Thousands of motorists escape speeding fines

THOUSANDS of motorists have been wrongly fined and given penalty points for speeding, it emerged last night.

Gardaí confirmed they are “looking into the situation as a matter of urgency” after a number of speeding cases were thrown out by a district court judge who said he could see no legislation in place to convict motorists.

Solicitor Jerry Healy said he had studied legislation for speed limits on the former main road between Fermoy and Watergrasshill, in Co Cork, and found that in 2006 the then minister for transport, Martin Cullen, had signed an order placing a 100km/h limit on the road.

Following the opening of the tolled Fermoy bypass, Cork County Council reduced the speed limit on the old road between Fermoy and Watergrasshill to 80km/h.

The council claimed that a motorway order, signed by Mr Cullen, meant the old road reverted to “regional road status” when the Fermoy bypass was opened, and thus its speed limit had to be reduced from 100km/h to 80km/h.

Mr Healy and colleagues repeatedly asked the Department of Transport if the motorway order had overridden Mr Cullen’s previous order, but got no reply.

The solicitor told Judge Michael Pattwell at a sitting of Fermoy District Court that there was no legislation in place to fine anybody driving over 80km/h and under 100km/h on the road.

“The judge agreed with our submission and dismissed the case against our client. There were others who knew we were making the submission whose summonses were dismissed by him as well,” said Mr Healy.

“Anyone who travels that road every day would say there are regular speed checks in certain sections. The seriousness is that if our client was convicted it would have resulted in four penalty points. This has huge implications,” the solicitor added.

The Department of Transport said last night it was up to Cork County Council to adhere to its legislation, which stated the road should have a 100km/h limit.

Ironically, when the local authority reduced the speed limit there was an outcry from county councillors.

The councillors decided in principle that they should raise it back to 100km/h. They approached the gardaí who said they had no objection to it.

“We would not object to it being 100km/h, but because it was reduced to 80km/h we had no choice but to enforce that speed limit,” said a Garda spokesman.

It is expected the county council will formally discuss raising the speed limit in the next few weeks.