Speed cameras: the peasants are revolting

[Satch]

Talking to a friend who is a journalist this afternoon and moaned about vast numbers of greed cameras being planned. Ah, he says, the powers that be are getting worried about civil disobedience being stirred up by this oppression. May not have noticed because of the election and the fact that such things do not make the National press, but here is just a sample of recent incidents:

Two Speed Cameras Burned

A pair of speed cameras were torched on the A30 near Camborne in Truro, UK.

A pair of speed cameras were torched on the A30 near Camborne in Truro, UK. The lens of one camera was destroyed, the housing of another was blackened but both remained functional. The incident occurred on May 3.

Source: Vandals hit at speed cameras (West Briton (Truro, UK), 6/5/2005


Repeated Attacks: UK Speed Cameras Torched, Defaced

Warwickshire camera that had been cut down once before is burned, Oldham camera is spray-painted once again.

A speed camera in Warwickshire on A5 Watling Street was set on fire around 2:30 a.m. this morning with burning tires. Officials estimate the damage at £ 38,000. The same camera had been cut down with an angle grinder in 2003 by Martin James O'Callaghan. O'Callaghan pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay a fine of £4,000 and perform 120 hours of community service.

This weekend, a camera at Featherstall Road in Oldham was sprayed with silver paint, rendering the camera useless. The word "dummy" was also scrawled across the face of the device. Similar attacks have been frequent in the area, usually happening right after the cameras are repaired.


Source: (Oldham Advertiser (UK), 11/5/2005)

Speed Camera Decapitated


An angle grinder or similar power tool was used to saw a speed camera off its mounting pole at Mynydd Isa near Mold. Police suspect the anti-camera group Motorists Against Detection. If true, this would be their first attack in Wales.

Source: (Western Mail (UK), 10/5/2005)

Somerset Speed Camera Set Ablaze

A speed camera in Somerset, UK on the A37 early Wednesday morning. Firefighters arrived on the scene shortly after 2am.

Source: (Somerset Guardian, 5/5/2005)

Cisterns of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains.

 

[anarchy-inc]

Is there really an upsurge in these attacks? They have been happening for a long time but I've never seen any figures for the number defaced year on year.

 

[Anil]

I yesterday saw a camera on the A217 near Kingswood which looked like it had been set alight! - Made me smile

 

[Doodle]

There's a speed camera reasonably near a large industrial yard locally, that frequently seems to be at a rakish angle.

Rumour has it the drivers there have a habit of 're-adjusting' the camera late at night with the HIAB units

 

[peterchurch]

Somerset Speed Camera Set Ablaze

A speed camera in Somerset, UK on the A37 early Wednesday morning. Firefighters arrived on the scene shortly after 2am.

Source: (Somerset Guardian, 5/5/2005)

Not Sure which one that is, but they are always punishing cameras on the A37 odd thing is I have not noticed any of them missing of late...

 

[guydewdney]

this reminds me of a 'sport' a friend of mine suggested - get a pick up type transit - and a decent pole - such as a telegraph pole...

mount the pole at a rakish angle over the cab

go speed camera jousting.

Risk:-
1) you dont hit the camera, and get flashed
2) plod spots you and does you for pooly loaded pole (defense - it slipped?)

 

[Spinal]

Wouldn't it be enough to grab a can of some form of matt spray paint, coat the radar lense well... the camera will still work it just wont be able to read speeds so will never flash... So it might be a while before they figure htings out and change the lense

 

[Howard]

The radar should still work through a coat of paint ...... far better to set them on fire .

Then there's no maybe .......

 

[Satch]

Is there really an upsurge in these attacks? They have been happening for a long time but I've never seen any figures for the number defaced year on year.

Not an upsurge but a pretty constant series of events that nobody in the Scamera Partnerships really want to talk about for fear of provoking copycat attacks.

 

[rees_A]

Leave the radar but paint the camera lenses, the thing may flash but will never record reg details. I've seen a couple of cameras that have tyres around them and the tyres are then set alight...Does a good job of wrecking the bast*** things!!!!!

 

[prprandall51]

I am not pro-speed cameras in general - greed cameras covers it pretty well in my book - but....

I have friends who live in Camborne, Cornwall. They are fairly chippy drivers - certainly not old fuddy duddies. I saw those cameras a few months back and my friend told me the cameras were placed there on the A30 because of the amazing number of deaths at that particular spot caused by nutters:

It is a huge valley (really huge and steep). It is a single carriageway road but on the uphill sections there are two lanes coupled to a single lane for the opposite direction. People going downhill cannot resist overtaking and pulling into the other carriageway just when somebody coming the other way (uphill) decides to pull into the outside lane (that is legitimately theirs to use). It all happens at the very centre of the valley at the "exchange" point, which is where the cameras were located. Apparently the crashes frequently happen with the car-at-fault doing around 90 having whilst having crossed a double white line. The enormity of the hill gives rise to the opportunity to achieve amazing speeds very quickly in pretty much any old thing.

I am sorry those cameras have gone. This was one of the genuine there-for-a-good-reason camera sites (unlike the ones in Oxfordshire ).

Philip

 

[Benzowner]

I am not pro-speed cameras in general - greed cameras covers it pretty well in my book - but....

