Stolen digger used to destroy speed cameras
It seems that some German motorists may have had a speeding ticket too many.
View of Marburg, dominated by the castle and St. Elizabeth's Church
Vandals in the university town of Marburg have stolen a digger to destroy speed cameras on a dual carriageway, before ditching the construction vehicle and disappearing. The digger was found in a field on the outskirts of town, next to the toppled cameras, which had been ripped out of the ground and left lying on a dirt bank.
A digger
Police said the offenders had caused thousands of dollars of damage on the busy Bundesstraße 3 road, committing their crime sometime between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning (October 27 – 28). It is believed that the perpetrators stole the digger from a nearby building site and started it with a universal key.
Speed cameras along an Australian highway
Added the police spokesperson,
“They drove straight to a permanent speed camera on the B3. There, the vandals used the scoop to tear all three cameras from their foundations and causing enormous damage. Polizei Marburg-Biedenkopf have opened an investigation and are urgently searching for witnesses who saw any suspicious people or vehicles."
The Bundesstraße 3 road in Frankfurt
Much of Germany’s autobahn (or motorway) network has no speed limit, letting drivers travel as fast as they want as long as the car is under control and the speed is appropriate for the traffic, visibility, weather and vehicle. But default limits of 50km/h are enforced in residential areas, and 100km/h outside, with parts of busy motorways capped at 130km/h for safety.
An autobahn in Germany
In a survey earlier this month, the majority of German respondents supported the introduction of a 150km/h limit on autobahns, although the prospect is clearly vehemently opposed by some drivers.
(All images - credit: Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licence)
