Four "yellow vests" were sentenced in Metz in June to four months in prison suspended for the degradation of four radars on the RN4 in Moselle, said Friday the prefecture. Two vehicles were also seized "to cover the fine of nearly one hundred thousand euros of damage caused by these degradations," she said in a statement.
An investigation was opened for "voluntary fires and aggravated destruction" after degradations, between November 2018 and March 2019, on four RN4 radars, installed in Héming, Ibigny, Brouxviller and Gondrexange, communes located in the east of the department, he added.
2,410 radars were destroyed and 577 damaged
Eight people were arrested by the gendarmes of the Sarrebourg research brigade and "four of them acknowledged their participation in the damage committed". The prefecture recalls that "degradation of radars can have serious consequences for the lives of road users (and) constitutes an offense that can lead to a criminal conviction".
"The cost of intervention on the degraded radars is high and varies" from 500 to 200.000 euros according to the type of equipment and "the scale of the works of civil engineering required", is it detailed. According to a parliamentary report, given Wednesday to Matignon, on the economic consequences of the social mobilization of "yellow vests", 2,410 radars were destroyed and 577 damaged and their restoration "could eventually cost 71 million euros".