the discovery of an unapproved radar calls into question thousands of fines

Thousands of fines for speeding could be canceled in Italy, where the Court of Cassation has just handed down a sentence which has shaken a number of municipalities.

It all starts from the case of a motorist from Treviso, near Venice. He received a fine for speeding which was not questioned, not even by the person concerned. However, he will not have to pay his fine. If the radar which took the measurement was approved by the Ministry of Transport, it is not approved: it lacks a technical stamp, which is obligatory according to the highway code. The problem is that no specific institution or entity is designated.

It is therefore a legal vacuum that this motorist took advantage of. The big question is how many radars are in this case, among the 11,000 that pepper the country. In 2022, the 20 largest cities in the country will receive 75 million euros thanks to them. And in a country that is poorly ranked in Europe for road safety, radars are definitely having a bad year in Italy.

Since this winter, a mysterious character has become a star of the news, particularly in the local press, by regularly destroying devices. His name is Fleximan. Is it a man, a collective or isolated vandals who hide behind this nickname? Nobody knows, but the latest example happened in Cantu, north of Milan.

Restriction of limitations

Fleximan is perhaps the Minister of Transport, one could joke. It is true that the minister himself is not a big fan of radars. This is the far-right leader Matteo Salvini, who oscillates between two speeches: road safety is a priority but let’s stop “to annoy” the car drivers. He went to war in particular against left-wing mayors who are increasing, even generalizing, 30 kilometers per hour streets in their cities. He believes that certain elected officials only use these radars to bring in money.

So the minister set rules. Mayors can no longer crack down on sections of roads where the authorized speed is reduced by 20 km/h compared to the general rule, which concerns in particular the limitation to 30 km/h in town instead of 50 km/h. In addition, from now on, if you receive several fines in an hour, you only pay one, albeit increased. Meanwhile, the city of Bologna, which has moved to 30 km/h almost everywhere, has published an assessment of this experiment launched in January: according to the town hall, accidents have decreased by 14% compared to last year.