Nice story but did they really have traffic cameras 25 years ago?

URIEL;

I got a virtually identical ticket for the same infraction last year in Florence. The ticket arrived many months after the infraction was allegedly committed. I have returned to Italy since and, so far, nothing has happened to me; it is still sitting right here on my desk....I had forgotten about it, to tell the truth.

Just don't transit through the United States...they take pictures at the borders and your mug might come up after it compares with the interpol computer <g>

Dear XYZ123, I just want to clarify that THE "Comune Di Pisa" is no in the United States, it is actually in Italy (Europe). But thanks for Your sugestion. U.R.T.

After searching, I came up with one intereting story:

IN PRACTICE: Mail Delivery of Traffic Tickets Keeps Italian Cops on the Beat

In the land of Lamborghini and Ferrari, it’s getting a bit easier to get a speeding ticket. A program to reduce the time and money Italian law enforcement spends processing paper traffic tickets is also increasing their ability to fund patrols and collect fines.


Highway patrol and police agencies across Italy are increasingly delegating non-strategic functions, such as traffic ticket processing, to outside providers in a process called integrated service notification. An outside provider can itself be a government agency.

http://tinyurl.com/2trf87

Guess we aren't the only ones outsourcing.

Urielito1...

Believe me I am aware of where the speeding ticket was issued and my reply was meant a little tongue in cheek...but then again measures such as photographing people for having the audacity to enter the United States can lead to the abuse I suggested in the post (although I suppose some people would think it is a good thing)...and when the USA institutes retinal scans just watch out.

I got a similar letter telling me that I had not paid toll for the autostrada (which appeared strange to me because you are forced to pay the toll on the road).

I just ignored it and never anything happened.

Our car rental company (Hertz booked through autoeurope) charged our credit card for a ticket that we supposedly got for "driving in a restricted zone" without any notice. This was in Florence. We NEVER got a ticket in florence (we did get one in Motepulciano for parking in a restricted zone and had to pay on the spot, though we were wondering if even that was legit) but in florence, we were super careful, we only used the car to drop the luggage off at the hotel after spending the week in tuscany and returned it to the car rental agency. Initially, we didn't know what the charge on the c.card was, we checked with the c.card company who said it was a "catalog order" from Hertz, we assumed it was fraud and cancelled the c.card. But then hertz contacted the c.card company and said that it was for a ticket (that we never got), we thought that it was possible that whoever took the car from us (it was on the street, no in the parking garage) maybe drove it in a restricted zone themselves and got the ticket. Unfortunately we weren't able to find the Hertz paper that shows the time at which we returned the car to compare against the time on the ticket. We ended up going through this whole thing with visa and Hertz and visa basically decided to wash their hands from it all (which is understandable) as it was a dispute between us and hertz. Well, guess who won, Hertz, it's the whole guilty until proven innocent again. We'll never know the truth.

The entire old city center of Florence is a no-traffic zone, but it is poorly signed. Traffic cameras take a photo of your license plate when you enter the restricted area. You are only allowed to enter this area if you are staying at a hotel located within. You must tell the hotelier that you have a car so they can remove your name from the list. If you don't, your rental company will be sent a ticket.

aah... so complicated and I thought that I had read everything i needed to read before going to Italy!

Here's what happened to us. We got a bill from Hertz for $20.00 for a speeding ticket in Chianti. I was going to call them and complain, but Things got complicated at home and I didn't get around to it. Then yesterday I got an official looking registered letter from the Polizia in Greve in perfect english saying that we were speeding 16 km over the limit. The ticket was for over 200 euros, with a penalty of about 150 euros if we don't pay it within a certain period of time. I spoke with Hertz and they said the $20 was an administrative fee for giving the Police our name and address. So what do you think? Shall we never go back to Italy? I sure am not paying that horrendous fine.

I'm curious, lynnbern. If you got a ticket in your home town would you also refuse to pay it? Or are you saying there was no way you were speeding in Grieve?
Is the question here -- since it was so far away we don't have to follow the law, I guess I really don't understand this.

