Fixed charge & points today!

seanin4711

got pulled over in galway after briarhill junction .
garda stated that i "broke red light" at rush hour in galway.
I did not rush to go through and make the light.
I was about 12 cars back(more than adequate) and followed the traffic.
I think the garda in question was going to give somebody somewhere points at that time and it happened to be me.
I am genuinely upset at this as I did not intentionally break the law.
If light was red i would not have went through simple as that.

DO I have any recourse?
There are cameras at that junction and the Galway traffic management unit could be contacted.
I have informed the fixed charge people that i will be appealing the points straight away as I do not feel i am guilty of the offense.

anyone any advice?
thanks

sunnysoutheast

seanin4711 wrote: »

got pulled over in galway after briarhill junction .
garda stated that i "broke red light" at rush hour in galway.
I did not rush to go through and make the light.
I was about 12 cars back(more than adequate) and followed the traffic.
I think the garda in question was going to give somebody somewhere points at that time and it happened to be me.
I am genuinely upset at this as I did not intentionally break the law.
If light was red i would not have went through simple as that.

DO I have any recourse?
There are cameras at that junction and the Galway traffic management unit could be contacted.
I have informed the fixed charge people that i will be appealing the points straight away as I do not feel i am guilty of the offense.

anyone any advice?
thanks

If you have received the FCN then as far as I am aware the only options are to accept it and pay within 28/56 days or ignore it and let them summons you to court where you can make your case.

mordeith

I'm not clear here. Did you actually break a red light?

Fuzzy Clam

You either broke the light or not. There's no "feeling" about it.
If you are certain that you didn't, then refuse to pay.

seanin4711

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

You either broke the light or not. There's no "feeling" about it.
If you are certain that you didn't, then refuse to pay.

ok i am not guilty of offence!

sunnysoutheast

seanin4711 wrote: »

ok i am not guilty of offence!

In that case I guess your challenge will be in proving that!

Have you received the notice yet?

seanin4711

sunnysoutheast wrote: »

In that case I guess your challenge will be in proving that!

Have you received the notice yet?

no,just got pulled over this afternoon.

cnoc

seanin4711 wrote: »

ok i am not guilty of offence!

Did you break a red light - Yes or No?

Squidgy Black

Hardly got pulled over for nothing, sounds like you tried to chance your arm by going through the light and you're just not happy you got caught.

slimjimmc

seanin4711 wrote: »

ok i am not guilty of offence!

Did you go through an amber?
An amber light is essentially the same as a red, the only difference being you can only go through on amber if it's not possible to stop safely.

seanin4711 wrote: »

I was about 12 cars back(more than adequate) and followed the traffic.

Were you 'following the leader' or were you paying attention to and obeying the lights?

ironclaw

Did you admit to the offence at the road side or even allude to it in what you said? Because if you did, case closed. Not being pedantic, but if you want any chance of recourse, you'd want to be damn sure you didn't admit to it on the roadside. 'I have no idea why you stopped me, Garda' is the best and only response you should ever give to a Garda. Its up to them to provide evidence of an offence. By admitting it, you're effectively pleading guilty.

But to answer the question, unless you or somewhere in the region has a DVR or CCTV covering the junction (Shop, Pub, Hotel etc at the junction) then No, you will not win because it boils down to your word against theirs, and a Garda will have significantly more weight in court, even more if there was two of them at the scene.

Supergurrier

Have you considered contacting your local counsellor OP ?

Terrible carry on altogether.

visual

Your word against garda word in court isn't hard to predict what way that will go.

Calahonda52

[QUOTE=ironclaw;96576341.... you will not win because it boils down to your word against theirs, and a Garda will have significantly more weight in court, even more if there was two of them at the scene.[/QUOTE]

I had a similar thing in 1980 and the now Supreme court judge Adrian Hardiman, was my lawyer: he told me the system won't work if the judge does not take the gardas word. case closed. I got endorsed licence etc
You are done

Tigger

Calahonda52 wrote: »

I had a similar thing in 1980 and the now Supreme court judge Adrian Hardiman, was my lawyer: he told me the system won't work if the judge does not take the gardas word. case closed. I got endorsed licence etc
You are done

cool