Almost 90 of speed van cases in 5060 zones

Seamus Enright

Almost 90% of all Fixed Charge Penalty notices issued as a result of detections by speed camera vans in County Cavan over a three-year-period between November, 2010 and February, 2014 were within 50 and 60kmph speed zones, new figures show.
The revelation comes just a week after local district court judge Sean MacBride dismissed 17 ‘Go Safe’ cases at Monaghan District Court and struck out 60 in Cavan District Court the following day - deeming the summonses flawed. Sitting in Virginia District Court on Tuesday of last week and Cavan District Court on the Thursday, he struck out a further 22 and nine summonses respectively (see page 4). That makes 108 cases thrown out in courts in counties Cavan and Monaghan in just two weeks of sittings.
In his rulings, Judge MacBride slammed the current process in relation to detections by private company Go Safe, as “inherently flawed”, adding there were “defects” also in the serving of such summonses.
Since the operation of speed detection was first outsourced to ‘Go Safe’ five years ago, on behalf of An Garda Síochána, the subject has been a controversial one.
The judge was scathing in his criticism of such detections, stating that they often operated just inside or outside of low-speed zones, places where detecting such offences was like fishing in a “goldfish bowl”.
Now new figures, which include both Go-Safe safety camera detections and detections by An Garda Síochána camera vans, show just how prevalent the authorities are in targeting areas with low speed limits, with more than 50% (6,697) of the total number (13,018) caught in County Cavan in areas of 50kmph and under.
A further one third (4,855) of motorists caught speeding within that same three-year-period were found above the limit in 60kmph zones, with the remainder (1,466) found speeding in areas of 100kmph.
By comparison, in neighbouring Monaghan, again the majority of detections, almost 70% (6594) within 50/60kmph zones, with 2,689 caught above the 100kmph limit.
In Leitrim, over 98% of detections (12,043) were within 50/60kmph zones, 51% (4105) in Longford, and almost 65% (6584) in Meath.
A total of €18.9m has been received in payments nationally in respect of Fixed Charge Notices issued as a result of detections by Go Safe safety cameras between November 2010 to the end of June 2014.
This income, the State says, is retained and off set against the cost of operating the safety camera contract; while from February 2011 to date, 6,911 fines totalling €1,259,288 have been imposed by the Courts in respect of Go Safe safety camera van detections.
Some 1,184 fines totalling €286,060 though are now overdue by more than three months as of December 9 last.
More than 1,300 speeding cases have been dismissed in district and circuit courts in the past five years, according to figures from the Department of Justice, and that figure is set to increase given recent local court developments.
The matter of speed detection summonses was raised in the Dáil last week, with one Oireachtas member stating that, in the interest of ensuring safety on the country’s roads, the current issues need to be addressed as a matter of urgency.