The man with the flex was back. Or, more likely, men. Or maybe women. Nobody knows for sure. In any case, Italy, the number one country for speed cameras in Europe, now has fewer speed cameras: four orange boxes with cameras were knocked down on the streets of the small town of Buccinasco, in northern Italy, in a single night.
What would actually be just a small report for the local newspaper has now taken on a national dimension: Italy is looking for Fleximan – named after its most important tool.
Dozens of cases of material damage
The matter had already started last year. Near the city of Rovigo, also in the north, the first speed camera pole was sawed off with a cutting machine. In German and Italian craftsman: with flex. Since then, there have been dozens of cases of criminal damage to property. Sometimes the police found short confession letters, such as “Fleximan sta arrivando” (“Fleximan is coming”). The trail of destruction now stretches from South Tyrol to Calabria, so it is clear: Fleximan is more than one. Half a dozen Public Prosecutor's Offices are now busy with this.
Many drivers follow the matter with a certain basic sympathy. The feeling of being intimidated and excluded by authorities is also widespread in Italy. Nowhere in Europe are there as many speed cameras as here: more than 11,000. For comparison purposes: in Germany there are 4,700. The speed limit is generally 90 outside the city, 110 on expressways and 130 on highways. The controls are relatively tight. Many tourists also know this because they have received correspondence from the Italian police. However, the number of deaths on the roads is higher than anywhere else. In 2022 there were almost 3,200.
Communities make good money with fast speed cameras
It is indisputable that some communities make good money with “Autovelox”, as speed cameras are called in Italian. The consumer protection organization Codacons determined, based on figures from the Ministry of the Interior, that the country's 20 largest cities earned more than 75 million euros in 2022. The tourist metropolis of Florence alone recorded more than 23 million. For the city of Cavallino, on state highway 16, in the far south, buying a camera was also worth it: income rose from zero to almost three million in one year.
Fleximan is acclaimed as the “Robin Hood of drivers”.
So it’s no wonder that Fleximan is hailed by some as the “Robin Hood of drivers”. Now there is even graffiti: a figure similar to the one from Quentin Tarantino's film “Kill Bill”, with a sword in one hand and a cut-out speed camera in the other. However, there are also opposing voices – such as that of journalist Paola di Caro, from the renowned newspaper “Corriere della Sera”, whose 18-year-old son was killed. She wrote: “I just want Fleximan to feel for just one day what I feel when I put flowers at the place where my son was killed.”
Many experts are also outraged by the applause for criminal acts. Urban planner Matto Dondé told the daily La Repubblica: “Wherever speed cameras are used, the number of deaths and injuries is much lower. That is the only certain fact. Everything else is opinion.”
“Fleximan” can face up to three years in prison
The police and the Public Ministry see the situation in a similar way. However, there was no breakthrough in the search: surveillance camera images usually only show black hooded figures at night. If you are arrested, you could face heavy fines and up to three years in prison.
The matter has now also turned into a political issue. In particular, right-wing populist Transport Minister Matteo Salvini has become known as a defender of allegedly exploited drivers. The leader of the smallest government party, Lega, announced a decree next month to limit the number of speed cameras. “Putting them on two-lane roads at night to make money is just another tax.”
Salvini made it clear that he generally does not attach much importance to the 50 km/h speed limit on large roads. The “Repubblica”, therefore, mockingly elevated him to a kind of fleximan of Italian politics. But Fleximan has also found imitators in other forms. In Brescia, also in the north, an unknown person has now started to remove threshold posts (in Italian: dosso) from streets in areas with reduced traffic. He was immediately given a name: Dossoman.