Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/41/4194.asp

9/1/2013
New York, France, Germany, Romania: Spontaneous And Deliberate Speed Camera Destruction
A speed camera in Romania sets itself on fire while other automated ticketing machines around the world are destroyed.

Romanian speed camera car burnsA mobile speed camera vehicle in Romania destroyed itself on Thursday. While issuing tickets on the DN1 between Sibiu and Sebes, a photo-radar-equipped Dacia Logan sedan suddenly caught fire. The driver of the speed camera car immediately called for help and tried to use a portable extinguisher, but both he and the firefighters failed to prevent the car from burning to the ground.

"It was a violent fire," Sibiu's fire captain told Ora De Sibiu. "But we intervened pretty quickly and avoided the danger of an explosion."

Photo radar units are inherently dangerous and prone to spontaneous combustion. Similar incidents have been documented around the world. In 2010, a camera in Fruitland, Maryland burned itself. Similarly, a camera car burned down a police garage in Colmar, France destroying seventeen patrol vehicles. A photo radar van in North Wales, UK caught fire. A speed camera vehicle in Mount Carmel, Tennessee caught fire and burned down a barn.

In Suffolk County, New York the red light camera on Route 25A was destroyed after it failed to prevent an accident on Tuesday at 3:30am. According to the Rock Point Patch website, a drunk driver in a 2012 Mitsubishi crashed into the device.

In south-central France a speed camera was disabled with gray spray paint, according to Le Progres. The device had been issuing tickets on the N88 in Saint-Paul-de-Tartas.

Lime green was the vigilantes' choice of color in Horbach, Germany last week. The traffic camera on Horbacher Street had its lenses painted that color, Aachener Nachrichten reported.