Loophole regarding Speeding fines

BaZmO*

All day on the Today FM news they have been reporting that due to a loophole in the current law many drivers will find it possible to get out of paying speeding fines if they are caught speeding.

The loophole arises from the fact that you have to be issued with a ticket/receipt if you have been caught speeding and if you haven't been issued with a ticket/receipt and you decide to challenge your fine in court the case against you will more than likely be dropped which has been the way in many other cases recently.

Now the worrying part is the fact that with the long weekend coming up, which is notorious for road related accidents, many due to speeding, an awful lot of people will get away with speeding.

The thing that gets me is the fact that they are essentially advertising this loophole on the radio and therefore encouraging people to speed over the long weekend which is quite an ominous prospect.

Any thoughts?

B.

Esel

I agree with you. It seems to me to be very irresponsible.

De Hipster

The simple fact is that if the law itself is inefficient or flawed it needs to be addressed & people should be aware of their rights & the problems in the current system...

I see nothing wrong with highlighting the issue, or is it a fact now that the moral highground brigade don't care if the law is bent or mistreated by the lawmakers aslong as Joe Public is punished for any wrong-doing?

MrPudding

I have to agree with De Hipster. If the government gets away with writing sloppy legislation then they have no reason to do it properly. I think pointing out loopholes in laws is a socially responsible act. It forces the gov to take a look at the laws and write them correctly.

MrP

rymus

if only I had been clued in when I got caught speeding last year. could have avoided two costly points.

unkel

Agree with de Hipster in principle apart from this. It is old news (a few months?). Why indeed bring it up again just before this BH weekend.

Happened in the Netherlands at the weekend: car with 5 young people crashed at high speed on a national (non motorway) road. It was a single vehicle accident. Car caught fire. It is not possible anymore to establish if alcohol was involved

Interceptor

Its such a hot topic especially with the G-men out in force and trying to get as much publicity for their 'We're pointing a Gatso at you' campaign this weekend.

I'm sure its been flogged to death but if the makers of big cars voluntarily put electronic speed limiters to keep them from exceeding 155mph, why can't everyone else fit limiters to stop all cars from exceeding 85? Its no longer safe or necessary for anyone to be able to do exceed this in Ireland, acceleration wouldn't be affected as it wouldn't restrict power and if you derestrict it, your insurance is void.

If I could cite another example of industry self-regulation; Have you noticed Hino trucks and other Japanese import lorries have three green lights over the cab? In Japan these are wired to the speedo and indicate to everyone the speed the truck is doing. If cars had these and the social implication of driving through a built-up area was to have civilians taking your number down for having all three greens lit would people slow down? Several years ago all Japanese vehicles had beepers which chimed if the speed exceeded 55mph - surely you've driven an import Corolla with it still connected? These were an experiment which failed as most people disconected them, but they did try....

The points system for speeding isn't working and it will be paraded as the saviour of lives for years by successive Ministers for Transport until someone has the nerve to show the real figures and admit that it is really only generating revenue. Or we run out of petrol.

'c

BaZmO*

unkel wrote:

Why indeed bring it up again just before this BH weekend.

That's the point I'm making.

interceptor wrote:

I'm sure its been flogged to death but if the makers of big cars voluntarily put electronic speed limiters to keep them from exceeding 155mph, why can't everyone else fit limiters to stop all cars from exceeding 85? Its no longer safe or necessary for anyone to be able to do exceed this in Ireland, acceleration wouldn't be affected as it wouldn't restrict power and if you derestrict it, your insurance is void.

People travelling at 90 or 95mph on a motorway is not the problem. It's people travelling at 80 on country backroads or 60 in built up areas with speed limits of 30 or 40mph. So limiting the speed of a car to 85mph wouldn't solve the problem.

B.

ednwireland

actually the thing i'm thinking about is that the legislastion involves the garda giving me proof of my speeding offence which i would quite like (4 years since my last speeding ticket but i got no proof from the guard). if i was a guard i would like to give people a printout and then you don't get into the my word against theirs (like the cameras where your allowed to ask for the photo) i actually think they should leave the law as is and buy machinery which allows for this (not that it will happen). i'm assuming they will get rid of my right to ask the guard for proof of my speeding offence.
actually i remember when i was pulled they showed me the gun readout when they wrote the ticket which is fair enough.
i think the guards should have to produce evidence to give you points

woody

BaZmO* wrote:

That's the point I'm making.



People travelling at 90 or 95mph on a motorway is not the problem. It's people travelling at 80 on country backroads or 60 in built up areas with speed limits of 30 or 40mph. So limiting the speed of a car to 85mph wouldn't solve the problem.

B.

While I agree with your point no-one should be travelling on a motorway faster than 75 mph methinks, i used the entire length of the M1 and people seem to think driving between 80 and 100 MPH is okay it's not.

