The speed camera is "approved" by the Ministry of Transport but is not certified: The fine is null and void. This was ruled by the Cagliari Justice of the Peace, who upheld the appeal of a motorist fined by the speed detector installed by the Municipality of Decimomannu on State Road 130 at kilometer markers 15 and 126, heading towards Cagliari.
According to the Decimomannu local police report, the violation occurred on September 29, 2024. The ticket was served on January 15. A month later, on February 13, the driver appealed to the Justice of the Peace. The opposing party was the Municipality, which appointed attorney Guendalina Garau as legal guardian.
The driver brought only one argument in his appeal: an April 2024 ruling by the Court of Cassation, which established a substantial difference between approval and type-approval of speed cameras. In short: type-approval is a rigorous technical certification that certifies the conformity and reliability of a specific speed camera model; approval is a preliminary test that merely declares the prototype's general suitability , but does not guarantee its full legal validity. In the former case, the fines issued are valid; in the latter, they are not.
And the K53800 Speed model used by the Municipality of Decimomannu is approved but not homologated. The parties involved have agreed on this point.
The defense of the administration led by Monica Cadeddu has brought to the table a series of ministerial circulars and regulatory provisions that treat the two terms (approval and homologation, precisely) as synonymous.
The Justice of the Peace sided with the Court of Cassation and ruled in favor of the appellant: the fine was annulled. But while the thousands of motorists traveling along the 130 toward the capital can hope to have any speeding tickets annulled, there are some counterfactuals. First, it's always best to respect the speed limit. Second, And it's not out of the question that the Municipality of Decimomannu will also appeal the ruling that saw it lose. In the meantime, however, the driver wins.
