The most profitable UK speed camera issued $26 million in tickets at night when a speed limit change warning sign was completely unlit.

M11 cameraThe UK’s most profitable speed camera that has been sending £60 (US $120) tickets to vehicle owners at the rate of 2000 per day may now be forced to issue refunds. The device, located on the southbound M11 at Woodford, Essex is situated at the point where the speed limit suddenly drops from 70 MPH to 50 MPH. Last month motorist Simon Grills forced the Crown Prosecution Service to drop his speed camera ticket after he proved the signs warning of the speed change were effectively invisible at night. Grills produced evidence showing the lights meant to illuminate the signs had been burned out since November 18, 2005. Grills had spent months fighting the ticket he received in September 2006.

“When I got flashed I couldn’t work out how I’d missed the sign,” Grills told the Sunday Mirror newspaper. “Then it clicked — it’s simply not visible at night.”

It is estimated that since the bulbs burned out, at least 214,000 drivers had been trapped by the camera at night, generating £13 million (US $26 million) in revenue.

The speed camera in question has been the center of controversy since it was first installed, inspiring one group to take its disagreement outside the courtroom. Captain Gatso, the leader of the anti-photo enforcement vigilante organization known as Motorists Against Detection (MAD), cited the M11 camera as evidence that officials were engaging in “fleecing, not policing” and proceeded to use a heavy truck to yank the device off of its mounting in late 2002.

“We have spoken to numerous police officers and emergency service personnel countrywide and they agree that the majority of speed cameras are sited for revenue, not safety, and in a lot of cases they just impede general progress,” Captain Gatso said in a statement at the time.

Source: (Sunday Mirror (UK), 3/30/2008)

Ohio appeals court throws out unproven lidar speed gun evidence.

An appellate court on Monday ruled that key evidence used in Ohio speed traps was not admissible. With millions in local government revenue at stake, the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Ninth District found the accuracy of laser-based speed guns (lidar) to be unproven. The decision could inspire challenges to laser tickets throughout the state.

The present case began when Ohio State Trooper Dennis Matulin hid along the median of Interstate 71 with an LTI 20-20 laser speed gun waiting for the device to indicate that someone had exceeded the speed limit. Matulin charged that when Donald Miko’s semi truck passed his location, the lidar gun displayed a reading of 67 MPH. The limit for trucks on the road is 55 and for cars 65.

At trial in the Medina County Municipal Court, Miko objected that the trooper’s LTI 20-20 had never been proved reliable in an Ohio court of law. The prosecutor merely asserted the contrary. The magistrate quickly agreed, saying, “Yes, the court had done so by prior judgment entry.” The court imposed a $100 fine and two points against Miko’s commercial driving license. Appellate Judge Clair E. Dickinson scolded the lower court for violating the rule that a county court must publish, or report, a “judgment entry” used for the purpose of taking judicial notice.

“Nobody has brought a reported decision of the Medina Municipal Court considering the accuracy of the LTI 20-20 device to this court’s attention,” Judge Clair E. Dickinson wrote. “The trial court, therefore, was not authorized to take judicial notice of the scientific accuracy of the LTI 20-20 laser device by Rule 201(B)(1) of the Ohio Rules of Evidence.”

Dickinson went on to point out that the unreported case which the Medina court cited to convict Miko did not include any required testimony from expert witnesses. As a result, the court overturned Miko’s conviction.

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Louisiana state Senate votes unanimously to ban formal and informal traffic ticket quotas.

The Louisiana Senate yesterday voted unanimously to adopt one of the nation’s toughest bans on traffic ticket quotas. (YAY!) State Senator Joe McPherson (D-Woodworth) pushed this measure to a vote after related legislation to limit the ability of small cities to profit from speed traps died in committee Wednesday.

McPherson’s bill would make it illegal for any state agency to have a plan — even an informal plan — that evaluates police officers based on the number of arrests made or citations issued. The bill goes on to make it illegal for any political subdivision to “suggest” to a police officer that he is “expected to issue a predetermined number” of tickets.

The proposed law does not contain any of the escape clauses commonly found in ticket quota bans in other states. In Maryland, for example, quotas are banned but police supervisors may use “quantitative data” in evaluating an officer’s performance. Such clauses allow quotas to continue in agencies such as the Pennsylvania State Police where averages and proportions achieve the effect of a quota without triggering the law.

Louisiana’s Legislative Auditor documented the state’s problem with speed traps in a report released last June. At least fifteen localities used traffic tickets to generate more than half of their municipal budget. Baskin, Georgetown, Lillie and Robeline each made more than 85 percent of their general budget revenue from traffic citations. Baskin was the top speed trap with $1719 in per capita speeding ticket revenue (view report). Baton Rouge came in at number eight on the National Motorists Association list of the top-ten biggest speed traps nationwide.

Source: Louisiana State Legislature, 5/15/2008

Speeders beware. You may soon be on your neighbor’s radar.

As was previously discussed in this post, cops are issuing radar guns to the public to help monitor speeders. What next?

The St. Joseph Police Department will begin loaning radar guns to residents worried about the lead-foots in their neighborhood.

The new program, which is currently seeking sponsors, was prompted by the limited number of officers available to catch speeders and to get residents to take more ownership in their neighborhood.

Speeding complaints top the list of traffic concerns police receive, said Sgt. Bill McCammon, Traffic Unit supervisor.

“We don’t have the manpower to go out and dedicate the time needed to reduce speeding,” Mr. McCammon said. “This is a way to try to get residents more involved in taking care of their own problem, with our assistance, of course.”

Volunteers will run radar from their own cars as part of a two-person team in residential neighborhoods.

One person will clock any vehicle traveling more than 10 mph over the speed limit, and the other person will write down the license plate and type of vehicle.

Later, if police find the license plate and vehicle description match, a warning letter will be sent to the car’s registered owner.

“It just informs them that their vehicle was observed speeding in this neighborhood, on this date, and reminding them they have to watch their speed, especially because it’s a residential area,” Mr. McCammon said.

Since 2003, a similar community policing program has been in place in Shawnee, Kan.

Shawnee Police Department Lt. Doug Orbin said neighborhood speed watchers have helped police target speed traps to true problem areas

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The Texas Department of Transportation is installing traffic signals designed to increase congestion and drive toll road traffic.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is using traffic signals to create the level of frustration to a point where the public is forced to accept toll roads. Earlier this month in Austin, TxDOT added an extra traffic signal on State Highway 71 to coincide with the opening of the third segment of the State Highway 130 toll road. Residents interviewed by News 8 Austin complained that the change made already bad traffic much worse on nearby free roads.

“At its worst it’s about a two-hour wait,” Daniel Villegas said. “Traffic just accumulates and accumulates.”

Likewise, those driving on US 183 Liberty Hill are diverted onto a frontage road with a new traffic signal that generates significant congestion that can only be avoided by taking the 183A toll road.

“It has become obvious to me that this whole toll road system has less to do with improving mobility and more to do with lining the pockets of private toll road investors and property developers along the old and new routes,” resident Malcom Terry wrote in a complaint to the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority in February. “We were sold a bill of goods.”

Often state agencies enter into “non-compete” agreements with private companies that operate toll roads. The provisions of these agreements require not only that nearby competing free roads remain unimproved, but also that various obstacles such as lowered speed limits and traffic signals be used to generate additional congestion, as happened on the Colorado E-470 and Sydney, Australia’s Cross City Tunnel.

Source: (News 8 Austin (TX), 9/27/2007)