Here in our town in Florida, speeding tickets are typically several hundred dollars with similar fines if you don't pay promptly. Since you say you're certainly not going to pay the horrendous FINE, does that mean you are going to pay the actual ticket?

A frind of mine wrote "deceased" on one of those things and sent it back.

I have not heard from him lately to find out if his ploy worked.

He did not plan to go back.

I am probably the most honest person you don't know, so let me say this....I rarely speed, certainly not 15km over the speed limit. I would contest this if I could. I just don't like paying for something I really don't think is a legitimate infraction. Could they be targeting rental cars? BTW, is I was speeding in Florida, I would get my day in court.

OK, that was my basic question. So you are sure you were NOT speeding, and the ticket is totally false.

You could get your day in court in Florida, but it is rare indeed that anyone gets a ticket for speeding and is able to say they weren't and let it stick. Here, there are recorded mechanical means to prove your speed. How they do it in Italy, I can't say -- but my guess is with cameras, which don't lie and which do record the license plate. However, if you are positive they just made this up, then have every right to be upset.

I personally could never be sure I wasn't speeding in Europe. It would be very easy for me to miss a speed sign. And I would probably accept that somewhere along the line there may have been a 45 kpm (30 mph) zone that I could have been going 60kpm (40 mph) in. It's very easy for me to go 40 mph in a 30 mph. semi-residential area and not realize it, particularly if I missed the change of speed sign.

The OP's question seems to be 'Is this correspondance genuine?', not 'How can I get out of paying?' so I'm not sure why there are so many hostile/accusatory messages.

Contacting the rental agency seems the way to go, though if you can find the Italian equivalent of the DVLA that might be better (ie if you believe there's a chance the agency could be operating a scam, for example). My web research suggests that it's the rental agencies who are contacted in the event of a speeding fine, so it seems a bit odd that a third party would contact you directly, rather than just let the rental company debit you themselves.

BTW Have to disagree with AR - think it's a small but vocal minority of bad drivers (ie speeders!) who are up-in-arms about speed cameras in the UK - not the majority of the population. And being honest doesn't make you 'pious' 8-)

RM67, I don't quite get your point. The poster has stated that they got a bill from Hertz for $20, and that later they called Hertz who told them that the fee was for their giving their name to the police. They also received a certified letter from the police. And I'm sorry, I get the Nigerian money scams too, but they don't come in the form of a certified letter to my home, so I fail to get the comparison.

Are you suggesting it isn't for real? My question was if the poster really believed they weren't speeding. They insists they weren't. But you tell me how one gets out of an official speeding ticket? Probably 90% of all US receivers of speeding tickets will insist they weren't speeding either, but if you get an official speeding ticket, presumably with hard evidence like pictures taken by a speed camera or printout from a "speed gun", then you are hard pressed to fight it.

I'm sorry, I don't see much room to believe that this isn't "for real".

Neo - The OP has explicitly stated that the ticket was NOT from their car rental company, and nowhere have they said who that rental company actually was, so I'm not sure where you've got $20 Hertz charge or police letter from?! There are other posters describing similar experiences with such references, but not the OP (unless they're using multiple posting id's!!)

And I haven't said that the letter is definitely 'fake' merely that some aspects of it are suspicious - which they are! - that's why I've told the OP to check it out with a motoring agency/dept in Italy - not ignore it.

And I stand by my comment that many of the posts on this thread are unecessarily hostile to an OP who has never said they want to avoid paying the charge if it is genuine. To be honest, I find it quite depressing that so many people come on what is supposed to be a travel chat/help board simply to argue semantics, make accusations and misquote people, rather than offer any genuinely helpful advice.

Damn, I'm so confused. I just realized this post is from over 6 months ago and the poster has never once returned to comment or even to post again. Perhaps the authorities have taken him off to prison by now?

Meanwhile, I thought that another post further down (the one about Hertz) was from the original poster adding further clarification, sorry I didn't check that out more closely.

Let's face it -- this 6 month old problem isn't worth wasting any more time or guesses on!

It's a well documented story that the police target rental cars both in the United States and Europe. The license plates for car rentals let the police know it is indeed a rental.

Do a google search. You will find that you are 7-10 times more likely to get a ticket in a rental car than your own car.