Penalty points fiasco - Road safety system fails to deliver

THE penalty points system is a shambles. That’s the only conclusion to be drawn from an analysis carried out by the Public Accounts Committee which found that nearly half the photographs taken by garda speed cameras last year were useless.

To make matters worse, the report reaches the damning conclusion that the system has been hamstrung by administrative inefficiency.

Launched in a blaze of publicity four years ago, the scheme had the desired effect initially. Its impact on the death toll from speeding and drink driving was such that in the first year alone around 100 lives were estimated to be saved.

Since then, however, the system has fallen into disrepute thanks mainly to a combination of political foot-dragging and administrative bungling. Tragically, the carnage continues on roads where tens of thousands of motorists are driving without being fully licensed or adequately trained.

Issued yesterday by one of the most effective Dáil committees, the PAC findings are mind boggling. An integral part of its in-depth scrutiny of the Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform, they expose the many failures of the penalty points system.

Alarmingly, the report found that just under half of some 100,000 photos taken by fixed cameras were defective. Obviously, little has improved since a similar survey found that half the images taken from garda cameras and videos between October 2002 and December 2003 were ‘spoiled’ and could not be used against motorists. Last year 46% of photos were spoiled compared with 43% in 2004.

Underlining the shambolic image of the system, the current study found that while over 50% of drivers paid up on-the-spot fines, only one out of seven who did not pay a fine were pursued successfully through the courts. Clearly, the message is that not paying pays.

Further compounding the problem, the speed cameras used by gardaí are out of date. In other European states traffic police have advanced to digital cameras but analogue equipment is still in use here. Comparatively speaking, the gardaí are using Stone Age apparatus.

Nor does the political handling of the penalty points system inspire confidence as responsibility lies with Environment Minister Martin Cullen who made such a hames of the Coalition’s botched bid to introduce electronic voting.

More than 7,500 defunct machines are now stored in warehouses up and down the country at considerable expense to the hapless taxpayer. A monument to government bungling, they will not be used in next year’s general election and will be out dated when voters go to the polls next time around.

The PAC report could not be more timely as the Road Traffic Bill 2006, which provides for more speed cameras and extends the penalty points system, is now being debated in the Dáil.

Dealing a further blow to the penalty points system, question marks are hanging over the legality of many special speed limits around the country.

As a result, penalty points have been removed from the licenses of 823 drivers who opted to pay a fine rather than go to court. But according to Fine Gael many other drivers may be unaware they have been incorrectly awarded penalty points.

With 31 new penalty points added to the list this year, and more yet to come, it is questionable if computer and other equipment used by gardaí is capable of dealing in a streamlined manner with such a proliferation of driving offences.

Unfortunately, the scope for clever lawyers to exploit further loopholes is all too apparent in a system which has promised much but has so far failed to deliver on its potential to save more lives.