FAIR PRICE FOR SPEEDING TICKET?

No, but that is not something that I get to vote on. You may have two tickets. Hertz doesn't pay tickets. They charge an administrative fee for turning over your name and number. Call it what you like. We do the same thing in the US all the time.

i dont know where you live, but we do not give UNMANNED speeding tickets in my part of the united states.

So, does that mean it's okay to speed where you live? I think not. You were speeding and the fine is what they choose it to be, so yes, the fine fits the crime. Coming to this or any other forum to complain that you were caught is just silly. Whether it be 4.8 miles over the limit or 25 miles over the limit, the limit is what it is. You were in a foreign country where the rules are not the same as they are where you live. Donna

What about ABIDING BY THE SPEED LIMIT first place? Is that something too difficult to grasp? I concede ZTL signaling something is confusing. Speed limits are not. They are ubiquitous, the blank speed limits are just 4 easy numbers (130, 110, 90, 50). Now if you decide to ignore speed limits, it is your fault. The purpose of "radar cameras" is to caught violators, not to be visible. I know well that causeway. Speed it 80, posted twice on each entrance.

The tag says Colorado, David, and unmanned speed zones are very frequent in school zones, some are portable so that they can be move around. It is expensive because fines double in school and construction zones. Same thing happens in Chicago because my son has been nailed a couple of times. Then there are the stop lights, left turns, etc. Pretty common in the parts of the US that I travel.

I agree with you David. That is a totally disproportionate fine for your offense. Having survived a taxi ride in Milan traffic I cannot see why any sane person would want to get behind the wheel in Italy anyway. After that experience, I always take the trains or buses, but if you found Venice worth every penny of the fine then it's all good. Personally, I find Italy to be a truly lovely country with warm and wonderful people, exquisite scenery, incomparable wine and food and really scary drivers.

Hi David. I am not sure I'm going to make you feel better with this. But I'll try. Here in California the Highway Patrol is rather lenient on speed limits, at least on freeways. The speed limit is generally 65mph, but I drive generally between 75 to 85mph. Never been fined, and I've been caught by the radar way above the speed (saw CHP pointing the radar when it was too ,ate to slow down) but apparently in California the CHP officer generally are nice and don't fine you for speeding unless you drive at least 15 miles above the speed limit (although they could). And when they do, rhey actually chase you first and pull you over. If they do fine you however, the minimum fine is $146, if the speed violation is less than 15 mi. above the speed limit (otherwise the min is $266 if over 15 miles and it increases gradually). However everywhere in California, they are not lenient at all on red light violations. Virtually every intersection in my city (Fremont) has high definition cameras that will take at snapshot at you if you go through the intersection with a red light and mail it to you.. The minimum fine for a red light violation is $480, the highest in Northamerica. Add mandatory driving education to that (online also, now). So you got off easy, if you ask me.

I think the tickets are unfair, and so do most Italians. Many are illegally placed according to Italian regs and many are financed by the camera manufacturers. The tickets are not enforceable in the US and I wouldn't pay them.

Will you pay them when a collection agency comes knocking on your door. That's what Italy is doing now. This is such a problem with Americans breaking the law and not paying that they are sending collection agencies after the offenders. Pay the fine or take a hit on your credit rating. Donna

Wow, thanks for the "heads-up". That is why I take my GPS with me. It notifies me of the fixed radar traps in the EU. But I usually drive 5 mph over thru the trap, so I'll need to watch my speed, or pay the price.

Any 'collection agency' call is an empty threat as they have no legal basis. Since they don't have your SS number, your credit rating is safe. I try to follow cars that seem to be driven by locals who know where the cameras are. Radar and laser detectors will not work on these cameras as they measure speed when you break two beams of light next to them.

"The ticket was for going 4.8 mph over the speed limit." I doubt that, considering Italy uses the metric system.

Interested Mike in knowing your credentials for speaking so knowledgeable on this subject or is it just strong opinion? You do not need someone SS# to ding their credit report. We have had several reports recently on this travel site and others about collection agencies being involved in collecting the fines. Including a report from Canada. No one has reported that the collection agencies have gone into an American court and received a judgement but we all know that collection agencies can be very aggressive without a court judgement. In the future an American court may well decide that the tickets have no standing in the US but till that time the collection agency can come calling.

