LUCCA. The months of terror among motorists are numbered: after the summer the Provincial “tutor” that measures average speed will be dismantled on the road to Moriano, active from March 2022. The same fate will happen to the “punctual” speed camera installed on Ludovica at the height of the Rivangaio bridge. The decision, already taken by Palazzo Ducale, is due to a change in strategy, which will favor mobile rather than fixed instruments, and managed directly by a provincial police patrol.
Fines valid or not?
Meanwhile, in the very near future, it remains to be seen whether the two devices, installed as part of a framework agreement with two private companies (the Municipality of Trento and Servicenet21 of Rome), are issuing valid fines. The point is the one that emerged in recent weeks with the ruling of the Court of Cassation which, by approving the appeal of a lawyer from Treviso, annulled the fines imposed by a speed camera approved by the Ministry, but not approved. A pronunciation that could extend to hundreds (or thousands) of other devices in Italy. As regards the Province’s speed cameras, the verdict will arrive shortly: Palazzo Ducale has asked the companies to certify the two instruments, to understand if there is approval or we are stuck at simple approval. In the latter case, those who have recently been fined will be able to appeal: to the Justice of the Peace if the sanction was imposed in the last 30 days, to the Prefect if the violation was contested or notified less than 60 days ago. The answer should arrive in the next few days.
Goodbye fixed speed cameras
But, as anticipated, the fundamental point is that from September those devices will no longer be in operation. In fact, in that month the three-year contract signed with the companies in 2021 will expire and the intention is not to renew it. From the Provincial headquarters they explain that they have decided to take a different path: fixed speed cameras, in fact, are judged to be “outdated” with respect to traffic needs and their deterrent effect has “failed”. For this reason we will favor the use of mobile speed detectors, managed by a patrol. Particular attention, with a widespread deployment of forces, will always be dedicated to Ludovica and Morianese.
Disputed sanctions
The numbers also show that the impact of the two speed cameras has decreased over the years. According to the Province’s budget data, during 2022 (the first year of operation of the two veloxes) the proceeds from speed limit violations reached 761 thousand euros. Numbers that have dropped over the past year. Again according to the body’s documents, the proceeds from speed cameras in 2023 reached “only” 197 thousand euros. In short, we are far from the first months of activation of the devices, when especially the tutor on the Morianese hit thousands of motorists, with an average, in the first two months, of 270 fines per day. A situation that led to protests and appeals and which convinced the Province to structure the possibility of paying the amounts in instalments. Until one night in June 2022 when the tutor was uprooted: a sort of anticipation of the vandalism of Fleximan against the speed cameras that took hold in the first months of this year.
