http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/02...ight-came.html

A red light camera system in Italy cheated drivers out of $170 million dollars in fraudulent fines.
More than 100 people, including police officers, are being investigated as part of the fraud ... it is now claimed the lights were rigged to change from yellow to red in three seconds instead of the regulation five or six seconds.

Instead of an average 15 fines a day in some places, the figure jumped to more than 1,000.

 

I am not a bit surprised.

 

I love this priceless comment from the bbc link,

"The scheme's inventor is now under house arrest, though his lawyers say he is innocent."

 

I thought they used Euros in Italy.

Rigged? Maybe. Hard to say. I myself have see traffic lights malfunction in a number of ways, from no-red to no-green to varying yellow lengths. The computers.....and the timers......sometimes screw up, but that may or may not mean human tampering with them.

In VA, for instance, where I live, we have red-light cameras, but strict rules
accompany them. They cannot, over an area, exceed one per 10,000 residents, and the yellow-light interval must be of an adequate length to avoid the type of situation you're seeing in Italy.

 

That is just so wrong... props to whomever blew the whistle on this one!

 

follow the money...

 

mafia in action .