Special court date set for speed van cases

The local District Court judge has set aside a special court date specifically to deal with speeding offences which arise out of speed van detections. Judge Sean MacBride also warned the operators to have all documentation available on the day or he will dismiss the charges.
Judge MacBride’s actions come after last month’s RTÉ Primetime investigates programme, which heard from a whistleblower within the organisation who revealed motorists were wrongly fined, even after he had warned management he was unable to set up his detection equipment properly.
Judge MacBride has now moved to hear all local speed van detection cases, administered by the GoSafe company, on the same date, June 26.
On that date he said he expected the fixed penalty officer to have all proofs and witnesses associated with the case present. If not, he would dismiss the charges against the respective defendants.
“They must show a proper paper trail. Proper recordings, photographs, details and proofs, and show that the persons concerned were served with the notice and that they were given appropriate time to respond. “If their proofs are not in order I’ll dismiss,” the judge told Cavan District Court last week.

Adjourned
Local solicitors then sought to have clients’ cases in which GoSafe speed vans were involved, adjourned to June 26.
The GoSafe consortium secured the €80 million Garda Síochána contract to operate the network of speed camera vans in 2009, and the consortium’s most recent accounts, 2012, show operating profits of almost €50,000 a week.
The GoSafe cameras operate on sections of road which have a history of speed-related collisions and the areas where they are operating are available on the Garda website.
However, the company and the system in which notices are issued have come under severe scrutiny in courts across the country since the Primetime report which also focused on a number of internal emails and a second operator’s notebook, revealing there were ongoing issues with set-up of detection equipment in at least one GoSafe depot in 2012, which might have affected speed detections.