[Article] Private firm to operate State's speed cameras

Victor

120,000 speeding tickets since October ... only 27,000 people got penalty points. Can anyone explain this?

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/865468?view=Eircomnet

Private firm to operate State's speed cameras
From:ireland.com
Wednesday, 11th June, 2003

The number of speed cameras is to be increased as part of the Government's drive to reduce road fatalities, the Minister for Transport confirmed today.

Mr Seamus Brennan said he will be "contracting out" the plan and it is expected that a private company will be given responsibility for operating fixed speed-cameras around the State.

Mr Brennan said he had reached agreement on increasing the use of speed cameras with the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.

The Minister was speaking at the launch of the National Safety Council's new ad campaign featuring penalty points, which will be aired on terrestrial television channels tonight.

Whatever the criticisms of the penalty points scheme, "the fact was that 23 per cent fewer people killed in the first six months of this year compared with the corresponding period the previous year," Mr Brennan said. More than 27,000 motorists have already received penalty points, he added.

But the Minister warned against complacency, noting that an insurance company report suggested drivers were starting to speed up again. "This is a day in, day out, month in, month out, battle [to reduce speeding]".

He confirmed that from July, non-wearing of seatbelts will be included in the list of offences punishable under the penalty points scheme.

The outgoing Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, said penalty points was designed to deal with driver offences which had resulted in 4,271 people being killed on the roads in the ten years to 2002.

"The message contained within this TV campaign will be reinforced, I can assure you, through visible garda enforcement."

"Drivers must be deterred from committing offences . . . . driver behaviour must be modified by making drivers fearful of the consequences of committing offences," Mr Byrne said. He said more than 15,000 speeding tickets were being issued each month.

Victor

I wonder if this story is related - is there an agenda at work? [/paranoid]

Falling garda numbers to hit crime crackdown
From:The Irish Independent
Thursday, 12th June, 2003
Tom Brady Security Editor

GOVERNMENT plans to increase the strength of the Garda force are being scuppered by a high rate of retirements - spelling disaster for its policy for a tough crackdown on crime.

Financial cutbacks have already set back initial proposals to boost the size of the force to 14,000 over the lifetime of the government. But more modest plans to increase the strength to 12,200 - from its current 11,767 - by the end of next year now also look in jeopardy.

And without the additional personnel and a supplementary overtime budget this year, the garda authorities will be under severe pressure to implement a blueprint to clamp down on crime through tougher legislation.

New figures given by Justice Minister Michael McDowell to Fine Gael justice spokesman John Deasy show that 390 garda retired last year. In the first 5 months of this year a further 212 retired, indicating a year-end total for 2003 of 510.

Statistics obtained by the Irish Independent show that when medical discharges, dismissals and resignations are taken into account, the numbers leaving amounted to 407 last year and 240 so far this year.

If this trend continues, it will mean that a staggering 600 gardai will depart this year, or 42 less than the number of trainees anticipated to have been taken into the Garda College in Templemore.

The Templemore figure is in line with the maximum training capacity of the college. But figures show that last year the number of gardai who graduated was only 485 with another 239 graduating this year.

Mr McDowell has so far been fighting a losing battle at the Cabinet table to secure additional cash to fund the training of more personnel. However, Mr Deasy said last night that the latest figures showed that the government's projections on numbers were nonsense.

"You can't significantly increase the size of the force without putting in a massive capital injection and that has been ruled out by Government.

"The numbers leaving this year and last year are very worrying and an analysis shows that even the higher ranks are being badly hit with 17 superintendents and 6 chiefs retiring in 2002."

Mr Deasy said the shortage of resources and ensuing pressures had led to low morale in the force. He said the Government had been forced to abandon plans for a national traffic corps due to personnel issues and he said there is no point in them prioritising legislation to tackle problems like public order offences when the personnel will not be available to enforce it.

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/869835?view=Eircomnet

Speed cameras to be extended around the State
From:ireland.com
Thursday, 12th June, 2003

Garda speed cameras are to be extended across the State by the end of the summer, under an agreement between the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, and the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan.

The two Ministers, who have already agreed a new pilot traffic corps for Dublin City, will now seek a private sector partner to install and run between 50 and 60 new fixed speed cameras, largely at "blackspot" locations across the State.

