Italian appeals court rules that tickets issued by plainclothes traffic police are illegal.

Italy’s Court of Cassation yesterday ruled invalid a speeding ticket issued by an off-duty police officer in a decision that could outlaw the deceptive use of speed traps. The municipal officer was not in uniform when he stopped a motorist identified only as Sandra S. in Reggio Emilia in 2003. When a local magistrate overturned the ticket, the municipality appealed. In its decision yesterday, the appellate court’s second civil division rejected the prosecution’s arguments, citing Article 183 of the municipal traffic code.

“When working on the highway, officers responsible for regulating traffic must be visible from a distance through the use of distinctive clothing or uniforms,” the appeals court judges wrote.

Since the officer was neither in uniform nor visible from a distance, his citation was not issued under municipal police authority, the court concluded. The consumer watchdog group Codacons believes that this sets a precedent that could outlaw hidden speed traps and serve as the basis for thousands of appeals. The group also complained today about motorists being trapped by red light cameras at intersections with yellow times set too short. Codacons spokesman Fabio Galli told Gazzetta di Modena that there was no reason not to add a second or two of yellow time to keep motorists from slamming the brakes out of fear, which can cause an accident, in order to avoid an automated ticket.

POLICE in England are handing back 300 fines to drivers after speed guns were found to be wrongly set up.

Lancashire police have been ordered to rescind the fines, including those for drivers on the Fylde, after a probe by an independent police watchdog.

Anti-speed camera campaigners say lives could have been ruined by the faulty cameras as motorists risked bans which could cost them their living.

Driver Stephen Hunter ,of Devonshire Road, Blackpool, received a bill for £185 and had four points removed from his license after being caught by a speed gun on Clifton Drive, South Shore, on July 18 last year.

He said: “This is a very serious thing to have happened.

“Luckily for me, the points I got did not mean I lost my license but it could have for some people and that can be their livelihood gone.

“I was on my way to work at 7.20am when the camera supposedly caught me. I was re-doing my mortgage and my wife was getting ready to go abroad for work so with all that going on I overlooked paying the fine.

“So because it went to court I had to pay £150 with £35 costs. I just accepted it but this shows that actually if you get a speeding ticket perhaps you should question it.

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Anyone who has driven for a few years has probably experienced a friendly flash of high beams during a night-time drive. The gesture can mean many things. It could mean: “Put on your headlights, bonehead!” It can mean trouble ahead. Or more, commonly, it can mean: “Slow down, there’s a speed trap ahead!”

The debate about warning drivers of impending speeding doom heated up this week with the story of a Toronto-area man who fought the law. He won.

One Saturday morning last year, Brad Diamond flashed his high beams at oncoming traffic. It was a gesture to warn other drivers of a police speed trap. It ended up costing him $110.

Diamond thought something wasn’t right, and he did some research. Turns out there was no law on the books that makes it illegal to warn other drivers of a speed trap. Ontario isn’t the only place. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador have no laws that would make it illegal to flash the high beams as a courtesy.

Diamond fought the ticket in court, and police finally had to admit there was no formal law. Other drivers have taken their fight to the Supreme Court of Alberta. In the United States, the top court in Pennsylvania has dealt with the issue.

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A guy in colorado came across this sign on a city street. He was puzzled because the sign didn’t say what he was supposed to do to avoid the increased fine.

That sign is in Aurora, CO, which has what are termed safety zones to increase the level of penalties near certain schools and construction sites. If you get a speeding ticket in one of these zones, for example, you can be assessed the regular ticket charge plus an additional fine of at least $100.

Although it’s not shown in this photograph, an Aurora spokeswoman stated that, there are always signs nearby that indicate a school zone or construction area.

I guess this sign is similar to the signs in construction zones in Texas that state “Fine Double When Workers Present”. They just have to be present — not actually working.

A Sonoma County, Calif., judge has ruled a speeding case supported by an officer’s radar cannot be thrown out. The speeder’s GPS system allegedly recorded a speed contradictory to the radar reading, but the judge ruled radar more reliable.

Roger Rude, a retired Sonoma County sheriff’s lieutenant, brought the case to fight a ticket his stepson Shaun Malone received for going 62 mph in a 45 mph zone. Rude had installed a GPS system in the car to track his stepson’s speeds. Rude alleged Malone never was speeding based on the GPS tracker.

The court ruled against the GPS data, holding that radar data is more reliable.

JB Harper, Radar Systems Engineer for Decatur Electronics, the manufacturer of the radar that clocked Malone, said radar is a time-tested speed assessment tool.

“Decatur radar has been catching speeders for more than 50 years,” he said. “Radar reads a speed at the speed of light rather than calculating geographic and time differences between two separate readings as is done in a GPS system.”

Officials with the Petaluma Police Department, which issued the ticket, agreed. Petaluma Police Capt. Dave Sears said GPS is a valuable tool but is not as accurate for tracking speed as radar.