The government blocks the speed camera decree. Recors and cancellable fines. The problem arises from a thirty -year legislative void. What will happen now?
If the decree is not made, the rain of appeals will not stop. If you make the decree more than 80% of speed cameras in Italy will have to be off. And so the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport decided: Suspended Decree, “we need insights”.
Chaos speed camera was born from a technicality, which is not so technicality: The difference between “approval” and “approval. Just to clarify the decree on this, ready for sending to Brussels and to enter into force this summer, after the European green light. But it has been blocked, for now, by Minister Matteo Salvini. And at the moment the regulatory void that continues to feed controversy and rain of appeals by the fined motorists remains.
Caos speed camera: the story from 1992 to today
The problem arises from one regulatory gap dating back to 1992. Article 142, paragraph 6, of the Highway Code in fact establishes that the speed camerato be valid for sanctions, they must be “duly approved”. However, in these more than thirty years the approval procedures have never been defined, leaving to date in action speedX simply “approved” by the Ministry. It is an administrative authorization not of a technical certification. And here is the problem.
The question broke out evidently in April 2024 When the Court of Cassation sentenced that a fine for excess of speed is nothing if the device that detected it is not approved. If it has been only approved, it does not count. At this point rain of appeal, with sanctions challenged and canceled throughout Italy. So much so that some municipalities, in front of the risk of appeals, have decided to turn off the devices.
Thus it came to the decree that is discussed today, which should have put a point to the matter, but which has now been suspended. The decree was foreseen the “ex officio” approval of all the speed cameras approved from 13 August 2017 onwards. The devices without approval and approved before 2017, should have been deactivated to the go -ahead with a new technical procedure. In addition, new rules were established, such as notice signs at specific distances (from 1 to 4 kilometers based on the type of road), certified annual taratures of the devices.
Then with the STOP decree to the avalanche of appeals and the regulatory vacuum clarified between “approved” and “approved”. But a problem has solved another one. Putting into practice the new rules provided for by the decree many municipalities would have been forced to turn off the Vetusti speed cameras (ante 2017). According to some estimates, there are 8 out of 10 speed detectors at risk, waiting to be usable after approval. Going forward with the decree could therefore mean paralyzing the speed control system in Italy. From here, Salvini’s decision to suspend it.
So what? Without a regulatory intervention and a clarification between “approval” and “homologation” motorists will continue to challenge the fines For the lack of approval and the municipalities will be able to decide whether to turn off the devices, to avoid infinite disputes for the sanctions given. Consumer associations denounce the danger of a “summer sting”, with speed cameras that will continue to do their work but in an uncertain regulatory context and the risk of a barrage of contestable sanctions.
What will happen? The government may decide to rewrite the decree to be sent to Brussels, looking for a way out for the old devices or will still be expected. As in the last thirty years.
