Italian traffic cameras investigated for red-light rigging that may have cost motorists $1.7M
Red may be their national racing color, but there's little Italians hate more than red lights. And with good reason, it turns out: Stefano Arrighetti, creator of the T-Redspeed "smart" traffic system implemented across Italy, is under investigation for fraud on suspicion that he illegally forged transport ministry certification for his system. In place in over 300 municipalities, the system reportedly cuts the yellow-light time by half to ensnare motorists and charge them with running red lights. According to reports, some camera locations jumped from issuing 15 fines per day to more than 1,000. The net-net? The scheme may have fleeced motorists for more than $1.68 million dollars.
Arrighetti isn't the only one under investigation. Along with him are 63 chiefs of police and 39 local government officials. Local police are charged with rubber-stamping the automated tickets and sending them out without proper review. If the T-Redspeed system is indeed fraudulently issuing moving violations, it would be the local authorities reaping the benefit from the extra charges incurred.
[Sources: BBC News; Motor Authority]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ajmalzx 6:33PM (2/03/2009)
Idiots who ran the red light deserve to be fined. I mean what's wrong with waiting 2 minutes longer for the next green?
Reply
Aki 6:49PM (2/03/2009)
You need to learn to read. The people were going through yellow lights that turned red much quicker than normal. Last I checked, going through a yellow light is legal.
Craig 6:52PM (2/03/2009)
Maybe next time read the entire post not just the title.
Idiots that cut the time of the yellow in half to steal money deserve to go to jail.
This isn't just happening in Italy either.
Almost everywhere these have been installed the yellow was shortened.
Ligor 9:15AM (2/04/2009)
you obviously aren't patient enough to read the post, so i'd say if you were tehre you'd be ticketed everytime
but, as expected, if this was to happen anywhere, Italy would be it.
They have many a thing in spades, but corrupted leaders (and those earing the police badge) takes the top honors
xtasi 6:42PM (2/03/2009)
@ajmalzx
Thank you for clearing that up for me. Starting today, I will slam on my brakes every time I see a yellow light.
Reply
Bert 7:29PM (2/03/2009)
Studies have found that intersections with red light cameras have more/worse accidents. It's all a trap to get more money out of citizens pockets....
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/01/117.asp
http://www.motorists.org/blog/red-light-cameras-increase-accidents-5-studies-that-prove-it/
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/347197
ajmalzx 8:00PM (2/03/2009)
I don't understand how you idiots passed your driving licenses. I think everywhere in the world yellow/amber means ready to stop.
Oh btw, common sense dictates anybody who slammed their brakes on yellow deserve to be ran into.
Mike P. 8:09PM (2/03/2009)
I don't get certain drivers' confusion about yellow lights.
If it turns yellow, and it's safe for you to stop, stop.
If it turns yellow, and it isn't safe for you to stop, don't stop; continue through the intersection. No need to add gas.
Enough said..?
mikhalian 8:34PM (2/03/2009)
@ajmalzx: I'm not even gonna touch the irony of you calling other people idiots, I'll just send you off with a bit of actually usefull informations: Here in Oklahoma, as with most of the U.S.: yellow is meant to indicate that the intersection needs to be vacated. If you don't do this before the red you can be ticketed for failing to vacate the interesection. "Failure to vacate an intersection" is the exact language used here, it doesn't even mention the red or yellow light. You'll get the same ticket here whether you ran a red light or wrecked in an intersection and didn't move your vehicle out of the area afterwards, which sounds stupid and opprotunistic on the part of the city, but I find that to be the case with most laws.
ajmalzx 9:03PM (2/03/2009)
Well... that just sounds stupid. Anyway, here in the rest of the free world, common sense prevails.
