Speed cameras are making the news once again in a series of separate incidents bringing the ´yellow perils´ into the public eye.
The first to hit the headlines is Craig Moore, 28 of South Yorkshire who was jailed for 4 months yesterday after causing £11,700 worth of damage to a speed camera in Hyde near Manchester.
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The BBC reports that Moore destroyed the camera using materials from his welding job after he believed that he had been caught by the speed camera, and would lose his licence, and subsequently, his job.
Moore already had 10 points on his licence and after being flashed exceeding the speed limit on 14 August 2005he thought that he would receive a driving ban if more points were added due to the evidence caught on camera.
So he returned the 40 miles to the camera with materials to create a thermite reaction - intending to melt the camera´s metal body in an explosive fire.
Unfortunately for Moore, a recording from the hard-drive of the camera showed his Ford Transit van approaching, and the damage being done to the device, which eventually landed him a 4 month spell in prison.
Still in the North West, the Lancashire evening post has reported several attacks on speed cameras over the last few days.
One camera was ripped out of the ground in Preston and another attacked in East Lancashire twice in the space of a few days. According to the report it is believed that vandals tied a chain to a car and the camera before attempting to drive off - the camera was left bent and surrounded with rubble.
Although we can´t and don´t condone violence or destruction of the devices, it´s hardly surprising that motorists are fed up with the constant threat of speed cameras - especially when it is consistently claimed by council and government officials that they are not a money making scheme, but a traffic calming measure.
Those claims are made even harder to swallow now we know that a speed camera positioned on the M5 near Bristol is making around £260 per hour. According to Guardian Unlimited it´s responsible for snapping more then £20,000 motorists in just 7 months, resulting in more than £1.2million being paid in fines, and more than 60,000 penalty points being dished out.
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