Penalty points a Gov cash Cow!

Bee

http://www.sbpost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-648262012-pageUrl--2FThe-Newspaper-2FSundays-Paper.asp

FF's Ryan lashes out at penalty points system

By Sean Mac Carthaigh, Political Correspondent
A senior Fianna Fail TD has launched a stinging attack on the way penalty points are being imposed.
Eoin Ryan claims that gardai are preying on motor ists along safe stretches of road while genuinely dangerous driving goes unpunished.

The comments by the head of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport reflect growing evidence that the system has failed in its aim to reduce road deaths. Many now feel that penalty points have no effect other than to generate income and punish motorists.

So far this year, 110 people have died on roads in the Republic, compared with 85 deaths this time last year.

Ryan has summoned senior officials from the Department of Justice, Department of Transport and the National Roads Authority (NRA) before his committee this Wednesday.

"We are going to be asking them what exactly is going on," Ryan said. "This is a matter of life and death.

"Any detection that I can see seems to be happening on our motorways. Well, accidents are not happening on motorways, they are happening on secondary roads. How many speed guns are being used on secondary roads? There aren't any. They are out on the Stillorgan dual carriageway or up on the Belfield bridge."

The latest statistics from the NRA show that just 3 per cent of fatal accidents happen on dual carriageways or motorways. They also reveal that in 80 per cent of two-car accidents, excessive speed is not a factor.

This indicates that the overwhelming focus on speed in the penalty points system may represent a massive waste of resources.
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What do you good people think?

Bee

Bee

"Any detection that I can see seems to be happening on our motorways. Well, accidents are not happening on motorways, they are happening on secondary roads. How many speed guns are being used on secondary roads? There aren't any. They are out on the Stillorgan dual carriageway or up on the Belfield bridge."

Over a very extended Easter Weekend ( the eggs were yummy!) I brought som Ozz visitors from Dublin to Kerry , West Cork on up to Galway and finally back home.

Extensive driving around our cute island. Some mad cap driving was to be seen on many occasions on our dangerous "b" roads, the usual overtaking over white lines, tailgating of lorries etc etc.


On a visit to a local hostelery the amount of drunks driving home was disgusting...

The only Gardai to be spotted policing our roads over the week was holding his tool skulking on the Stillorgan dual carraigeway!

What a waste. It is time Seamo' Brennan's fair idea of penalty points was rescued from the sham its now become due to the lack of resources for a dedicated Traffic Corp and the disgraceful mis use of Garda time as they shoot lame ducks on safe dual carraigeways instead of applying the law on the "b" roads and actually try parking their Garda cars outside of a few pubs at closing time.

I wish and I thought I would never say this about any FF politician, good luck to Eoin Ryan in bringing the wasters to task.

Bee

Victor

Please read this thread. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=151906

Bee

Thank you for pointing out the thread.

It obviously highlights the Gardai and Government's miserable failure to tackle the real cause of the spiralling road deaths and the usual after hours i.e. 10 pm to 4 am week- end carnage on our roads.

Shamo' Brennan can "roll out" as many fancy-sounding penalty point offences as he likes, but it doesn't matter a flying v when the Gardai are not properly applied to enforce them. During the first few weeks of the penalty points,all drivers (aprt from cyclists as apparently no law is ever applied to them!) were watching their step afraid of being caught as there was high-visibility enforcement and word of mouth evidence as well - now it's dropped right off because, as is the case with drink-driving, motorists don't feel there's a significant chance of being caught for transgressing, be it speed, mobile phone mis-use, "careless driving", whatever. And as expected, up goes the road death count to more than previous levels.

We do not have a Garda computer working to record penalty points, or the Gardai willing to use it or a Traffic Corps either.

Just another Irish law to boast about at the EU conferences...


Bee...

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/3038432?view=Eircomnet

Penalty points system 'failure' to be queried
From:ireland.com
Monday, 19th April, 2004

Senior gardaí will be asked to explain to an Oireachtas committee this week why the penalty points system appears to be a complete failure in preventing road fatalities 18 months after its introduction.

The meeting, which will also be attended by officials from the National Roads Authority and the departments of justice and transport, comes after a weekend in which another road death brought the total this year to 112, up 25 on the same period of 2003.

David O'Callaghan (24) of Fair Hill, Cork, was killed early on Saturday when the stolen Saab car he was driving failed to take a bend on the Kinsale-Carrigaline road and plunged down an embankment.

The car had been reported missing from Carrigaline a few days previously. There were no other occupants in it at the time of the crash.

Tuesday's meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport also follows strong criticism of the penalty points system by the committee chairman, Fianna Fáil TD, Mr Eoin Ryan.

Mr Ryan said yesterday that as far as he could see, speed cameras and Garda speed checks were being mounted only on motorways and dual carriageways, penalising motorists on relatively safe stretches, while the roads where accidents were happening went unpoliced.

The question had to be asked whether the penalty points system "is just about generating revenue," he added. "It certainly doesn't seem to be reducing the number of serious accidents."

The TD said that Tuesday's meeting would be aimed at finding out if there was a problem with the implementation of the system: "We had the same officials in last year when it was going well. Now it's not going well, and we need to find out why."

