Motorists can flout law due to legal loopholes

MOTORISTS will be able to flout the road safety laws between now and Christmas because of major legal loopholes and lack of a proper camera and computerised system, it emerged yesterday.

The Comptroller and Auditor General's latest report reveals that motorists have a one in 14 chance of being caught by the speed cameras and successfully fined and prosecuted, said Fine Gael transport spokesman Denis Naughton.

"The report showed that motorists only have a one in two chance of being pursued by gardaí for breach of penalty points if their picture is taken by a road camera and their is only a one in seven chance that there is actually a camera in the box - this gives them a one in 14 chance of being caught," said Mr Naughton.

The report revealed that:

Almost half the 87,004 motorists caught speeding on cameras escaped prosecution as the cameras were faulty or dirty and could not read the licence plates.

Penalty points could not be imposed on 235 company cars as they could not be allocated to a specific driver unless the firm forwarded their names to gardaí.

Drivers who gave the wrong registration numbers could not be pursued by gardaí subsequently because of a loophole in the law.

A Transport Department spokeswoman confirmed yesterday they were looking at these legal loopholes and they would be rectified in the new Road Traffic Bill 2004 that will be published at the end of the year.

A contract for installing a nationwide camera system will then be put to tender and it is hoped they will be operational in the new year.

But Fine Gael claimed these legal anomalies were known to the department and should have been cut off in the Road Traffic Act passed earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Michael McDowell claimed yesterday that no one told him 18 months ago that there was a problem with the cameras. "I was unaware that there was such a high attrition rate - I did not know about this, but I am not a minister for transport," he told RTÉ.

If the gardaí asked for equipment they are given equipment, said Mr McDowell, adding that he was not satisfied about the fact that they were using defective equipment.

"It is unsatisfactory to me that so little value for money was being attained in relation to this activity and it points to the need for better approach to governance in relation to road transport," the minister added.

But National Safety Council (NSC) chairman Eddie Shaw defended the penalty points system introduced without prior investment. He said penalty points had saved lives.

The lowest level of deaths and serious injuries on the roads had been achieved since then, said Mr Shaw, adding that he was confident a new road safety budget will be brought in following the latest emergency summit to tackle the problem.

"We are going to see a level of enforcement in this country that will bring down the number of deaths to 20 a month," Mr Shaw added.