Automation has just gone too far, and it’s making the world an inhuman place. It used to be that a motorist broke traffic laws, police would pull them over and determine if a ticket was deserved, or if there were extenuating circumstances. Automatic speed cameras don’t determine who was driving, or even if anyone was driving at all.
Joann Gibson is a Cleveland grandmother who got a $105 speeding ticket in the mail from a speed camera, even though the picture included with her ticket shows her minivan was hooked up to a tow truck.
Poor nana! It’s bad enough that her minivan broke down on December 20th while on the way to a daycare centre. She figured once the tow truck got her vehicle to the repair shop, her problems were half over. Nope. The speed enforcement Grinch tried to steal Ms. Gibson’s money right after Christmas.
Grandma Gibson went to the police department to show them the mistake, but local cops told her to call the out-of-town third-party vendor that owns the cameras and issues the tickets. See, that’s the way the scam works. A private company, not local police or even the city, owns the speed cameras equipment. It’s installed at no charge to the municipality, so long as the vendor gets a piece of the action; a fee for every ticket issued. And good luck trying to reach them if a ticket was issued erroneously. Seems like the deck is stacked against the elderly (non-tech savvy) or anyone whom English is not a first language,
The only help grandma got was telling her story to local TV station News 5, who promptly stuck a camera in the faces of city council members, demanding they toss the ticket, and remove the camera.
Let Ms. Gibson’s tale be a lesson to all. Don’t blindly trust that technology is fool-proof. Motorists should be diligent in their fight to protect their rights. There’s already such a strong anti-car sentiment in many areas, one wonders if city hall even cares if the right motorist gets slapped with a fine.