By Richard Diamond/Staff Reports

Voters in Garfield Heights, Ohio, on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected the placement of speed cameras on Interstate 480. City officials had placed Issue 19 on the ballot expecting residents to authorize use of the devices through an amendment to the city charter that would relax the existing ban on automated ticketing. Instead, the measure failed 56 percent to 43 percent.

Voters were asked: "Shall Section 59 of the Charter of the City of Garfield Heights, which currently prohibits the use of photo-monitoring devices for the enforcement of qualified traffic law violations in the city, be amended to add Subsection 59-4 to provide that Section 59 shall not apply to the use of traffic law photo-monitoring devices on Interstate 480 within the corporate boundaries of the City of Garfield Heights; and add Subsection 59-5 to provide that not less than one-half of net collections from traffic photo-monitoring violations shall be used towards the cost of the City's: 1) police, fire and other safety services; 2) street and other infrastructure improvements; and/or 3) parks, recreation, and senior programming?"

A charter amendment was necessary because residents banned automated ticketing machines in 2010. The latest effort is the third time voters in Garfield Heights have been asked to approve photo enforcement, but they have refused every time. Last week's rejection was with 5,062 votes against and 3,976 in favor.

Meanwhile, vigilantes in Cranston, Scotland, hurled an object at a photo radar van as it was driving on the A68 last week. In Santarcangelo, Italy, on Tuesday, vigilantes applied insulating tape to the lens of the speed camera on Via Scalone, thwarting its ability to issue automated tickets.

Vigilantes in Villersexel, France, covered the RD486 speed camera with pink spraypaint and the message, "kisses, colleagues." In Lafitte-sur-Lot, the speed camera on the RD666 was knocked into a ditch on Wednesday. In the Nievre department, farmers with the Nievre Rural Coordination decided Tuesday to blind every speed camera in the department by covering the devices. The organization is protesting the government of Emmanuel Macron for making it impossible for farmers to make a decent living. Also on Tuesday, the speed camera on the RD901 was destroyed after it failed to prevent an accident. A woman lost control and her car slammed into the device leaving the car on its side in the middle of the road. In Lasseran on Monday, opponents of photor radar cut down the speed camera on the edge of the RN21.