District court judge slams speed vans after taxi driver caught five times in 70 minutes

A district court judge has slammed the operators of a speed camera, after a taxi driver was detected driving over the speed limit on five separate occasions in the same spot in the space of 70 minutes.

Orhan Yilmaz, from 16B Avondale Rd, Highfield Park, was going to and from the city centre, dropping off fares and driving back into town to collect more on the night he was detected.

At Galway District Court Judge Mary Fahy said that the issuing of five speeding summonses in these circumstances was “totally disproportionate” and was “bringing the entire speed detection system into disrepute”.

A speed van, parked on the R338 at Wellpark, on the city’s Dublin Rd, which is a 50 km/h speed zone, detected Yilmaz’s taxi driving at 77km/h, 62km/h, 73km/h, 64km/h. and 77km/h between 1.42am and 2.56am on August 31, last year.

The court heard the detections were automatically uploaded onto the central system and the five fixed-charge penalty notices were never paid.

Defence solicitor Sean Acton said there was no road sign at the location where the van was parked to warn motorists of its presence.

“Is it not the purpose of these vans to deter people from speeding?,” he asked the prosecuting officer who operated the speed detection van that night.

Mr Acton pointed out the court had heard no evidence that fixed-charge penalty notices had issued to his client. He said that evidence was required to be given by the State.

Judge Fahy said she felt the issuing of five summonses to someone for the one location in such a short space of time was totally disproportionate and bringing the system into disrepute.

She said if someone was detected once the court would deal with that, but if someone continued on in a dangerous manner, then that would be a matter for the gardaí.

“This is not a road safety issue,” she pointed out.

“My client was dropping people on and off. The van didn’t move,” Mr Acton explained. He said Yilmaz had been driving a taxi for 11 years.

The judge declared: “It’s unfair that one person would get so many detections at one location in just over one hour, if I convict the man of all five offences I would be rendering him unemployed, because all of the penalty points that would follow, and he would then be a burden on the State.”

Mr Acton said: “You have hit the nail on the head there Judge. We’re talking about 25 penalty points here.

“Surely, the function of the Gatso vans is to act as a deterrent and the road signs are there to forewarn the public. The State’s function is not to catch people, but to warn people not to speed.

She decided to convict the taxi driver on the first and last summons while striking out the three in between.

“He’s on a ‘sticky wicket’ and he needs to be more careful and slow down a little bit,” Judge Fahy said before fining Yilmaz €120 on each of those two summonses.