Thursday April 18, 2024, the two turret radars located on Route de Villedieu and Route de Coutances (Manche), although still standing, are out of service due to fire. The mobile construction site radar on the ring road appears to have resisted the flames. This kind of damage to radars is nothing new. In March 2023, the Lolif turret radar, on the Granville-Avranches axis, was set on fire in the middle of the night, requiring the intervention of firefighters. That of Saint-Aubin-des-Préaux had suffered the same fate 48 hours earlier. A year before, Lolif’s turret radar had even been cut off.
The phenomenon is not confined to the Granville region: at the beginning of March, 4 radars were degraded overnight in Orne. In this same department, at the end of January, four devices had been hooded. In mid-March, two fixed radars were also set on fire near Caen.
Flashed from 100m away
According to the site radars-autos.com, in the Channel, there are 7 turret radars, 16 fixed radars, 18 locations for construction site radars, and 4 red light radars. In addition, there are 4 privatized radar cars crisscrossing the department’s roads.
Turret radars can flash at a distance of 100 m and their infrared flash is invisible to the naked eye. Drivers cannot therefore know in real time if they have been flashed. To find out if you have been flashed, you have to wait until you receive the ticket.
, specifies Road Prevention. These cutting-edge devices come at a cost.
A cost of up to €200,000
Damaging a radar is costly for the entire community. According to Road Safety, the simple replacement of a window costs around €500 and the replacement of a latest generation radar reaches €200,000. The financing of the maintenance of automatic control and sanction systems is taken from the proceeds of speed camera fines.
specifies Road Prevention.
As for the sanctions incurred by the perpetrators of damage for displaying stickers, making graffiti, obscuring or covering up a radar, they can go up to a fine of €15,000 and a community sentence. For destroying or damaging a radar, the author risks a fine of €75,000 and 5 years in prison. If the offense was committed by several people or by a masked person, this can go up to €100,000 and 7 years of imprisonment. This offense also results in the conviction being entered in the criminal record.
