This weekend’s homage to the car’s electrification, celebrating deliveries of the Leaf and the Volt to normal civilians, in addition to a whole fleet of electric THINK cars delivered to the State of Indiana, would be incomplete without mentioning that EVs can be a menace to society. These things are so quiet – that they creep up on you – just like that. Read More >
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Category: Law and Order
In the space of just over four weeks, Cleveland, Ohio has lost three appellate-level cases over its photo enforcement program. On November 10, a federal appeals court panel shot down the city’s attempt to block a class action lawsuit by drivers of leased vehicles who received traffic camera ticket (view opinion). On Monday, a state appeals court panel came to the same conclusion, finding it likely that the city unjustly enriched itself with photo tickets (view opinion). Yesterday, a new three-judge panel of the the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Eighth Appellate District threw out a speed camera tickets on the grounds that Cleveland had ignored state law.
Class action attorneys have set their sights on a South Carolina town that set up a freeway speed camera in defiance of state law. Since August, the town of Ridgeland has allowed the private company iTraffic to operate a speed camera system to mail tickets worth $133 to $300 each to the owners of vehicles photographed as they pass through a tiny stretch of Interstate 95. The fully automated system is housed in a recreational vehicle that is usually concealed behind a bridge. When state legislators heard of the town’s plan, they unanimously enacted a law to prohibit the use of speed cameras (view law).
Remember the Schadenfreude when the Department of Justice shook down Daimler for $185 million for corruption allegedly perpetrated in U.S. jurisdictions such as Russia, China, Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria, Iraq, Turkmenistan, and a host of others? To add insult to imbursements, Daimler even had to endure former FBI director and Lewinsky-sperm-on-blue-dress investigator Louis Freeh as anti-corruption compliance officer. In the bargain, the NYSE lost Daimler as a listing, because no NYSE listing, no more SEC probes. Everybody knows that these inducements are quite common in the industry. As evidenced by a massive raid involving around 100 police officers. They descended today on Ford’s German plants, on an unidentified company in Leverkusen and on the private homes of Ford employees. Read More >
A federal judge last week overturned the result of a traffic stop in Baltimore, Maryland after the reason for the stop was found to be bogus. On January 26 at around 1:30pm, Baltimore City Police Officers Jimmy Shetterly, Frank Schneider, and Manuel Moro ordered a white Ford Crown Victoria with tinted windows to pull over while driving on Pennsylvania Avenue near Mosher Street. As part of the Central District Operations Unit, the officers saw their mission as “proactive crime fighting” and instead of waiting for calls, their mission was to go and find a crime. The officer sitting in the back seat of the patrol car found one in the form of a claimed vehicle defect.
The red light camera program in Cleveland, Ohio faces serious legal trouble as the state’s second-highest court ruled Thursday that a class action lawsuit could proceed. In its decision, a three-judge panel of the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Eighth Appellate District overturned a county court ruling that had blocked a class action challenge to the city’s issuance of photo tickets to the drivers of leased vehicles. The appellate court insisted that the case had merit as did a federal appeals court in a separate case decision over Cleveland’s automated ticketing machines handed down last month (view ruling).
A federal judge sided yesterday with a traffic camera company by blocking anti-red light camera referendum sponsors in Houston, Texas from participating in an ongoing legal challenge. US District Court Judge Lynn N. Hughes will decide whether the November 2 vote of Houstonians against traffic cameras should be nullified. Hughes will now make his decision based solely on the arguments presented by supporters of photo enforcement — the city of Houston and American Traffic Solutions (ATS).
Opposing factions in the Missouri General Assembly have emerged ready either to authorize or prohibit the further use of automated ticketing machines in the state. One one side, state Representative Tim Meadows (D-Imperial) has been wined and dined by lobbyists for the photo ticketing industry and, in return, has filed legislation specially crafted to expand the use of speed cameras while appearing to be a “limitation” on their use.
The relationship between automakers and automotive journalists can be extremely difficult, as automakers often hold access to cars hostage based on a journalist’s coverage of them. If, as an automotive journalist, you like every car you drive, the world is your oyster. Automakers invite you to every launch, PR guys gaze longingly into your eyes, and all is right with the world. If, on the other hand, you write negatively about a car, you can find yourself watching the gravy train pull out of the station without you… or, as it turns out, you could even be sued. At least in Italy.
Carscoop reports that Fiat is suing the Italian TV show AnnoZero for “defamatory” remarks about the Alfa Romeo MiTo Quadrifoglio, after the program asserted “the overall technical inferiority of the Alfa Romeo MiTo” in comparison to the MINI Cooper S and Citroen DS3 THP. The details of the case are sketchy, but you can find Fiat’s press release on the matter after the jump.
A watchdog group last week filed a complaint with Canada’s privacy commissioner and the Manitoba Ombudsman’s Office over the city of Winnipeg’s refusal to release data about its photo enforcement efforts. Over the past five months, WiseUpWinnipeg had filed three separate requests for basic information under under a freedom of information law known as FIPPA, but city officials have refused to comply.
Red light cameras are nowhere near as popular as they once were with Golden State municipalities. Loma Linda and Whittier became the most recent examples of California cities unplugging their automated ticketing machines after noting that the devices both failed to reduce accidents and generate the promised amounts of revenue.
The bailout of GM and Chrysler was nothing compared to the giant TARP thrown to bankers and brokerages, or so the argument goes. A panel of constitutional experts, convened at a Stanford Law School conference about the constitution and bailouts, has a totally different opinion: Bank rescue o.k., car rescue not o.k. Read More >
The top cop in the city of Washington, Missouri admitted last week that there is no evidence that red light cameras have made a change for the better. Police Chief Kenneth W. Hahn compiled accident information from 36 months prior to camera installation for comparison with 33 months of after data. The results were not favorable.
“It is impossible to determine if the cameras have had an obvious impact on safety since prevention is an intangible outcome; in other words we don’t know if we prevented an accident or not because it didn’t happen,” Hahn wrote. “We can only look at the raw data and if the impact is significant, then it is an obvious result. Provided the next three months of anticipated accidents are included for an accurate comparison, it is my opinion the three year red light camera program has had little, if any, impact on the overall safety of the two intersections.”
A civil rights think tank on Friday urged Albemarle County, Virginia to cancel its red light program. In a letter to county supervisors, the Rutherford Institute made the case that the contract the county entered into with Australian vendor Redflex Traffic Systems violates the law and will likely not achieve the stated goal of reducing accidents.
“The Redflex contract incorporates a so-called ‘cost-neutrality’ provision whereby the company’s compensation, up to the amount of the contractual monthly fee, hinges on the number of violations or monetary penalties imposed,” the group’s president, John W. Whitehead, wrote. “Regardless of how the fee arrangement is worded or structured, it is likely to be found in violation of Virginia law where the vendor has a financial incentive to ensure that a high number of citations are issued.”
A veteran district court judge in Herford, Germany was ordered this week not to hear traffic cases after he dared question whether speed camera citations are being issued merely as a means of generating revenue. Judge Helmut Knoner faces two criminal charges for acquitting forty-two motorists last month after noting that the automated ticketing machines lacked a solid legal foundations and appeared to be installed by authorities with questionable motives.
“Many cities and municipalities are feeling the pressure of empty coffers and earn good money with photo radar,” Knoner stated.
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