Two-thirds of speeding drivers get off the hook

I.S.T.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/twothirds-of-speeding-drivers-get-off-the-hook-1367599.html



MORE than 33,000 speeding drivers escaped fines and penalty points in the last two years -- simply by claiming that they never got a summons or fine notice.

Shocking new figures obtained by the Irish Independent reveal that two-thirds of motorists hit with speeding summonses are dodging the penalties.

Almost 42,500 of the 60,000 speeding cases taken over the past two years were struck out or dismissed on technicalities. Gardai say the majority of these cases failed because defendants claimed they had not received notice of their speeding fines in the post.

As a result, motorists are getting away without a fine or the four penalty points they would automatically receive if they pleaded guilty to the offence in court. The shambles is bound to raise serious questions about how the system is monitored and run by the Department of Transport.

Road Safety Authority spokesman Brian Farrell said the RSA was aware of the large number of speeding cases being struck out and was hopeful that gardai and the Department of Transport would remedy the situation. He added that excessive speed was a factor in almost 30pc of road fatalities in Ireland.

"A car can be a weapon of mass destruction if you are driving too fast and crash into something," he said.

"The speed at which you are travelling can determine whether you or someone else suffers minor, serious or fatal injuries in a collision."

A recent RSA survey on driver attitudes found that 13pc of Irish motorists speed on secondary roads, 27pc on primary routes and 82pc in urban 50kmh speed zones.

Changes made to modernise the speeding fine system in 2004 are being blamed for the crisis, which is creating the dangerous perception that speeding fines can be ignored.

Previously, gardai issued a ticket after pulling speeding motorists over.

Under the new system, officers do not issue a ticket and instead input details of the offence into a handheld computer, linked to a fixed charge processing system.

Within a short period, the driver receives a notice of the offence by post, saying they have been given two penalty points and giving details of how they can pay their €80 fine.

They are warned that if they do not pay the fine they risk a court summons and four penalty points. However, as the notices are not sent out by registered post, there is no way of proving the intended recipient actually received them.

A senior garda told the Irish Independent: "The legislation says that a person must be given the opportunity to pay the fine or they cannot be prosecuted.

"So, if they simply say they never got the fine in the post, the judge has no option but to strike it out -- as there is no way of proving otherwise. This means the motorist doesn't pay a fine or get any points.

Summonses to appear in court are issued to motorists who fail to pay speeding fines within 56 days or where the offence is so serious it involves a prosecution.

Figures obtained by the Irish Independent from the Courts Service under the Freedom of Information Act show that of the 38,692 speeding summonses issued last year, 22,879 were struck out because it could not be proved that the defendants received fine notices. A further 7,048 were struck out or dismissed for other reasons, while just 7,401 people were fined and 113 disqualified.

Of the 21,590 summonses issued in 2006, some 10,653 were struck out because it could not be proven defendants had received the fine notice in the post. A further 3,367 were struck out or dismissed for other reasons, while 6,896 people were fined and 326 disqualified.

The release of the figures comes just weeks after Cork-based district court judge Michael Pattwell warned: "The system is in chaos," adding that something needed to be done about the problem urgently.

Senior gardai are privately seeking changes to procedures or legislation to remedy the issue. It is understood that a system whereby postmen can verify whether a fine notice was delivered is being considered.

Such a system would be cheaper than registered post and would provide gardai with a written guarantee that the item was delivered.

An alternative being proposed by gardai is to enable printing on their handheld computers, so that a fine can be issued on the spot.

- Shane Phelan Investigative Correspondent

unkel

Nothing new there. We've discussed it here before. It's ridiculous that the notices are not sent out by registered post

Unbelievable that this still hasn't been fixed yet...

peasant

IrishSpeedTraps wrote: »

Road Safety Authority spokesman Brian Farrell said the RSA was aware of the large number of speeding cases being struck out and was hopeful that gardai and the Department of Transport would remedy the situation. He added that excessive speed was a factor in almost 30pc of road fatalities in Ireland.

"A car can be a weapon of mass destruction if you are driving too fast and crash into something," he said.

You just got to love the rethoric in this ...the system is too stupid to issue people with a simple fine in such a way that it can't be disputed ...yet somehow the motorist ends up driving "a weapon of mass destruction" ...again.

Who will pay for all that valuable and expensive court time that was used for striking out those cases?

Well ...take a guess. Mine would be that they are going to invade the motorists pockets again ...the WMD is in place to justify the attack :D:D

zzzzzzzz

I can't believe I sent mine back...

Mitch Connor

peasant wrote: »

Well ...take a guess. Mine would be that they are going to invade the motorists pockets again ...the WMD is in place to justify the attack :D:D

I'm moving my car to syria, just in case.

zzzzzzzz

unkel wrote: »

Nothing new there. We've discussed it here before. It's ridiculous that the notices are not sent out by registered post

Unbelievable that this still hasn't been fixed yet...

What happens if you refuse to sign for the registered post? Unless I was actually expecting something to be delivered I wouldn't... It's bound to be trouble.

LostinBlanch

I think they're going to have the delivery recorded by the postman so it'll be something like a halfway house between ordinary mail and registered mail.

Here's hoping no one here gets to find out the hard way!

cyclopath2001

LostinBlanch wrote: »

I think they're going to have the delivery recorded by the postman so it'll be something like a halfway house between ordinary mail and registered mail.
!

I've driven in Malaysia (better roads than here!) a few times & there they set up a speed trap on the highway and then 20km or so further down, section off a part of the road or a rest area and a cop with a clipboard pulls over the offenders and serves them the summonses then and there.