Mr Ryan also disagreed with a recent Government decision not to proceed with a traffic corps, because of legal difficulties. The safest roads in the world were British motorways, Mr Ryan said, and Britain had an effective traffic corps.

"This is a life or death issue, and road deaths are first and foremost a human tragedy. But every fatality also costs the State €1.2 million. So there can be no argument against putting resources into dealing with the issue."

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by Victor
http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/3038432?view=Eircomnet "This is a life or death issue, and road deaths are first and foremost a human tragedy. But every fatality also costs the State €1.2 million. So there can be no argument against putting resources into dealing with the issue."

I take it €1.2 is a low figure not including future revenue / taxes - anyway it's interesting to compare it to the amounts being spent on safety both on and off the road.

Victor

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0420/transport.html

Emergency meeting over road death figures

20 April 2004 12:40
Officials from the National Safety Council, National Roads Authority and two Government departments are to address an emergency meeting of the Oireachtas Transport committee.

The meeting comes amid concerns over the number of people dying in traffic accidents. 115 people have died on the State's roads so far this year, compared to 86 for the same period last year.

Committee chairman, Fianna Fáil TD Eoin Ryan, has said the number of deaths raises questions about the effectiveness of the penalty points system and police enforcement of road safety laws.

Victor

More old news recycled.

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/3044677?view=Eircomnet

Gardai admit they're not up to speed on safety checks
From:The Irish Independent
Tuesday, 20th April, 2004

GARDAI have admitted they will carry out just a fraction of the key road safety checks the Government is demanding.

Just 3pc of the target number of speed checks, asked for by the Government, can be carried out with current resources, a confidential garda document reveals. The document has been seen by the Irish Independent.

The revelation of Garda concerns about reaching targets comes as the Oireachtas transport committee prepares to meet in emergency session today to discuss soaring road death numbers and inadequate garda enforcement.

Under the soon-to-be-published Road Safety Strategy 2004-2006, the Government's high-level group on road safety wants the number of speed checks to rise from around 333,000-a-year to more than 11m every year.

On average, each driver could expect to be checked every two months - around 30 times the current frequency.

But the document, drawn up by senior gardai, warns this can only be achieved when speed cameras are in the hands of private companies.

The Garda plan for the Government Road Safety Strategy 2004-2006 comprises just two pages and has just been sent to the Department of Transport.

It says there is a target to check 11.1m vehicles for speed annually.

The plan repeats that the same amount of checks will remain until "outsourcing arrangements are in place".

Dramatically increased high-visible garda enforcement is identified in the strategy as the key to its success.

But the garda document makes it clear they currently lack the capability to achieve this in the absence of privately operated speed cameras.

Under the Government plan, the number of drink-driving checks will go up from the current annual rate of fewer than 13,000 arrests to more than 450,000 checks and 45,000 arrests when random breath testing is introduced.

Gardai in their "operational plan" say a target of 462,500 roadside breath tests can be achieved if each of the 800 alcometers they possess tests an average of two drivers a day.

On the basis that one-in-ten drivers will fail the test, that will lead to 46,350 arrests.

Currently the vast majority of those tested are above the drink-driving limit.

That is because, to test them, gardai must either have reason to believe they've been drinking, or they must know they've been involved in a traffic accident.

With full random breath testing, the majority of drivers will not be found to be over the limit.

Gardai reveal they will administer the road side tests "at locations where collisions are caused by driving while intoxicated".

According to the garda document, the targets set by the government group for compliance with speed limits and seat belt laws are "subjectively based and not related to any specific strategic initiative".

"The performance indicators are based on the activities of a small number of European countries (Sweden, UK and the Netherlands) who have well established automatic enforcement for speeding and random breath testing for driving while intoxicated."

Treacy Hogan Environment Correspondent

Victor

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0420/transport.html

Garda resources for roads hit by EU presidency
20 April 2004 20:11

The Deputy Garda Commissioner has admitted that garda resources have been diverted from road safety to duties involved with Ireland's presidency of the European Union.

Fachtna Murphy was speaking at an Oireachtas Transport Committee meeting to discuss the increase in road deaths in recent months.

The introduction of the penalty point system caused a dramatic decrease in the number of fatal accidents on Irish roads. But now that effect seems to have worn off as fatalities are up by 30%. The Oireachtas Transport Committee is trying to find out why.

Mr Murphy admitted for the first time that less gardaí were monitoring road safety, as a result of resources being diverted to provide motorcycle escorts for visiting VIPs during the EU presidency.

Pat Costello, Chief Executive of the National Safety Council, told the committee that this has probably had an impact on the number of road deaths.

At today's meeting the gardaí also dealt with reports that they could not meet Government targets on the number of speed checks to be carried out.

The Deputy Commissioner said the gardaí had ambitious targets, but that they could not be met with existing resources. Mr Murphy said they would need outside help in operating speed cameras and with administration. However, the gardaí would still control where speed cameras would be used.

The force was criticised by Progressive Democrat Senator Tom Morrissey for squandering support for the penalty point system by setting up speed checks at easy locations and not at accident black spots.

Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten pointed out that the penalty point system has still not been computerised, although a pilot scheme should be up and running by June.

Mr Naughten said the Minister for Justice had misled the Dáil by promising that the full system would be operational by June.

115 people have died on the State's roads so far this year, compared to 86 for the same period last year.