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JUSTICE MINISTER ALAN Shatter has said his Department is looking into claims detailed on tonight’s Prime Time that motorists were wrongly fined for speeding offences.
The RTÉ programme featured testimony from a whistleblower who worked at a company contracted to carry out speed-checks on behalf of the gardaí.
The former GoSafe employee explained how he was told by management to capture images of passing drivers, after setting up his roadside equipment on 13 May 2012 — even though he told them over the phone that conditions meant he wasn’t able to set up properly, and therefore readings wouldn’t be accurate.
He said he was told twice by managers that the images he captured wouldn’t be processed.
However, court proceedings still went ahead for some drivers. The programme team established that five motorists logged on the day in question had had penalty points imposed.
They were told by Gardaí that the points weren’t erased or points reversed “because the setup issue would have resulted in a maximum deviation of 2 km/h, and the detected speeds, taking into account this deviation, were above the limit”.
However, the whistleblower told the programme team there was no way of knowing just what effect his equipment problems would have had, as he was unable to say just how far off-angle his radar camera had been on the day.
Other vehicles
The whistleblower also said he logged around another 30 vehicles thought to be over the limit on the same day.
Those drivers did not receive fixed charge notices. The statement to the programme from Gardaí said this could happen for a variety of reasons “for example, the registration plate may not be readable, or the vehicle may be registered in another jurisdiction”.
Other GoSafe workers in the same depot as the whistleblower featured had also raised concerns about speed-camera equipment in recent years.
Court cases
In recent weeks District Court Judge Patrick Durcan has heavily criticised the handling of GoSafe prosecutions in his court, saying they were “badly and appallingly” put together.
“One after one, their prosecutions seem to fall for one bad reason after another,’ he told Kilrush District Court. Judge Mary Devins has also struck out or adjourned cases which rely on GoSafe operators for prosecutions.
Sinn Fein and Independent TDs raised the matter in parliamentary questions to Minister Shatter in January, February and June of last year — after which the Minister responded that An Garda Siochána was satisfied with the service provided by GoSafe.
Following further parliamentary questions from Fianna Fáil’s Niall Collins in July and November of last year, Shatter said he had asked the Garda Commissioner for a report into the allegations.
According to a statement to Prime Time from the Department of Justice:
Following examination of the report, further information was sought to enable the Minister to respond fully to Deputy Collins.In addition at the request of the Minister further information from An Garda Síochána was sought in relation to certain media reports arising from court proceedings.
These matters continue to be pursued with the new Garda Commissioner.
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More sinister revelations … Who owns GoSafe?
That is the first question that we need answered.
Xavier Mc Caullife, big Ff supporter and party donor??
But he won the contract from Bertie in a fair and open competition ?
This is honest Ireland.
Classic … Millionaires get richer.
At least it wasn’t Denis O Brien.
I’d love to know too if guards have quotas to keep. They only seem to appear with cameras at the end or start of the month.
Pet pieve of mine is the n11, 60km speed limit on a road that naturally takes at least 70/80, like shooting in fish in a barrel. I’ve no respect for the speed cameras, mostly a money making exercise.
No respect for life saving efforts.
Where on the N11?
Wexford to Dublin road
Arklow by pass, beehive and ballemesda bends
Exactly, so where ON the N11?
@polar, the part I’m talking about is between stillorgan and UCD. 3 lane dual carriageway. If you try 60km/hr, you’d nearly cause an accident, it’s an unnatural speed.
@Ross, I’m anti revenue making. Cameras should be in rural areas catching the boy racers who always appear in the news following mostly fatal crashes. That doesn’t happen in the areas that the cameras mostly are in Dublin.
Cool
they were out tonight on the N4 by lucan turn off. always on that stretch around start /end of month,
No respect for motorists
Like to know has there been any motorists who have been ‘illegally’ banned off the road and possibly lost their job because of this GoSafe corrupt management. I’d also like Mr Road Safety himself to read out the true figures for penalty points received my motorists for the last few months. And an apology for the victims of this scam.