Collection agencies are governed by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act which require them, among many other things, to provide validation upon request for the debt they are trying to collect. Failing which they are not allowed to report it to credit rating services under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and you can sue for $1000. for a violation (good luck with that!). The Italian jurisdictions are selling the alleged debt to the collection agencies since they know few people outside the EC pay.

All they need to do is provide proof of the debt. I'm sure the Italian agencies can and do provide this proof. Pay the fine, don't listen to some unknown authority on a travel website who tells you to ignore the law. Donna

Or you could pay the fine like a grownup.

Sorry, but I disagree with you. The agency is being hired to collect a debt owed to the city where the infraction occurred. That city has the proof in pictures of who was driving the car at the time of the infraction. These pictures can be forwarded to the collection agency once the ticket is issued demanding payment for the infraction. The ticket/photos are the proof that the infraction occurred and that the person driving was responsible. Add to that that people like the OP have announced on a public forum that they owe the debt and I don't see how the collection agency can lose. Basically, they should be an adult, take care of their responsibilities and pay the fine. Donna

David, You've been speaking about this fine for months on many posts. Many of the threads on here have said that the rental car charge is not the ticket. Don't be indignant with faux surprise. Pay up, let the episode pass, have a cool drink, and get ready for the next few weeks of mail delivery which will probably include the second ticket. Pay that one too. As for the various posters who say that Americans are beyond the law - you wonder why there are people around the world who hate Ugly Americans to whom the law doesn't apply?

I was wrong about unpaid tickets not ending up on a credit report. Apparently there are few controls on what collection agencies report, and if one is not proactive as David says, they can end up on your CR. Along with unpaid library fines!

I already wire transferred the $ to the City of Venice. If I owe the ticket, I owe it. My reason for saying anything about this matter is to just warn people driving into Venice of the permanent speed trap on the causeway. A large number of people drive into the city on vacation.
Thanks for the replies.

Good attitude David! I agree that 8 kph over the limit is not much to deserve a ticket (notwithstanding there are some among us who apparently have never been so egregious speeders). However, the fine (probably $50 w/o the late fee) itself is not excessive. I think in my state now the minimum fine for a speeding violation is $100. When I drove in Tuscany this past December, I noticed that all the speed cameras were signed well before you got to them. Plus they were pretty obvious as you were approaching them, but I guess you do have to pay attention which is not always easy with the distracting views. Oh we'll, that's all water down the canal now!

An important notice. When a ticket says 8km/h above the speed limit, it already deducted the 7% (IIRC) allowance (minimum 7km/h). So if you are ticketed as 88km/h on a 80km/h zone, that meant you are caught driving at 95km/h.

A ~63€ fine, including penalties? From what I've read, consider yourself very lucky. I'll continue taking the train across the causeway... And Kudos to Mike! Well done ;-)

Just a warning to all the drivers out there that the same thing exists in France, and they're getting ready to take it up a notch. The French authorities are getting ready to deploy several unmarked police cars that have radar receptors hidden in/around the license plat mount on the front of the car. So now you'll have to watch out not only for cop cars and stationary radar sites, but also the car you're passing. This is supposed to be operational by the end of this month. I wonder if we'll be hearing about this in the future on the Helpline. . . .

Because I somehow missed the original post, I thought I'd go back and see what it is about. Did you check swith Hertz and/or VISA to find out what the two $44.oo charges were for? A fair price for any automobile infraction is if you can pay that amount without ruining your vacation or other finances. Unfair is if you can't. But it seems to me that the best way to get people to stop doing something they shouldn't be doing is to make the consequences expensive. There are several corners where I live that cars race through yellow and red lights sometimes making it impossible for walkers (like me) to cross the street in the time alloted us. (Many I think should be twice as long for walkers to cross the street.) So making the first time expensive and then any following time twice what the previous was would get the message across. Whether a Supreme Court would allow it at a later time is another story. This may have been the thinking of the city you were in. Also part of the larger amonth might be fees of the collection agency. Like everyone else I think you should pay it and be sure to fine out what it was so you can not do it again. It might even be one of those common sense things that would keep you out of trouble all sorts of places.

http://www.bella-toscana.com/traffic_violations_italy.htm