speed camera just after midnight on Tuesday. A fire crew was able to extinguish the blaze on Pentregethin Road in Manselton. From 2006 to 2011, thirteen speed cameras in the area have been torched, the South Wales Evening Post reported. In Petersborough, England vigilantes destroyed the speed camera on Oundle Road with a burning tire at 12:30am on September 22. The speed camera advocacy organization Brake condemned the attack.
"Damaging them costs local authorities money at a time when finances are tight," Brake spokesman Laura Woods told Petersborough Today.
Vigilantes in Maisons-du-Bois-Lievremont, France disabled a speed camera with black spraypaint. According to Plein Air, similar spraypaint attacks have been made in the past few weeks in Vuillecin, La Cluse-et-Mijoux and Nods. Orange spraypaint covered the speed camera in Dracy-Saint-Loup last week Saturday. According to Creusot Infos, vigilantes left a message "SBK 52" sprayed on the side of the device. Blue spraypaint was the weapon of choice against a speed camera on the RN21 in Lembras at 11pm on Monday. According to Sud Ouest, police have accused a 26-year-old with damaging the automated ticketing machine.
In Marburg, Germany, police reported blue and white spraypaint was used to disable four speed cameras on September 27. The devices were located on the main street in Halsdorf and on Bahnhofstrasse in Rauschenberg. Officials have no idea who might be responsible.
In Osimo, Italy, vigilantes smeared the lens of the speed camera at the gates of Casenuove with paint, rendering it incapable of issuing tickets, Corriere Adriatico reported. In Mogliano, four of the ten speed camera locations had their lenses spraypainted black. The city and its contractor rotate the camera hardware between the ten housings on a regular basis, according to Il Gazzettino.
In Estonia, speed cameras and their warning signs have been damaged or stolen 527 times in the space of a year. According to Ohtuleht, officials refuse to provide details about what happened lest the stories inspire others to follow suit.