Following a recent technical breakdown, a speed camera located on the A320 between Freyming and Forbach in the French Moselle department flashed almost all vehicles, even those that were respecting the speed limit. According to authorities, the fault lasted several hours and occurred due to a vehicle detection issue that caused the camera to misidentify cars as lorries.
The breakdown came as a surprise to many motorists driving at or below the 110 km/h speed limit. A whole series of testimonies subsequently began to flood social networks, with some of the affected drivers fearing that they might be fined.
In the end, everything was back to normal by Tuesday afternoon. As the Moselle prefecture explained, the device had indeed fallen victim to a technical problem with the part that evaluates the volume of vehicles. As the speed limit for lorries is 90km/h on the stretch in question, even the most respectful car drivers had their snapshot taken.
As far as possible fines are concerned, the offence messages produced during the device malfunction were not forwarded to the French road traffic offence processing centre. No tickets will therefore be issued, reassured the prefecture, which confirmed that the speed camera had indeed been repaired on Tuesday and that it would remain under surveillance for a few more days.
