Italian riders protest at confiscation of scooters

By Peter Popham in Rome
Published: 26 September 2005

Thousands of motor scooters have been confiscated in Italy since a tough new law was enacted a month ago, designed to force the nation's 10 million scooter riders to clean up their act. But now voices in the government say the law is too tough and must be modified.

The law laid down that anybody riding without a helmet or with the strap unfastened, carrying a passenger on a vehicle of 50cc, transporting animals, riding with only one hand on the handlebars, with only one wheel on the ground or being towed along risked having his machine confiscated and sold at auction.

The law was provoked by the wild scooterists of Naples who routinely ride two to a 50cc bike and without helmets, and who also indulge in bag-snatching. Twelve hundred scooters have been confiscated in Naples and 2,000 in the province of which it is capital, a record for the country. Elsewhere the harvest has been more modest - 130 in Milan, for example.

But everywhere the riders are up in arms. Most of the culprits are young and poor, and the loss of a scooter worth thousands of euros is a drastic blow. And with a general election due in months, their anger has reached the government. Mario Scali in the ministry of infrastructure said: "Some sanctions are too tough while others are too light. What's missing is fundamental coherence. Someone can drive a Ferrari at 300kph without having his car confiscated while someone who rides a scooter with his helmet strap undone sees his machine sold at auction." The first appeals are being heard in the courts; already the talk is of a possible amnesty.