[Article] Motoring laws fly out the window (me ducks)

mike65

Is there a single road law which will stand up any scutiny?

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0616/wicklow.html

A Co Wicklow judge has thrown out a total of 238 speeding cases over doubts about the legality of a special speed limit on the N11.

Judge Murrough Connellan criticised the County Council for not being forthcoming with information about the issue and unnecessarily prolonging the case for a large number of defendants.

Judge Connellan said he was none the wiser today about the legality of a special 60km limit at Kilmacanogue.


He said a large number of people have had to give up a day's work on three occasions while a challenge was heard concerning the validity of the special speed limit adopted by the county council between April 2004 and November 2005.

Afterwards some of the people who had their summonses dismissed said they had been left with legal bills for several hundred euro.

Many complained that they had not been given the option of paying the fine and were instead summonsed to appear in court.

A garda spokesperson said gardaí had no power to lift fines or penalty points for those who have already had their cases dealt with and any appeal would be a matter for the courts.

But the spokesperson said anyone who did pay a fixed penalty and received penalty points through the post would have these sanctions lifted automatically.

and

from unison

IRELAND'S shambolic driving laws have been starkly exposed in a triple whammy blow affecting thousands of motorists.

Following a landmark court ruling, an EU intervention and a new drink-driving fiasco disclosure, it emerged that:

* Tens of thousands of learner drivers face being put off the road following an EU ruling which states that driving unaccompanied breaches European law.

* Hundreds of alleged drink drivers caught in a legal logjam for four years or more can look forward to having their cases thrown out of court.

* More than than 7,000 drink drivers are getting off scot-free every year.

And hundreds more cases are set to be thrown out because the Supreme Court is not scheduled to rule on a crucial intoxyliser test case for another six months.

Mike.

seamus

I saw that yesterday. Despite all the hot air coming from Leinster House, road traffic legislation has never been a serious issue. Everything was just brought out to "tide us over".

As all of us have been pointing out on these forums, our existing legislation is a leaking patchwork of laws which in some cases make little sense, and in other cases completely contradict eachother.

It's time that an entirely new road traffic bill was drafted which overrides all previous bills. If it takes five years to draft, no problem, but applying quick-fix bills every 2 years isn't going to fix our problems.

Chris_533976

* Tens of thousands of learner drivers face being put off the road following an EU ruling which states that driving unaccompanied breaches European law.

In the long term, I'm all for this. I would have noone driving until they've passed their test.

I realise tho, its impossible here. The entire system has to be overhauled with mandatory lessons and short test-queues. THEN ban learner drivers from driving.