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Italian police recently stopped a tractor that had been converted into a home-made armoured car. The police believed the vehicle, which was equipped with weaponry, was on its way to be used by protestors for a demonstration in Venice. The people arrested when the vehicle was seized included a prominent politician. This is not the first time a home-made armoured car has been linked to political protests in Venice, as in 1997 a similar vehicle was used in an attack on the Bell Tower in St Mark’s Square in the

Police stopped a student driving a Peugeot car that had been partially stripped of parts. The vehicle had no doors, lights or bonnet (hood) and the driver was using hand signals to indicate direction. He had driven the vehicle 5km on his way to a recycling centre to scrap the vehicle when stopped, having previously removed other parts to sell online.

A driver in the UK had a rather unusual explanation following a crash involving his vehicle. He had been transporting a load of dead badgers that had been killed following a somewhat controversial cull, a move intended to halt the spread of disease amongst cattle. The man’s excuse was that the police radio he had been given, so as to help him avoid any animal rights protestors, had fallen from his grasp and under the brake pedal.

Visitors to Kirkenes in the north of Norway now have a new transport option to carry them between the airport and the town. A dogsled taxi service is available to carry visitors to the Kirkenes Snowhotel. Special permission was required to allow this unusual transport option for a number of reasons.

A driver in the UK was issued with a parking ticket, when stopped at a red light. The driver was issued the parking ticket as his vehicle was spotted halted at a bus stop. After the driver appealed, the local authorities admitted that issuing the parking ticket had been a mistake. Also in the UK, a Welshman received a rather unpleasant surprise when he opened his post. He had been sent fines for driving his vehicle in a bus lane and parking illegally in London, around 400km away.

The European Union Road Federation (ERF) has put out an “urgent” call for “EU Member States to prioritise road maintenance” as neglected surfaces continue to deteriorate and the potholes grow larger and larger. ERF wants the EU to “put alternative financing mechanisms into place” as soon as possible, to tackle what it sees as a growing road safety crisis across the region. At its first ERF biennial Symposium on Road Infrastructure Challenges in June, more than 100 stakeholders heard the ERF demand the “ope

A new agreement between Finnish firm Neste Oil and RAE from the US is paving the way for the development of sustainable fuel. The two companies have agreed on an algae biomass solution for renewable diesel fuels. This would offer a strong potential as a fuel source as the algae can be produced easily and at comparatively low cost. This second generation biofuel source offers numerous benefits over earlier generation biofuels, which have been sourced from food crops and also linked to riding food prices as w

Data from the ACI-ITAT body in Italy reveals an improvement in the country’s road safety in 2013. The statistics show a 2.2% drop in vehicle crashes for 2013 compared with 2012. The data shows that there has been a 6.9% drop in fatalities and a 2% drop in injuries on Italian roads during 2013 compared with 2012. However ACI-ITAT warns that there is no room for complacency as there are still around 500 crashes/day in Italy.

The UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) reveals that the road fatality rate for 2013 was the lowest since records began in 1926. The data shows that 1,713 people died on the UK’s road network in 2013, around half that of the figure recorded for the year 2000. This reveals an on-going improvement in road safety levels. The DfT statistics show that in 2013, 21,657 people were seriously injured in road crashes, while the total number of casualties of all severities stood at 183,670. Car occupant fatalities in