S.P. 12:08AM (2/04/2009)
ajmalzx...did you still not bother to read the post...again? No one is really disagreeing with you; yes, yellow means prepare to stop, but it also is meant to give you time to clear the intersection. The point was, and I'm gonna drive this one home...THEY CUT THE TIME FOR THE YELLOW IN HALF!!!!!!! - that, dear sir/ma'am is fundamentally back-asswards and is precisely the point EVERYONE here was trying to get through your head was wrong. To get screwed by the law man just aint right...yet you would have us believe it's all good, because we're all idiots. They do the same thing in the US...funny how in one city they actually lengthened the yellow light by 1 second and tickets and accidents dropped significantly. Don't have the numbers here, but let's say it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 90% fewer per day. Huge drop in revenue but big gain in safety. My guess is they shortened the time frame - better dead than in the red!
mikhalian 9:07PM (2/04/2009)
@ajmalzx: Unfornately for your argument to be factually correct, common sense would have to be law... which it isn't. Your argument would fail in court, and thus in the context of this article, it fails here. For somebody who's made the ironic comment "I don't understand how you idiots passed your driving licenses." you don't seem to have a firm grasp on the reality of traffic law, irony, or logic. Furthermore you still don't seem to understand the point of this article, and your arguments haven't even made much sense within the context of the article. When confronted with your failed argument, you resort to an ad hominem argument, through name-calling and insults. In otherwords, you've lost your argument and you know it on some level, but you're unable for some reason to accept that fact. I don't expect you to admit that you are wrong, but surely you understand that the best thing for you to do now is to simply walk away...
nardi 6:52PM (2/03/2009)
Only the Italians could make a set of lights this cool.
Reply
P.V. 6:53PM (2/03/2009)
I was about to say so myself!
Galley 7:40AM (2/04/2009)
It looks like a $10,000 loudspeaker.
notYou 7:08PM (2/03/2009)
I fully expect to see my local and state reps on a junket to to evaluate these for revenue generation.
Reply
Seminole 7:11PM (2/03/2009)
Uh-oh. Last time the Italians got mad with their leadership they ended up being hung from light posts. What excellent irony it would be if the leaders responsible ended up next to the red light cameras.
Reply
Enok 7:15PM (2/03/2009)
Shortening the yellow light is sneaky, but is it a crime? Or are we talking about bagging people for a red light when it was actually yellow? That would be a crime.
Reply
Bert 7:58PM (2/03/2009)
Is it illegal, YES! The law will usually have that a driver must not block an intersection, aside from not running the red light or speed through it. The timing of the green-yellow-red sequence is based on the given speed limit, the intersection dimensions and typical reaction time. Add to that the DOT (or other regulatory body) requirements for stopping distance at any given speed.
So if I am traveling at the speed limit (yeah, right, stop laughing), there is a given time required for me to get through the intersection (stop-line to exit stop-line). Add to that my reaction time. Add to that the time (speed/distance) allowed to stop. Note that the DOT distance is given as a MAXIMUM distance at a given speed. This is usually much higher than a current car can do.
Given the above, I have a point-of no return, where I can not stop the car (or the DOT says that I must be able to stop the car in) in time before the stop-line and a time dictated by the set speed (what the bog-boss-man says, not what I say) that it will take me to get through the intersection.
If the yellow to red change is faster than what can be expected from the above, it's basically entrapment.
If you want to try to beat that ticket... Reaction time is generally considered constant, don't get me started. How does one judge the maximum stopping distance? As you come to an intersection, have you ever noticed how the dotted lines turn to solid lines? Generally (50-75% of the time) The solid line begins at maximum allowed distance to stop.
If someone followed you through the red light you can also argue that you saw that they were not planning on stopping and wanted to avoid an accident.
Noah 10:24PM (2/03/2009)
In my town, I feel that some of the lights in the 40mph zone on main street are a bit too short. You hit that certain spot where you know it would require you to stop too hard, and so you just keep going...but then it turns red right before you get in the intersection! Its just a bit too quick, that yellow, by a half-second. But there's no red-light camera or police camping at those lights, so....ok.
I've heard about these rackets before, and going from 15 to 1000 definitely raises red flags to me. Cutting a yellow light time in half is dangerous. Increasing it will reduce accidents.
Reply