More speed cameras taken out
One scamera trashed, more to come before the election
Guerrilla warfare between motorists and the revenue-gathering speed cameras continues apace. A Gatso in Somerset's Flax Bourton was trashed after a man rammed it with a dumper truck, only four days after its installation.
A local who watched the event from a pub over the road called the authorities but the perpetrator got away. Reports say there wasn't a camera in the device but that this is the third time the camera has been attacked, with previous attempts to destroy the device using fire.
Meanwhile, another speed camera, earlier damaged by fire, has been repainted to look new(ish), in order to act as a deterrent. The device, in Norfolk, looks new and ready to flash at drivers breaking the A149's 50mph limit. A closer look reveals that the lens is charred and cracked and burns show through the yellow gloss paint.
A spokesman for the local scamera group said that it was stopgap, but they only had five cameras to go in the 17 devices around the county.
Captain Gatso
Yesterday, Captain Gatso said fellow activists he has heard of the attack via text messages and that, coming up to next year's election, attacks would escalate. He said it was a bid to highlight anger at cameras sited just to earn revenue rather than protect road users. "It's not going to go away, what we're going to do is start taking out the cameras", he said.
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has reportedly ordered a crackdown on cameras sited outside accident blackspots, and new guidelines say authorities must monitor the impact of each camera closely, and that they may only site mobile cameras within a three-mile radius of accident blackspots.
Blackspots are officially defined as stretches of road where four or more crashes causing death or serious injuries have occurred in the last three years. Motoring organisations have cautiously welcomed the proposal.
The plans were revealed as it emerged that a nationwide review of 5,000 cameras, set up to check whether each was correctly sited, had led to a mere five being removed.
A bloody accident hotspot right? - but the put the camera up miles away where they'll make the extra cash - I'm sorry, but theres a blackspot and then theres taking the piss!
Streetcop said:
Oh dear......lowering of tolerance levels for trigger speeds then..to pay for damaged cameras....
......will only lead to more public anger at the obvious use of Scamera's for revenue collection purposes.
An inevitable increase in attacks on Scamera's will then follow.
Then what?
Streetcop said:
I hate to say it, but scamera vans burn equally well I'd imagine...
There is a big difference between attacking a Gatso and attacking a police vehicle and one especially that has a police officer in it....
Completely agree.
But if the authorities keep pushing the public the public will eventually fight back. They are bound to.
Streetcop said:
I hate to say it, but scamera vans burn equally well I'd imagine...
There is a big difference between attacking a Gatso and attacking a police vehicle and one especially that has a police officer in it....
I certainly hope no-one would endanger the life of either a police officer or even a civilian scamera operator.
But aren't Scamera Pratnership vans definitely NOT police vehicles? Not that I'd advocate criminally damaging them either...
philthy said:
Any camera thats get burned out/vandalised will be replaced as fast as possible, so as few as possible of the general public can see the damage.
..........from a reliable source.
Phil
The first Scamera you encounter as the M40 turns into the A40 entering London has been a burnt out shell for donkeys years.swilly said:
Any camera thats get burned out/vandalised will be replaced as fast as possible, so as few as possible of the general public can see the damage.
..........from a reliable source.
Phil
Yep and probably gets seen by quite a few people every day too...
Streetcop said:
I hate to say it, but scamera vans burn equally well I'd imagine...
There is a big difference between attacking a Gatso and attacking a police vehicle and one especially that has a police officer in it....
Does that include covertly letting the tyres down? 
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