Why a blow out and your dead you brake suddenly a gigantic pile up.

as for country roads i tend to stick by the limit why because they are to damn dangerous and a lot of bad drivers on them.
the more motorsways the better and safer

BaZmO*

woody wrote:

Why a blow out and your dead

And a blow out at 70mph and you'd be ok then?

woody wrote:

you brake suddenly a gigantic pile up

Only if somebody is tailgating you which would be a very dangerous activity to be involved in even if you were going at 70mph.

woody wrote:

as for country roads i tend to stick by the limit why because they are to damn dangerous and a lot of bad drivers on them.
the more motorsways the better and safer

Well there ya go, that statement totally disproves your theory of limiters.

B.

De Hipster

The fact that this has been highlighted before just goes to further prove that the legislators in this country don't care with regard to the law as long as they're seen to be doing something...I think it should be flagged & all previous fines, points etc wiped clean until the gov actually enforce laws that have been properly constructed & thought about.

woody

Well 70 is the limit not 100 and yes both are dangerous speeds but the first is the law, 100 is mental..

As for tailgating i constant get this from Northern drivers and mups in BMW's

as for limiters i personally dont think they would work...

John R

woody wrote:

Well 70 is the limit not 100 and yes both are dangerous speeds but the first is the law, 100 is mental..

So it is legal means it is okay to have a blowout and a massive pile up?

As for tailgating i constant get this from Northern drivers and mups in BMW's [/QUOTE]

You constantly get tailgated in the left lane of the motorway?

woody

no the right while over taking trucks etc... not the fast lane the over taking lane...


were nit picking are'nt we simple as this there is a speed limit stick to it otherwise the consequences could be dire plan and simple and yes you can get a pile up at 40 or 50 the point i am making is speeding is wrong and have seen to many people from driving up to 50,000 miles a year get injured / killed for the simple case of i have to get ahead of you mentality...

in reality unless it is an extreme emergency and someone in a car is dying or something similar there is no excuse.

MrPudding

woody wrote:

As for tailgating i constant get this from Northern drivers and mups in BMW's

Ah yes, the famous northie evil driver. The cause of all bad driving in the good old Republic of Ireland. No indigenous bad driving here, you have to import it all from the North. Have you never been tailgated by a southern driver? No? I that because they don’t bother tailgating and just undertake you or because you choose to ignore bad driving unless the car is a BMW or has a northern reg?

woody

For Real

impr0v

Anyone encountering the devil incarnate, a Northern driver IN a BMW, better leave the road altogether before he runs you off it.

magpie

Northern drivers have no business being down here with their handlebar moustaches, leather jackets, cuban-heeled boots, bombs and badly-gravelled driveways.

De Hipster

friggen meh-hic-ans!

Interceptor

Badges? We don' need no steenkin' badges....

And I just drove to Mullingar and back at 85mph to prove there are no cops on the road. And I was right, they are all in Cork for the jazz. Or eating doughnuts staying out of the rain.

'c

stormin

I wonder did I just get done doing about 78mph on the M4 heading East at 07:30.

Dark coloured 01 D van sitting on the hard shoulder. Please be blurry, please be blurry.

Seth Brundle

ednwireland wrote:

actually i remember when i was pulled they showed me the gun readout when they wrote the ticket which is fair enough.
i think the guards should have to produce evidence to give you points

In reality, them showing me a reading on the gun is not IMO 'proof' that I was speeding. They cannot prove that the reading was of my cars speed!

Seth Brundle

On the subject of the Garda Blitz this weekend.
I drove to Galway from Dublin on Friday, did about 150 miles around Galway/Clare area and drove back to Leixlip today.
I passed one tax/seatbelt checkpoint in Ballinasloe and that was it! Now Im sure there were unmarked speed detecting cars travelling the length and breadth of the country, as they do on a daily basis so I'm not including these in the blitz (do these work at night?), nor am I including the GATSO transits!
Not one garda along the side of the road with the hairdryer out checking speed!
Now in fairness, traffic wasn't moving all too well anyway in many spots but on the whole it would have been possible on many stretches to put the foot down, hit 80 or 90mph and pass 10 cars all following that old git in his almera!
Did anyone come accross the gardai standing at the side of the road this weekend with their radar guns out [raising money for Michael McDowell's holiday home in Roscommon] and if so where?

gurramok

kbannon wrote:

Did anyone come accross the gardai standing at the side of the road this weekend with their radar guns out [raising money for Michael McDowell's holiday home in Roscommon] and if so where?

No.
I travelled on N2 northwards via Ardee to the north and back on saturday and not a single garda in sight marked or unmarked.

This crackdown is all just publicity.