By Richard Diamond/Staff Reports

Anti-speed camera vigilantes picked up the pace in Italy last week. On Saturday, the photo radar device on Strada Provinciale 344 in Pila was knocked over. Automated ticketing opponents in Roverbasso likewise kicked over the speed camera on Via Roverbasso. In Taranto, vigilantes ripped the speed camera near Superstrada Ponte Punta Penna Pizzone out of the ground and tossed it into a ditch.

On Wednesday, the pole-mounted automated ticketing machine on the Strada Provinciale 2 in Asola was sliced by an angle grinder. On Tuesday, unknown vigilantes in the Milan suburb of Buccinasco knocked four "Velo OK" brand speed cameras out of the ground on the Via Meucci, Via Emilia and Via De Amicis. The devices had only been active for a day before being disabled. Also on Tuesday, an angle grinder cut down the speed camera on Via Nuova Cassanese in Pioltello. On Monday, February 19, the orange "Velo OK" speed camera on the Via Marecchiese in Rimini was also kicked over by unknown vigilantes. On Saturday, the speed camera on Viale Lombardia in Brugherio was smashed after it failed to prevent an accident. A 65-year-old woman in a blue Renault SUV careened through a guardrail into the device. On the same day, another speed camera was knocked down on Via Trieste in Meda.

In Rotherham, England, a man parked his truck in front of the mobile speed camera trap on Dunstan Road on Tuesday, preventing the device from issuing automated tickets. Infuriated by the loss of ticketing, South Yorkshire Police arrested the man.

"We know that speed cameras lead to conversations about money generation," police spokesman Matthew Collings said in a statement on the incident.

The majority of speed cameras in the Haute-Loire department of France were covered in trashbags or other wrappings on Saturday. The attacks were carried out by the young farmers who marked their work with the tag "JA43" in advance of an agricultural exhibition in Paris. In Aubusson, vigilantes on Friday covered the speed camera on the RD962 in black spraypaint with the tag "Picasso."