Esel

A car can be a weapon of mass destruction if you are driving too fast and crash into something...

Quick, someone get on the hotline to the White House! Multiple WMDs in unstable hands!

Steve

I got a postmans note in the letterbox to say there was a registered letter waiting in the local post office - I wasn't expecting anything so I 'forgot' to collect it. Still don't know what it was.

Seth Brundle

Our postie has a habit of signing for registered mail on our behalf!

hottstuff

So who's tried it ?
And was it worth it ?

cyclopath2001

stevec wrote: »

I wasn't expecting anything so I 'forgot' to collect it. Still don't know what it was.

Got any prize bonds?

Steve

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

Got any prize bonds?

crap - never thought of that. Must check the numbers.

ramanujan

"He added that excessive speed was a factor in almost 30pc of road fatalities in Ireland."

I always wondered what the exact stats are. does anyone know where they pull these from? Its higher than i was expecting. Funny how they completely priorotise on something thats "a factor" in 30% of accidents. How many are caused by speeding i wonder?

I also wonder do they have a fatalities "caused by crazy eastern europeans" column, or fatalaties "caused by changing your radio station/ due attention." I'd imagine these two underlying a large bulk of our accidents.

Steve

ramanujan wrote: »

"He added that excessive speed was a factor in almost 30pc of road fatalities in Ireland."

Bear in mind that 'excessive speed' is not the same thing as exceeding the speed limit. 20kph can be called excessive speed outside a school at loading time.

ramanujan wrote: »

I always wondered what the exact stats are. does anyone know where they pull these from? Its higher than i was expecting. Funny how they completely priorotise on something thats "a factor" in 30% of accidents. How many are caused by speeding i wonder?

RSA website has all the figures - oddly enough 'speeding' is not top of the list.

ART6

[quote=ramanujan;55871297]"He added that excessive speed was a factor in almost 30pc of road fatalities in Ireland."

I always wondered what the exact stats are. does anyone know where they pull these from? Its higher than i was expecting. Funny how they completely priorotise on something thats "a factor" in 30% of accidents. How many are caused by speeding i wonder?

I also wonder do they have a fatalities "caused by crazy eastern europeans" column, or fatalaties "caused by changing your radio station/ due attention." I'd imagine these two underlying a large bulk of our accidents.[/quote]

I agree with you. That first sentence suggests to me a careful use of words. It doesn't say that 30% were caused by excessive speed, only that it was a "factor". That implies that the accidents might have happened anyway, but the people who died would not have done had the speeds been lower. If that is the intention then it is a misuse of statistics. All one can say is that an impact between a person and a vehicle at 50 kph is statistically less likely to be fatal than one at 60 kph. One cannot say that if, therefore, everyone drove at 50kph there would be significantly fewer fatalities. Statistics provide a guide not a crystal ball.

Having said that, governments customarily use dubious statistics to reinforce their planning, particularly where the result is a new tax or fine.:o

MrPudding

stevec wrote: »

Bear in mind that 'excessive speed' is not the same thing as exceeding the speed limit. 20kph can be called excessive speed outside a school at loading time.



RSA website has all the figures - oddly enough 'speeding' is not top of the list.

Exactly. This is a point that several of us are continually trying to make, but it is passed off by many as trying to excuse speeding.

I have to say that this does annoy me somewhat. Road deaths are used as an excuse for increase speed checks. As most of you know, I do not have a problem, per se, with speed checks, only when they are revenue generation dressed up as road safety.

Can someone please explain to me how a speed camera stops excessive, or as us evil speeding supports like to call it "inappropriate speed?"

Cameras will not "catch" a driver on a Donegal backroad doing 70kph round a corner that he and his car are only capable of taking at 45kph. Why? First of all, he is not breaking the speed limit. They are speed cameras not inappropriate speed cameras. Secondly, there is no camera there anyway. They are all on the fcuking dual carriage ways catching criminals doing 15kph over the limit on the countries safest roads.

Road safety my rusty sheriff's badge.

MrP

hottstuff

MrPudding wrote: »

Exactly. This is a point that several of us are continually trying to make, but it is passed off by many as trying to excuse speeding.

I have to say that this does annoy me somewhat. Road deaths are used as an excuse for increase speed checks. As most of you know, I do not have a problem, per se, with speed checks, only when they are revenue generation dressed up as road safety.

Can someone please explain to me how a speed camera stops excessive, or as us evil speeding supports like to call it "inappropriate speed?"

Cameras will not "catch" a driver on a Donegal backroad doing 70kph round a corner that he and his car are only capable of taking at 45kph. Why? First of all, he is not breaking the speed limit. They are speed cameras not inappropriate speed cameras. Secondly, there is no camera there anyway. They are all on the fcuking dual carriage ways catching criminals doing 15kph over the limit on the countries safest roads.

Road safety my rusty sheriff's badge.

MrP

Agreed.
The Naas Road springs to mind with it's special 60Kmh limit , and the van is usually only there between 9am-11am.
I've no problem with catching and admitting to speeding , but when it's a blatant revenue enhancer and not a safety priority , it doesn't warm to Joe Public.

the_syco

ramanujan wrote: »

I also wonder do they have a fatalities "caused by crazy eastern europeans" column, or fatalaties "caused by changing your radio station/ due attention." I'd imagine these two underlying a large bulk of our accidents.

Don't forget the old "hitting a tree 3 meters from the straight road, in perfect conditions..." :rolleyes: