Free Republic

After years of concern about the number of traffic accidents that occur in road construction zones, Pennsylvania is doing something about it. Beginning Jan. 4, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Turnpike will begin a 60-day pilot program to formally test what’s called the Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement program. The program is designed to cause drivers to slow down in construction areas by setting up speed monitoring equipment in work areas. After the pilot program is finished, the two state agencies expect to deploy private contractors in white Jeep Cherokee SUVs at various sites throughout the state to...

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) is planning to introduce a bill next week that would require all new vehicles sold in the U.S. to come equipped with an interlocking breathalyzer device. The breathalyzer device would force drivers to test their blood-alcohol content (BAC) levels before being able to start the car. The devices are typically attached to a car's ignition. If a driver's BAC is above the legal limit, the car will not start. The legislation was prompted by the deaths of Northville, Mich., residents, Issam Abbas and Rima Abbas and their three children, who were killed by a drunken driver...

NEW hi-tech cameras that detect drivers using their mobile phones without them even knowing and automatically issues fines could soon change everything. -- DISTRACTION is one of the leading causes of fatal road crashes in Australia but new hi-tech cameras that detect drivers using their mobile phones without them even knowing could soon change everything. A New South Wales Police spokesman told news.com.au that officers currently "use a variety of methods to detect drivers using their phones while driving". "Line-of-site, by trained officers is the primary method of detection, however, long-ranged cameras have been used with success, and helmet cameras...

LOS ANGELES (FOX 11 / CNS) - The City Council on Wednesday approved a $650,000 payout for a man who successfully fought how the city of Los Angeles processes challenges to parking tickets. Cody Weiss, who sued the city in 2014 after he received a parking ticket, argued that the city unlawfully allows a private for-profit company to process challenges to tickets. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled in his favor last year, and the decision was upheld by the Second District Court of Appeal. City Attorney Mike Feuer petitioned the California Supreme Court to review the appellate decision,...

A former Chicago transportation official was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison for taking bribes to steer $100 million in red-light camera contracts to a company in Phoenix. U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall sentenced John Bills, 55, in Chicago moments after he apologized for his actions. Federal prosecutors had asked the judge for at least a 10-year prison sentence. The former second-in-command at Chicago's Department of Transportation was convicted in January of bribery, conspiracy and extortion. Bills was accused of accepting envelopes stuffed with cash, along with gifts — including condos in two states and a Mercedes — to...

Alonza Gonzalez was turning right near 59 and FM 762 several months ago but just recently received the dash camera video after he filed public records requests. "Just because I have a handgun on me and a license to carry should not be a big deal, but that is what made it the turning point," Gonzalez said... ...Seconds later, Gonzalez was arrested: "You're under arrest for your traffic violations." During an interview at his Rosenberg home, Gonzalez told Channel 2 he thinks if he didn't have a gun, things would have ended differently. "If I didn't have my firearm on...

A decade ago, as attorney general of South Dakota, Larry Long saw the need for a more direct approach and launched a program called “24/7 Sobriety.” I first encountered 24/7 Sobriety five years ago, and it confounded much of what I had learned in my years as an addiction-treatment professional. On a clear South Dakota morning, I found myself in a Sioux Falls police station, waiting for more than a hundred repeat offenders to appear for court-mandated appointments. They had to blow into a breathalyzer to prove that they had not been drinking. I expected that many wouldn’t show up;...

SEATTLE -- Panhandlers carry them. Protestors call them essential. But one Seattle man's sign -- warning of a speed trap -- has been dubbed illegal and could end up costing him $138. "I thought it was nonsense," said Daniel Gehlke, who made the handwritten sign "Cops Ahead! Stop at sign and light!" with a marker and a Rubbermaid top. "I am a believer that the Constitution, the Bill of Rights are there specifically so they can't be modified or restricted. This clearly is not a stop sign." Gehlke was holding the sign near 14th Avenue S. and S. Washington Street...

Karen Finley, former CEO of the Phoenix-based Redflex Traffic Systems, pleaded guilty today in federal court to an eight-year bribery-and-fraud scheme that helped the company retain photo-enforcement contracts with two Ohio cities. Finley, 55, of Cave Creek, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Terence P. Kemp of the Southern District of Ohio to a charge of "conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and honest services wire and mail fraud," the U.S. Department of Justice announced this morning. She resigned from the company in 2013 after the corruption scheme was alleged by a whistle-blower. Top executives in Redflex's Australian-based parent company,...

MIAMI (Reuters) - As courts across the United States struggle to determine the legality of red-light cameras, drivers are slipping through a patchwork of often conflicting laws to avoid millions in fines. Two south Florida judges dismissed 24,000 red-light tickets worth an estimated $6.3 million earlier this week over concerns Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions Inc (ATS), which provides the cameras, was too involved in the outcome of cases. By Florida law "the police have certain powers they cannot delegate to private vendors," said Ted Hollander, who represented the Florida drivers. "What we found in testimony is that (the company) had...

