Citizens’ attempts to slow down speeding drivers

STICKY tape and an old van helped slow speeding traffic outside Kerry Donnelly’s house in Cardiff. When police moved a nearby mobile camera Mr Donnelly, a delivery driver, bought a second-hand police van on eBay. The crude silver-tape patch that mimics the camera window does not fool pedestrians but “works a treat” in making motorists brake, he says.

Such dummy devices have long enlivened roads and not only in Britain. Geoff Wilson, a driving instructor in New Zealand, has used a makeshift speed trap to deter dangerous driving outside his home. Courts there accepted his evidence. But others have been less enthusiastic. A couple who caught a speeding policeman in the American state of Georgia (and informed his superiors) got a warning that their home-made camera could fall foul of anti-stalking laws. In several cases in Britain, officials have told people erecting dummy cameras to take them down or face prosecution (arguing that the devices might make motorists brake too hard). …