The move was announced by Mr Brennan at the launch of a new National Safety Council advertisement campaign in relation to the penalty points yesterday.

The new campaign, entitled "Get the Point not the Points", comes as the number of road deaths is starting to climb again, following a sharp reduction in the months after the introduction of the penalty points system last October.

The chief executive of the Irish Insurance Federation, Mr Mike Kemp, said drivers' fears of incurring points would "wear off" unless they were not "seen to be backed up by countrywide, high-intensity enforcement action".

Mr Brennan said he was determined the penalty points system would work and be seen to work. "There have been 27,000 penalty points notices issued," he said, adding that road deaths were down by about 23 per cent, "a saving of 68 lives".

Currently only three of the State's complement of about 20 roadside fixed cameras are working at any one time, and film is rotated between cameras.

Yesterday, however, Mr Brennan warned that "people who are detected speeding will get penalty points and will face difficulties with their driving licence and insurance".

While some details of the extended scheme were yet to be teased out, Mr Brennan said "whatever glitches there are, they will be worked out. It will be a constant battle. We cannot just say it is going to work because we brought it in: we will work at it day in and day out."

Issues remaining to be resolved included the payment for the private sector partner, the location of the cameras and the prosecution of offenders. Mr Brennan said it was the intention that the scheme would be a deterrent rather than a revenue-gathering service. Therefore cameras would be at blackspots rather than heavily trafficked dual carriageways where detection was easy. This would raise issues of how to incentivise the private sector operator, but he was confident these could be worked out.

Prosecutions would continue to be taken by gardaí and this also raised issues in relation to the gathering of evidence, but again Mr Brennan said these could be worked out.

The chairman of the National Safety Council, Mr Eddie Shaw, said drivers should weigh up the risk of being caught; should consider the consequences for their licence and insurance; and should consider the consequences for themselves and others.

Victor

This numbers get stranger and stranger. 630 gardaí issued one speeding ticket per day each and handed out penalty points once a week.

Originally posted by Victor
120,000 speeding tickets since October ... only 27,000 people got penalty points. Can anyone explain this?

http://www.finegael.ie/breaking_news/June/170603a.htm

Date: Tuesday 17th June 2003 Time: 19:05

From: Denis Naughten TD, spokesperson for Transport

Issued by: Fine Gael National Press Office, Leinster House, Dublin 2. Tel: 01- 618 3379

Contact: Nick Miller 01 6183379/086 6992080

Only 125 Traffic Gardaí police Ireland's roads - Naughten


€1 in Garda enforcement = €8 saved on road accidents

Fine Gael transport spokesperson Denis Naughten TD has today (Tuesday) condemned the revelation that only 125 members of the Garda Traffic Unit are on duty at any time throughout the country, and called on the Government to resource the Gardai properly.

"The Garda Traffic Unit is the only unit dedicated full time to enforcing road traffic legislation. But at this afternoon's Oireachtas Transport Committee it was revealed that only 125 members of the Garda Traffic Unit are on duty at any time throughout the country.

"This number of Gardai cannot possibly be expected to enforce the penalty points system and it makes a mockery of the Government's new penalty points advertising campaign.

"The number of Traffic Unit Gardai on duty falls further when administration and leave periods are taken into account. Gardai have also warned that the penalty points system is about to collapse due to a lack of resources and bureaucracy, while the computerised penalty points system will not be available for a further 12 months.

"So I have to condemn Transport Minister Seamus Brennan for all his double-talk on road safety, and the successful implementation of the new penalty points system is in serious doubt.

"Research in other countries has shown clearly that the level of enforcement has to be increased for the penalty points system to have any long term impact on driver attitudes and accident statistics. But there is anecdotal evidence that drivers are already beginning to increase their speeds in the belief that they won't be caught.

"Unless the Government increases Garda resources to properly enforce the penalty points system, any impact from its introduction will be lost within a few short months. The level of carnage will increase while the possibility of reduced insurance premiums will diminish unless the Government puts more funds into enforcement.

"A Government report has pointed out that for every €1 spent on road safety and enforcement, €8 will be saved in terms of road accidents. Yet this administration is not prepared to fund its own speeding and drink driving campaigns."