By Richard Diamond/Staff Reports

Attacks on automated ticketing machines accelerated around the globe last week. Vigilantes in Toronto, Canada, removed the photographic equipment from the speed camera in the Bloor West Village neighborhood and then turned the device into a trash can. A woman in Hope Valley, Australia, smashed the speed camera on Rockingham Road with a mallet on Monday, September 11.

In Ravensburg, Germany, vigilantes on Friday used spraypaint to disable two speed cameras, one located on Schussenstrasse and the other on Jahnstrasse, according to police reports. On Friday, French vigilantes used adhesive tape to blind the speed camera on the RD981 in Foissac. Blue spraypaint blinded the speed camera on the RN31 in Muizon on Monday, September 18. Vigilantes last week targeted the speed camera on the RD373 in Essarts-les-Sezanne with pink spraypaint as well as the photo radar on the RN4 near Connantre.

In Modena, Italy, vigilantes on Tuesday spraypainted the red light camera on Viale Italia with a thick coat of red paint. In Bonate Sopra, the speed camera on the SS342 was cut from its mounting pole on Tuesday and hauled away by opponents of automated ticketing, following an attack that took place a month ago. A speed camera was knocked over after it failed to prevent an accident on Viale Luigi Settembrini in Rimini on Friday. A 66-year-old woman leaving a hospital in a Toyota Yaris crashed into a scooter rider, setting off the chain of collisions that ended the photo radar device's ability to issue automated citations.