LeVeL;n3553319 said:
Got documentation on three of the five. For two of them it's a slip from Safo Sistemi, which appears to be some kind of vendor - certainly not the police.
Safo Sistemi is a fleet manager, so it probably has to do with the fact that the fine was issued in their name and they are just requiring you to pay. Still, there should be info on -what- exactly was the problem. Is there? What happened? Is there any photografical evidence?
For the third I have what appears to be actual police paperwork from some tiny village near Venice that claims that I was doing 81.5kph in a 70kph zone - for the Americans, that's basically 50mph in a 44mph zone. Still no word on the other two. I'm guessing that this is what the world of speed cameras is like. No cop in the US would pull you over for that speed and if they did it would probably not hold up in court just given the margin of error between my speedometer and the radar gun.
Your real speed was actually 86,5: what you see indicated in the fine has already been discounted a 5% or a minimum of 5kph from the real speed. Your speedo was probably indicating 90 kph, given the margin they have.
It is pretty standard for a speed camera to issue a ticket like this, and usually the camera was correctly indicated and everything was in order from a legal point of view. This doesn't mean the road was unsafe at 90 rather than 70, but it means that the law allows (usually -requires-) for the limit in that place to be that low, usually because of lateral or private roads, or crossings, or whatever. Italy is packed full of things that make the limit go down.
The only way to avoid this is to show that the camera or the limit weren't indicated or that the device had not been officially checked and approved for use.
Anyways, I personally still have not been contacted by the authorities in any way.
And you probably won't, beside the letters and the notifications of tickets. This is not just Italy, I think is usual in Europe (France does similar, but easier to understand).
Also, the rental agreement has a clause that says "renter shall pay lessor ... after the car drop off: all expenses referred to any traffic fines, unpaid tolls and park-tickets not paid during the rental, other than management fees, and any anounts deriving from other services used by renter, as indicated in Special Rental Conditions." It literally excludes management fees, while their email says I'm being charged an "administrative expense".
I sense a possible mistranslation here. It seems like it was "tutte le spese inerenti a qualsiasi contravvenzione [...] non pagate durante la locazione, oltre alle spese di segreteria e ogni altra somma derivante da altri servizi..."
If that is not the case, "managment fees" and "administrative expenses" may well be two different things: "management fees" being what the company is paying to send you all the paperwork and "administrative expenses" being what the public administration is paying to send you all the paperwork. It is standard practice (and very hated) to being legally required to pay "administrative expenses" other than the amount of the ticket. For example, a standard parking fine is something like "28€ plus 6€ for administrative expenses, for a total of 34€".
You should check whether those expenses are the same that are excluded in the contract or are different.
It depends: if you actually are guilty of the violations, the tickets are not a racket, rather standard practice. Life for drivers here can be very difficult.
I can help you understanding if you have been victim of somthing different from what I have to endure, but for that, I need to know -what-, -where-, -how-.
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thevictor390;n3553320 said:
I'm convinced I got two camera flashes in France but I have yet to hear anything from the rental company or otherwise... what a terrible system. If you don't realize you're doing something wrong how the hell are you supposed to fix the behavior?
Good question. France will send things to you. It will take time but it will be easier to pay than in Italy. To see the picture, however, you should send copy of the registration certificate of the car and of your ID card to them, in a standard white envelope. I kid you not.