Breaking the law in Finland will cost you, but exactly how much depends on a couple of things. One is the severity of the crime committed, and the other is the lawbreaker's income. The latter factor is in place to ensure that punishments are equally felt by all be they rich or poor. Due to his millionaire status, Reima Kuisla was handed a roughly 60 thousand dollar ticket for traveling 14 miles per hour over the posted limit. Before issuing the citation, authorities looked up the man's 2013 tax return and calculated the amount accordingly.Though the ticket value is based...

The Obama administration is telling Customs and Border Protection agents in a busy stretch of the U.S.-Mexico crossing that they don’t have to arrest intoxicated drivers, sparking backlash from advocacy groups and others. The Department of Homeland Security issued the advisory, which informs agents in the Tucson, Ariz., sector that they have three options if they encounter suspected drunk drivers -- detain them at the request of local law enforcement, detain them without the involvement of another agency or let them go. In stark terms, the bulletin explains which options put the officers at greatest risk of being sued. The...

Despite national court decisions limiting police in obtaining a blood-alcohol sample without a warrant, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that doing so doesn’t violate the state and U.S. Constitutions. As a result, in Minnesota, a suspected drunken driver can still be charged with refusing a breath or blood test if arresting officers believe there’s enough evidence to get a search warrant to require the test — even if they don’t obtain the warrant. Only a few states have a similar implied-consent law. The issue, which reached the state Supreme Court in a case involving William Bernard Jr., has been...

Like the good people of Arizona, I despise speed cameras. But not because I want reckless driving. Instead, my disdain is based on the fact that governments set up cameras where speed limits are preposterously low in order to generate revenue. And I speak from personal experience.Like the good people of Houston, I also despise red-light cameras.But once again, this isn’t because I want jerks racing through red lights and endangering innocent people. Instead, my opposition is based on the fact that greedy governments – operating recklessly – use such cameras as tools to fleece drivers.Holman Jenkins has a column...

New Year’s Day will usher in hundreds of new laws in California, including a landmark law that allows undocumented individuals to receive a driver’s license. In all, California will add 930 new laws, most of which will go into effect Thursday. Some of the most talked-about laws won’t take effect until July, such as a statewide ban on plastic bags, required sick leave for employees and a requirement that new smartphones come with antitheft technology.

In Washington, D.C., where issuing traffic citations is a $179 million-a-year business, drivers get speeding tickets for violations they donÂ’t commit and for vehicles theyÂ’ve never owned. Those are among the findings in a 115-page audit of the three city agencies that issued nearly 2.5 million parking and traffic tickets in fiscal 2013, according to a withering report issued Monday by the D.C. inspector general. The report portrays the District as the Wild West of traffic enforcement when compared with neighboring jurisdictions and the states, with a shortage of regulations, a legion of ticket writers often confused about the rules,...

“You go to all of these damn courts, and there’s no white people,” one defendant, slated to appear before a municipal court in St. Louis County, recently said. “In Dellwood, Ferguson, basically, in North County, if you’re black, they’re going to stop you,” the resident said according to a new report on policing in the area. For residents of Ferguson, Missouri, and surrounding municipalities in St. Louis County, it’s not surprising that racial tensions have boiled over. In a town of 21,000, two-thirds of the residents are African-American, and many reports have highlighted a fraught relationship between Ferguson's residents and...

France’s army of roadside speed cameras may be more numerous than ever, but the revenue they pulled in through fines was almost €70 million less than the government expected last year. […] French newspaper Les Echos reported that the 4,150 speed cameras that litter the country’s roads yielded €579,300 last year. While that sounds a healthy amount to be taking out of the pockets of speeding motorists, it was less than in 2012, when rogue drivers boosted state coffers to the tune of €620 million. […] What makes it worse for the government, whose finances seem to be Europe’s biggest...

I've seen a lot of crazy things at a lot of golf tournaments but I'm not sure if I've ever seen this. A man at the 2014 US Open who was driving NBC's Roger Maltbie around the course got a DWI on Saturday for driving the course under the influence of alcohol. According to GolfWeek the story was as bizarre as it sounds. "The officer was upset because, according to him, the driver ran over his foot when leaving the tee area. The cop then chased the cart on a sandy surface just outside the gallery ropes while yelling, 'Stop!...

A Saint John, N.B. man has reached local hero status after a blown tire led to a blowout with the city because the auto body shop owner decided to fix potholes on his street, only to be told to undo the work or face a fine. Three weeks ago, Mike Defazio blew out a tire after hitting a foot-deep pothole on Broadway Avenue at Simpson Drive, where he owns an auto body shop. The next day, while working outside his shop, he watched a hearse try to navigate around the pothole on the way to a funeral and the 60-year-old...