I have friends who live in Camborne, Cornwall. They are fairly chippy drivers - certainly not old fuddy duddies. I saw those cameras a few months back and my friend told me the cameras were placed there on the A30 because of the amazing number of deaths at that particular spot caused by nutters:

It is a huge valley (really huge and steep). It is a single carriageway road but on the uphill sections there are two lanes coupled to a single lane for the opposite direction. People going downhill cannot resist overtaking and pulling into the other carriageway just when somebody coming the other way (uphill) decides to pull into the outside lane (that is legitimately theirs to use). It all happens at the very centre of the valley at the "exchange" point, which is where the cameras were located. Apparently the crashes frequently happen with the car-at-fault doing around 90 having whilst having crossed a double white line. The enormity of the hill gives rise to the opportunity to achieve amazing speeds very quickly in pretty much any old thing.

I am sorry those cameras have gone. This was one of the genuine there-for-a-good-reason camera sites (unlike the ones in Oxfordshire ).

Philip

You could also raise the point that if the accidents are at the cross over point, remove the cross over point, have say 100yds where no cars are allowed. Thats what they have done on the A38 near Bristol, but of course that does not raise money

 

[jeremytaylor]

I agree with you Rees A, a more subtle form of 'alteration' would be more efffective, if one wanted to disable them, such as paint on the lens.

They put a new scamera on the A24 Mickleham Bends, and that was 'rubber necklaced' before they even fitted a working camera in it!

 

[Flyer]

Let's hope we can follow the Australians:

Chinese scientists are the unlikely heroes of a New South Wales speeding case which saw a Sydney magistrate dismiss the charge against an alleged speed merchant because the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) could not prove that its vital photographic evidence was "secure", news.com.au reports.

At the centre of the brouhaha lies the MD5 algorithm, used to "store the time, date, place, numberplate and speed of cars caught on camera", as smh.com.au explains.

MD5 is intended to safeguard against tampering with this information by turning it into a 128-bit sequence of digits. However, the chaps from the China's Shandong University proved it was possible to alter the data and retain the same code, ie, the RTA could theoretically change, for example, the car's speed without any evidence of tampering.

The whole thing came to a head when lawyer Denis Miralis used this possible abuse against the RTA in the case of a man allegedly caught speeding in a school zone last November. In June, Magistrate Lawrence Lawson gave the RTA eight weeks to produce an expert willing to testify that the photos had not been doctored. When the RTA failed, Lawson threw out the case and awarded the defendant AU$3,300 costs.

Miralis immediately demanded an enquiry into all NSW's 110 speed cameras, declaring: "The integrity of all speed camera offences has been thrown into serious doubt and it appears that the RTA is unable to prove any contested speed camera matter because of a lack of admissible evidence."

Unsurprisingly, the NSW Law Society admitted the judgment might "open the doors for other drivers caught by speed cameras to mount the same defence".

As for MD5, encryption expert Nick Ellsmore said: "Since the [Chinese] research came out, we've been recommending that clients move away from MD5 and we've certainly recommended that people don't use it for new applications." ®

 

[Plodd]

Let's hope we can follow the Australians:

And get people off with speeding in a school zone due to a loophole. Great thinking. NOT.
I am sometimes amazed by people who think speeding is ok anywhere, any time. (I am not aiming this at you Flyer as I don't know you or your driving habits) Surely if this pillock speeds in a school area he deserves his hat nailing firmly to his thick head?

I'll get my coat...........

 

[Flyer]

The problem though is that speed cameras are used so cynically. A road that was previously 60mph NSL, is reduced to 50 or 40 and is suddenly accompanied by a speed camera. Speed cameras on NSL dual-carriageways. Speed cameras on the safest roads in the country, motorways, for gods sake!

Speed cameras are discredited, money-grabbing, evil devices that are responsible for reversing the previously-declining KSI rates.

And of course, we don't have a problem with cloned plates, do we?

I realise you may disagree here, but the evidence is there. No problem with more police being on the streets though, to get the no insurance/no tax/no licence scum though ... even if do they only get a £20 fine

 

[Flyer]

BTW, I have a clean licence

 

[NMSL500]

And get people off with speeding in a school zone due to a loophole. Great thinking. NOT.
I am sometimes amazed by people who think speeding is ok anywhere, any time. (I am not aiming this at you Flyer as I don't know you or your driving habits) Surely if this pillock speeds in a school area he deserves his hat nailing firmly to his thick head?

I'll get my coat...........

No need to leave,,,,,valid point for sure

We all speed at one time or another but time and place come to mind and outside a school isnt one of the places at any time!!

 

[Shude]

allegedly caught speeding

And get people off with speeding in a school zone due to a loophole. Great thinking. NOT.

Allegedly!

If people didn't speed the cameras wouldn't be there. Don't like 'em? The best thing to do is not speed! As has already been discussed on this forum, the best way to attack the camera operators is mass civil obedience.

 

[glojo]

And get people off with speeding in a school zone due to a loophole. Great thinking. NOT.
I am sometimes amazed by people who think speeding is ok anywhere, any time. (I am not aiming this at you Flyer as I don't know you or your driving habits) Surely if this pillock speeds in a school area he deserves his hat nailing firmly to his thick head?

I'll get my coat...........

Every school that has a road outside it's premises should have some form of speed reducing that would make motor vehicles slow down. Every school with a road outside should have the parking regulations ENFORCED. I am sure most right minded folks would agree with this, but we are sick and tired of these stupid revenue collecting camera's being placed in the most financially advantageous positions.

The government has now finally conceded that all their statistics that allegedly 'proved' these camera's were working and accident figures were coming down as a direct result are flawed. The statistic's evidently were based on a 'periodic glitch' (civil service talk for duff gen) It is unlikely that anymore camera's licenses will be issued without the local authority making an exceptional case. (I would think that all these locations would already have camera's).

Reports of damage to camera's have always been discouraged in order to prevent 'copy cat' attacks. Censorship!!!!

Regards,
John