Mit: site for local authorities to take a census of speed cameras ready by September

By September, an application will be operational on the institutional website of the Ministry of Infrastructure, at the service of local authorities, which will have two months to enter all the data on speed cameras. They will have to indicate for each device the conformity, make and model.

The MIT intervened after the alarm launched by Codacons, which hypothesised a stop to all devices in the absence of an implementing decree. The ministry does not provide details on the text (expected on 19 August) but in the meantime explains: 'for Matteo Salvini's ministry this is an extraordinary truth operation, also in light of the total lack of precise mapping of speed cameras'. The aim 'is to guarantee exclusively the effectiveness of devices that increase road safety. Devices that are non-standard or useful more for making cash than for preventing improper driving behaviour will not be tolerated'.

All the speed cameras installed along Italian roads could be turned off, says Codacons, which recalls the provisions of the Infrastructure Decree and highlights 'a paradoxical situation that has arisen due to delays, cumbersome laws, and unnecessary bureaucratic complications. The decree, which, as is well known, was aimed at ensuring greater transparency regarding the use of automatic speed detection devices, establishes the obligation for municipalities, provinces and regions, to census and communicate to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport all the speed camera devices present on their respective territories, for publication in the appropriate section of the institutional telematics portal of the same ministry,' explains Codacons. - Codacons explains - Local authorities must communicate not only the location and technical data of each device, but also information on compliance, model and type approval.

A communication that, according to the decree, 'is a necessary condition for the legitimate use of the equipment': in other words, municipalities that do not provide the data will no longer be able to use speed cameras on their territory. It is a pity, however, that local authorities, even if they wanted to, cannot fulfil this obligation to date: in fact, the implementing decree of the MIT providing them with the indispensable digital form for communicating the required data is missing, a form to be adopted within thirty days from the date of entry into force of the law converting the Infrastructure Decree.

This means that the Ministry has until 19 August to issue the implementing decree, as the law came into force on 20 July. From the publication of the digital form, local authorities will then have 60 days to communicate the data on speed cameras to the MIT, and those who fail to do so will no longer be able to use the speed detection devices. "An absurd and paradoxical situation because, in the absence of the Mit implementing decree, as of 18 October next, all speed cameras installed in Italy, regardless of type approval, will have to be deactivated, at the behest of the same ministry," Codacons attacks. "An even more serious situation if we consider that the speed camera chaos has been going on for 16 months now, since the Supreme Court in April 2024 established the nullity of fines issued by approved but not type-approved devices," the association recalls. "A chaos that also affects the holiday roads travelled this summer by Italians who are travelling by car to reach their holiday resorts: today almost 60% of fixed speed cameras and more than 67% of mobile ones, in addition to not being homologated, were approved before 2017, a watershed date in terms of homologation and possible use of the devices".