@johnny between stillorgan and UCD is a 2 lane dual carrageway and reason why it is 60km speed limit is that there are major junctions and lights that connect schools and housing estates. You only have to go back 6 months when a 16 year old girl was killed at stillorgan crossing road. At Rte junction major crashes every 2 months. Many accidents along that road due to drivers rushing throught lights and hitting 80km before passing kill church. So very bad example
@barney I’m from and work in the area, listen to the radio in work and no there are not major crashes every two months.
It is 3 lane the majority of the time (7pm/7am+sun)
That poor girl stepped out in front of on coming traffic. Speed was not blamed. They even put railings up around that bus stop.
Ross road deaths are up so they don’t work to save life’s
It’s about saving lives not life’s
@johnny if you pass the area 8-10am, 1-2pm or 4-6pm you will see accidents whether on radio or not. Speed is a factor in everything. If people go 80km through amber lights, drivers have less time to cross or turn off dual carrage way and a rush mentality is created. If no speed involved the girl would of survived stepping onto outcoming traffic. Car may of been under speed limit but sacrificed expecting the unexpected for rush mentality. Who knows may of had car driving up there hole wanting to do 80km forcing the issue. Count the lights, junctions, schools, pedestrian traffic in area. the road is not suitable for 80km per hour.
@Barney, I know you’re associating speed with breaking lights but tho they can be related, they are different offences. I’m talking solely about speed. (Amber means slow down not speed up)
My family home is beside rte. I know the area very well, I saw only one crash at ucd ever. Crashes are not as common as you’re making out, I’ve had this conversation with family and neighbours, crashes are very rare.
It is also unfair to blame the driver who hit the girl, if speed wasn’t to blame.
70km/hr is a nice comfortable speed for that stretch.
Excessive speed is only responsible for between 5% and 10% of all speed related crashes.
Well, there’s no chance of Shatter breaking the speed limit as he heads for the door, thats for sure
My daughter got a summons a few weeks ago for driving at 59kph in a 60kph zone. The guards told her to ignore it. I told her to hang on to it for at least 5 years just in case.
Rebekah. If you said that a few weeks ago you would have received almost all red thumbs.
What next ?
Man who’s spends life in jail really innocent according to whistle blowing judge!!
The more things are investigated in this country the more incompetence and corruption is exposed.
We badly need a root and branch cleanout
Well shatter said the garda are happy with the system,so it must be ok???
Get an EU member state driving licence, problem solved.
Damn! Wish I had penalty points to appeal
Bye bye “gosafe:.
Hopefully we can get evidence on the clamping companies too.
Now, we need as a nation to destroy gosafe.
I wonder how much the go safe contract is worth per year and how much revenue they ‘generate’ for the state. I’d say the state make a big loss on it. They park in the same spots all the time and it’s not like you can miss their vans so they can’t be catching enough people to justify their financial existence?? At least a Gaurd might give you a break if you not too much over.
Now maybe you red thumbs may believe me and the commenters who said a few months back that some motorists were receiving penalty points for going a few kmh over the limit.
Trapster and the Garda Checkpoint twitter page can let you know when the Go Safe (steal a few euro) vans are out and where they are.
having private companies running something like this (and also clamping) you will always have corrption and no accountability. They have their profits to think about and will do anything to make sure they get them. im pretty sure this thing happens a lot
Fair play to go safe driver coming out to say it . That wasn’t easy to do.
I worked there. Driver safety is a massive issue but never addressed.
Nightmare
Another day
Another scandal
What will we learn tomorrow?
This is a great little country if you do not pay attention to detail.
I thought the whole idea of speed cameras are to get drivers to slow down and stick to the limit. Having vans that randomly appear anywhere seems a pointless money making exercise. In the uk they have permanent cameras that May or may not have film in it (they can change it as they please). This makes drivers on dangerous roads slow down, you know where the camera is. Use the vans in areas where it’s not as big of a problem.
It’s a safety programme not a revenue programme mr shatter!!
This is typical irish shit. They introduce legislation that doubles your ponts if you lose in court so most people take the points due to this fear rather that the Gardai proving their case beyond a reasonable doubt. Lazy shortcuts that require the trust of an inherently corrupt police system.
have your say