Parked Truck Gets 45 Automated Speeding Tickets

The Newspaper
by The Newspaper

Netherlands — Dutch lumber merchant Martin Robben no longer believes the camera never lies. As reported by De Telegraaf, the man was falsely accused of speeding forty-five times on August 25 while his vehicle, a commercial truck, was parked on the side of the road in Oldeberkoop village. “Sometimes there were only three seconds between the tickets,” Robben told the Dutch paper. “That’s impossible . . . Nobody can be flashed dozens of times in an afternoon.” As is the common practice in Europe, tickets sent in the mail do not include photographs of the alleged offense, just a demand for payment. In Robben’s case, the demand amounted to thousands of euros, which forced him to retain the law firm of Anker and Anker to help him prove his own innocence. Defendants must make a special request to see the evidence against them. The Netherlands is home to Gatsometer, the top manufacturer of speed cameras worldwide. The same device that falsely accused Robben is currently used in a number of US cities, including Silver Spring, Maryland. Speed cameras around the world have accused stationary vehicles of speeding, as documented in Australia as well as France and the UK.

[Courtesy of thenewspaper.com]

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  • AJ AJ on Sep 22, 2009

    Those burned camera pictures are awesome. LOL

  • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Sep 22, 2009
    According to psarhjinian this guy is a scumbag for fighting the ticket, because as long as you don’t break the law, you have nothing to fear. Thank you for completely missing the point of my posts in that thread. Did I use the words "scumbag" or say that the camera was always right? No, I didn't. What I did say is that cameras are ultimately less expensive and more reliable than a cop. Why? Because cops can and do lie in court, whereas a camera can't lie. This guy was ticketed due to a system failure. He's going to court for remediation. He'll almost assuredly get off, too, unless the whole system is corrupt, in which case cops instead of cameras won't help the problem at all. A camera is very easy to verify. You can time yellow lights with a video camera. You can test and do experiments. You can even subpoena evidence as is happening in this case. If it were a cop, you're automatically convicted unless the officer made a mistake filling out the ticket. The knee-jerk fear of traffic cameras confuses me, perhaps because I've yet to be bagged by a camera but have had to go through an irritating court challenge that I eventually lost because the officer flat-lied in court, contradicting a me and a witness. If your fear is police corruption and an inability to get justice, a lack of cameras isn't going to help you, not one bit, because the problem isn't the front-line enforcement but the system as a whole.
  • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Sep 22, 2009
    How about mounting a license plate like object to the road surface in the camera’s field of view? If you really want to protest, and assuming that other camera systems have this bug, just take a photo of your least-favourite municipal bureaucrat's license plate and post it in the field of view of the camera. If nothing else, the bug will get fixed really quickly.
  • GS650G GS650G on Sep 22, 2009

    It reassuring to see push back in the UK towards the piggy banks on the side of the road (one had that painted on the rear)because it raises hope the next election will bring needed changes in their government. Certainly it is dangerous and wrong to destroy property but if they feel there is no choice then this is the last result. The government barely discusses the scheme with the public, the only concession made is the box needs to be yellow and conspicuous. But then they hide the box behind trees and road signs in an attempt to catch unsuspecting drives. For those that fall back on the position that people should not be speeding, the fact is many of these photo ATMs were installed where the speed limit was dropped as well. Occasional travelers would be snared in the net. And the justification for the lower speed limit was either weak or nonexistent. The real solution is accountable government and it's agencies along with letting people have more of a say in how traveling by car is handled. Enough of the safety excuses, many of these cameras were in the middle of nowhere and clearly it's not to protect schoolkids crossing the street.

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