The right reforms the speed camera: “Stop the abuses that make it a hidden tax”

From the life sentence of the license to the squeeze on scooters and speed cameras. By the end of the month, the examination of the bill for road safety will start in Parliament. The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, announced, during a question time in the Chamber, the arrival of the provision in June, which aims to give more rules, more education and more safety on Italian roads. Among the novelties is the alcohol lock, a device which, in the event of a conviction for driving while intoxicated, will be mandatory to install in the car and prevents the engine from being started if the blood alcohol level is above zero.

The number one priority of the bill is, moreover, the contrast to driving after having taken alcohol and drugs, even with the so-called “life sentence of the driving license” which will provide for the withdrawal of the permit for life. The minister defined the 3,120 deaths in accidents in 2022 as “a figure unworthy of a civilized country” and recalled the clash in the province of Brescia where, on Tuesday night, a boy who was riding a scooter was killed by a boy who was motorcycle. The new provision will introduce rules for soft mobility with mandatory helmet, insurance, license plate and arrow. For scooters and bicycles, as anticipated, there will also be heavy penalties for wild parking and for driving the wrong way.

There will also be a delegation for an organic reform of the Highway Code and a draft ministerial decree on speed cameras, which would already be ready pending the approval of the road safety measure. The latter will define the conditions for the installation and use of uniform control devices in all Municipalities with certain rules, fair and effective sanctions and citizens’ right to defense. Responding to another question, Salvini then indicated his intention to approve the national airport plan by the end of the year and forcefully reassert control over the sector and supervision over ENAC to ensure the highest standards of transparency, effectiveness and efficiency. “Unfortunately it hasn’t always been like this in the past, we are working to make it like this in the present and in the future,” he said.

«We are very pleased that the Minister of Infrastructure Matteo Salvini also considers speed cameras useful for avoiding accidents and saving lives, provided that they are positioned near sensitive points such as schools, hospitals and not an instrument for extorting money, with fines that, if not paid they immediately risk becoming astronomical – is the comment of the leader of Noi Moderati Maurizio Lupi -. Many, in fact, are positioned in points where it is clear that their only purpose is to make money with motorists. The ideal, for a public administrator, would be to be able to write the number zero next to the total fines imposed, because he would mean that citizens have learned to respect the highway code. But it is not possible that in a municipality like that of Milan there are 151 million euros in fines, that is almost 15% of the total revenue of the municipality. And that out of a fine of 49.80 euros, 17.68 euros go to notification costs. We are for the education and training of citizens, and not because speed cameras constitute a sort of hidden tax”.