A magistrate has cheered Italy’s often unruly motorists by overturning the fine on a driver who took his hand off the wheel to scratch his ear.
Justice Giuseppe Salerno, sitting in Bari, threw out the fine for dangerous driving, awarded costs of €337 (£266) to the motorist, and fined the local council €1,000 for harassment, leaving open the option of recovering the money from traffic police themselves.
The motorist, 35, was stopped in heavy traffic on March 3. He went to court to contest the punishment and found a sympathetic ear in Mr Salerno.
“Touching one’s ear while driving does not amount to a deprivation of the freedom or movement required for the necessary manoeuvres of driving,” Justice Salerno wrote in his ruling.
The behaviour of the police was not only illegitimate but bordered “on harassment of the road user, who was temporarily deprived of his liberty”.
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News of the police’s discomfiture was widely welcomed in online comments. Gabriele Bariletti, commenting on the news website Blitz Quotidiano, was full of praise for the independent-minded magistrate. “Clone him! He is one of the few who has not been bought up by the local governments!” he enthused.