75% drop in speeding fines proves its points

THERE has been a 75% reduction in the number of speeding fines issued since the penalty points system was introduced just three weeks ago, according to garda figures.

The National Safety Council says that the system is working well.

"Our reports back from the gardaí say speeding has dropped by 75% already," a spokesman said. Drivers are happy with the system and there is less pressure to drive fast, he said.

Dublin Central Traffic Division spokesman Inspector Eddie Murphy said there had been a marked improvement in driving.

"I have noticed a decrease in the number of tickets issued. Anything that helps to improve driver behaviour is a good thing," he said.

In Cork city, gardaí have reported a drop of up to 80% in speeding. City Divisional Traffic Corps head Inspector Peter Callanan said that before penalty points the local traffic corps was detecting up to 140 speeding offences a week, but this month the number of offences have averaged just over 80 per week.

In the south-east, speeding fines will fall from 40,000 last year to just 10,000 in 2003, if the trend continues.

Drivers have heeded the warnings and have definitely slowed down, said Inspector Mick Melia, head of the traffic division in Kilkenny.

The head of the Limerick Garda Traffic Division, Inspector Seamus Gallagher, yesterday reported a 40% reduction in the number of speeding offences in Limerick city and county since the introduction of the system.

And road deaths look set to be halved this month, compared to last year. So far this month, 17 people have been killed on the roads, compared to 40 deaths in November 2001.

Transport Minister Seamus Brennan, who introduced the system on October 31, said that all the evidence showed that drivers had genuinely slowed down.

"The whole emphasis was to change drivers' behaviour rather than to set out to penalise people and that appears to be the effect so far," the Minister's spokesman said.

Meanwhile, one of the country's leading car insurance companies warned yesterday that premiums will start to increase once a driver clocks up six penalty points.

Hibernian Insurance said it will not punish drivers who have received four penalty points the equivalent of two speeding fines. But head of marketing, Ciaran Mahon, said drivers who have incurred six points or more will have their premiums loaded.

"The severity of this has not yet been decided, but it will depend on the figure the driver has exceeded the speeding limit by," he said.

AXA Insurance, the company's largest motor insurance company, has no plans yet to increase premiums for drivers with penalty points.