ENGINEER FINED $500 FOR
CALLING HIMSELF 'ENGINEER', State penalizes
man who found problem with red-light cameras, 4/26/17, WND
Beaverton, Oregon, resident Mats Järlström – a Swedish-born electronics engineer by training and previous work experience – is $500 poorer after being fined by an Oregon agency following his attempt to point out a problem in the state’s traffic lights that “puts the public at risk.”
Specifically, Järlström – after
spending a year investigating the timing of yellow lights and red-light camera
statistics – found people were being electronically captured running yellow
lights because of misapplication of a timing formula developed in 1959 and
still used internationally.
“They only looked at a vehicle
traveling safely directly through an intersection, however the equation they
developed is not used for turning lanes,” Järlström told Motherboard. “When you make a turn you slow down, but that’s not
accounted for in their solution, so people are getting caught in red-light
cameras for making safe turns.”
Armed with a year’s worth of data,
Järlström presented his findings to various groups, including the local sheriff
– his wife’s earlier red-light ticket having sparked his quest – “60 Minutes”
and Alexei Maradudin, the last surviving author of the 1959 paper still used to
time traffic lights.
“He wants me to continue with this,
it’s amazing that I have his support,” Järlström said. Järlström was even
invited to make a presentation to the Institute of Transportation Engineers in
Anaheim, California.
So, confident he had found a problem that needed to be addressed, Järlström bundled up his research and contacted Oregon’s engineering board.
“I would like to present these facts
for your review and comments,” he wrote in a September 2104 letter. Järlström
also noted his technical background in the letter, saying, “I’m an engineer.”
That proved to be a big mistake. It
wasn’t his research that interested the state – it was his referencing himself
as an “engineer.”
“ORS 672.020(1) prohibits the
practice of engineering in Oregon without registration at a minimum, your use
of the title ‘electronics engineer’ and the statement ‘I’m an engineer’ create
violations,” read the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land
Surveying response.
In the two years that followed,
Järlström, who is not licensed as an engineer in Oregon, was accused of
misrepresenting himself, and his year of collecting data – on his own time,
free of charge – characterized as possibly having “engaged in unlicensed
engineering work in Oregon.”
According to the National Council of
Examiners of Engineering and Surveying, there were 481,717 licensed engineers
in the U.S. in 2016, but about 2 million people actually practice engineering,
according to the National Society of Professional Engineers. Even Oregon State
University’s 45 faculty members of the Civil and Construction Engineering
department only has 13 members who have engineering licenses, reported KOIN
News.
“I’m not practicing engineering, I’m
just using basic mathematics and physics, Newtonian laws of motion, to make
calculations and talk about what I found,” Järlström said.
The board insisted the
citizen-engineer was legally prohibited from publishing or presenting his
findings. “I have stated I was a Swedish
electronics engineer, but I based all the things from freedom of speech. I was
just talking. That’s literally what I did,” Järlström said.
The board’s Law Enforcement
Committee assessed Järlström a fine of $500, which he paid in November. But
this week Järlström struck back, filing suit with the help of the Institute for
Justice, arguing Oregon cannot own the word engineer.
“Anyone should be able to talk about
the traffic signals – if they’re too long or too short or anything – without
being penalized,” said Järlström.
“People like Mats aren’t designing
bridges. They’re talking, and the state is punishing them for that,” said
attorney Sam Gedge.
“And it’s not just Mats. Oregon’s
engineering board fined an activist for publicly criticizing a power plant.
They fined a retired guy who wrote to complain about home water damage. It’s
even launched an investigation based on a political ad. This is a major First
Amendment problem,” Gedge added.
“Under the First Amendment, you don’t
need to be a licensed lawyer to write an article critical of a Supreme Court
decision, you don’t need to be a licensed landscape architect to create a
gardening blog, and you don’t need to be a licensed engineer to talk about
traffic lights. Whether or not you use math, criticizing the government is a
core constitutional right that cannot be hampered by onerous licensing
requirements.”
The legal group is representing
Järlström at no charge and seeking no monetary damages.
Comments
Picky,
picky, picky. If Järlström intended to claim that he
was a licensed engineer in Oregon, he would have signed his cover letter as a
PE with his registration number the way all licensed Professional Engineers do.
They should have been able to look it up and if it was false they would have
cause to fine him.
As it is, this bunch has just
exposed themselves as incompetents who live in a government bubble with animus
for those who aren’t in their union.
Engineers who work for government aren’t the best, but if they want to
get their union card, they sit for the exams required to get an EIT (Engineer
in Training) and PE (Professional Engineer).
A lot of government projects require the review of a PE. These are
bureaucrats, not design engineers like Järlström, who actually know what they
are doing.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party
Leader
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