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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.
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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.
Officers are determined to catch what is believed to be a single motorist seeking revenge after being convicted by evidence from the speed traps.
The camera was installed because of nine crashes in which two people were seriously injured, one of them a child, in the last three years.
The cameras are owned and operated by Drivesafe, which spends £250,000 on installing and maintaining them every year.
Spokesman Claire Wightman said: “The police are made aware of every act of vandalism on every speed camera. They warn that criminal damage, especially when it endangers the lives of innocent members of the public, is punishable by imprisonment.”
The Advertiser revealed last month how the camera, and one in Manchester Road, are being systematically vandalised – apparently by the same person.
As soon as engineers repair the speed traps, the mystery attacker strikes again. Each time the same method of attack is used, spraying silver paint across the lens so it cannot catch drivers breaking the 30mph limit.
Anyone photographed driving too fast is hit with a fine of at least £60 and has three points on their license. More points and a bigger fine is imposed if the limit is broken by more than 25mph.
Each camera costs £20,000 and each one in Greater Manchester caught an average of 207 speeding drivers last year.
LOVE IS GIVING SOMEONE THE ABILITY TO DESTROY YOU, THEN TRUSTING THEM NOT TO.
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, But rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, vacuum in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming…….WOO HOO, there goes another engine!
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