An entire town has blamed its bankruptcy on a single speed camera.
Malanda, Queensland, Australia locals have threatened to take legal action against the mobile speed camera. It comes after the camera issued hundreds of fines over 14 days.
The fines totalled a whopping £156,850. Despite the town only being made up of 811 households – or roughly 2000 people.
READ MORE: UK's most prolific speed camera snares 100,000 drivers and makes millions – but where is it?
Get the latest news on the Daily Star homepage
Residents say they’re gobsmacked by the staggering number of speeding tickets. Those fined include local trainee ambulance driver Lana Miller.
Ms Miller was hit with nine tickets in five days. That is a whopping £3,660 in fine – despite claiming the speed sign lit up green to suggest she was in the clear.
She told the Guardian: “I try not to speed. I’m 39 years old, and I’ve never had a speeding ticket until this. It’s extremely tough.
-
UK seaside town hits back at 'inconsiderate' boy racers after 'detrimental' impact
“And it just means that my kids aren’t going to have the Christmas that I would like to be able to provide for them.” Ms Miller, who also works in a cafe, claims the speeding fines aren’t “adding up”.
Trucking company owner Cristy Bonadio has also been hit several times. She claims that her 40 vehicles rarely received a ticket before this camera hit. She asked the local community if anyone else had issues – and she was not alone.
“So I put up on the local social media group, ‘Has anyone been done with a camera with fines they received that are questionable?’” she said. “I was flabbergasted at the amount of people that responded to it. Literally hundreds.”
Join the Daily Star's Soaps WhatsApp for all the latest news!
Join the Daily Star Soaps WhatsApp to get all the latest spoilers, exclusives and telly gossip straight to your phone!
We'll send you the latest soap exits, exclusives and spoilers, all directly to your device. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in. All you have to do to join is click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in!
No one will be able to see who has signed up and no one can send messages except for the Daily Star team. We also treat our community members to competitions, special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners.
If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN
-
Farmer's 'aggressive black cow' attacked OAP and tried to kill his dog on a footpath
Local MP Shane Knuth has been inundated with calls from frustrated residents who were booked by the camera. Some elderly residents fear they will be stripped of their driver’s licences because of the amount of speeding tickets they have received.
“Little old ladies, like ‘my car can’t even get that fast up that hill’. There’s something that just doesn’t add up,” Ms Bonadio said. “There’s many people that are going to be losing their licence over this.”
A spokesperson for the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads confirmed to news.com.au that the transportable road safety camera operated in the area from September 7-21. “Following the speed limit is the best and easiest way to avoid any infringements, whether a first or subsequent infringement,” the spokesperson said.
To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here .
-
Inside the UK's secret nuclear weapons that develops warheads for Britain's nukes
“Deployment records of transportable road safety cameras have shown reductions in offences over the period of deployment, indicating that motorists are amending their speeding behaviour after seeing the speed camera before any infringements have been received.
“Motorists should expect that if they are speeding anywhere on the road network they could receive an infringement.”
The spokesperson added that delays in the tickets being sent to recipients occurred because “each infringement is manually reviewed for accuracy”.
“Currently, the law requires camera-detected offences to be issued to the registered operator of the vehicle by post,” they said.
Source: Read Full Article
