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JUSTICE MINISTER FRANCES Fitzgerald has revealed how many drivers have been convicted of penalty point offences in court in 2013, 2014 and up to March in 2015.
Unsurprisingly, given the higher population and number of cars, the Dublin metropolitan district had the highest number of convictions: 6,286 in 2013, 6,224 in 2014 and 1,660 from January to March of this year.
Other areas with high rates of convictions so far this year include:
Here’s a full breakdown by District Court area:
Images: KildareStreet.com
Fitzgerald was replying to a parliamentary question asked by independent TD Tommy Broughan.
The figures include mandatory and non-mandatory court appearances. If a defendant appeared in court more than once in the year, they only appear once on the report.
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Not surprised Athlone is top of the list. The motorway breaks in Athlone for about 2km into a Dual Carriageway so the speed limit drops from 120kph to 100kph and they have speed vans conveniently parked just yards from where the limit drops for a very short distance. Complete scam and trap for motorists.
Athlone is top of the lost because it is in alphabetical order….
It’s also not surprising it’s at the top of the list as it is alphabetical
Eh, Dublin tops the list….
The point regarding the speed van is very concerning, surely space has to be given for the reduction in speed
Speed vans are run by a private company who moved themselves to the isle of man so we couldn’t see their income
Their ability to bring a prosecution to challenges has been criticised by judges – given that it wastes court time. That and the fact that they are obviously trying to nab people for the most irrelevant of infractions.
that section of the road is a complete joke.
M4 goes down from 120 to 80 at Lucan.
And there’s always a speed van around the corner.id say it makes a fortune
The law is be (maximum) at the sign posted speed as you pass the sign, do your speed reduction before hand.
and for people that don’t know the road dstaffx? what shall they do?
It would be great of they started handing them out for idiots sitting in the wrong lane on Motorways! Serious fish in a barrel speed gun between airport roundabout and M1 designed to snap tourists
Dublin is a real revenue earner for the Gard’s.Pity the crime detection rate are not comparable.
I got notice of a speeding fine about 18 months ago at the spot just south of Bunratty.
It’s fish in a barrel there. I was “clocked” at 107kph in a 100kph area And I know I wasn’t speeding.
I sent it back saying “let’s go to court”. I heard nothing back.
Many of the spots all down the west coast are “fish in a barrel” spots. I’m sure people think the same about many spots on the east coast too. There is NO DOUBT that a good chunk of this is about revenue generation.
None of this is t excuse speeding – I’m fine with controls but they are not placed in the right areas.
I spent a year travelling from Derry to Letterkenny twice a day – there’s a road that could do with a blitz of cops on it instead of donkeys pretending that it’s “for our safety” to be nabbing people on dual carriageways for barely being above the limit.
Agreed Tony!!! I got chased and nabbed like a scene from “Chips” except he was no Puncherello for doing 53 in a 50km zone!!!! Are they for real!!!
I know for a fact in the UK the police don’t sit around road junctions or stop people for discs at checkpoints because they’re otherwise occupied dealing with criminals!!! The police here need to actually work on other days besides match days in Croker!!!
Your completely incorrect.. have you never seen traffic cops tv show based in England? or top gear talking about all the speed cameras in the UK. most of their cameras are stationary over there though it
Like the speed camera that was there day in day out on the n11 going into the slip at stillorgan village! It’s there on and off some evenings now just!
Driving to road and weather conditions and driving in the correct lane and keeping your distance is just as important as not breaking the speed limit. For example doing 120 on a motorway when bucketing rain is looking for trouble. Also in the over talking lane doing 80kph is extremely dangerous when traffic is moving quickly. People need to learn how to use motorways as well. Sitting in the middle lane is breaking the rules of road if the inside lane is clear and you are not over taking.
Correct, it’s called “inappropiate” speeding. Been proven to be more dangerous than a few km/h over the speed limit. What are these experts in the RSA or the Gardai doing it?
If the driving standards were raised to an acceptable level the roads would definitely be a better place.
It’s not the roads I worry about its other drivers.
The aim of the Go Safe Vans are to be deterent. However on numerous occasions I have encountered them where they were well hidden. Also I take issue to Garda speed checks they are rarely visible example Garda hiding behind signs or bushes. Both Go Safe and Garda often frequently are found where the speed changes suddenly. You will also see them frequently where no accidents have occurred. The best deterent is high visibility and people will slow down. I am sure people will say don’t break the speed and nothing to worry about which is true but at the same time what the RSA show in there add campaign on TV is far different than the way this speed detection actually is on operation.
Go Safe vans trundle out of their depot and onto the nearest National Road eg every second day on the N11 opposite St John of God hospital at the bottom of a hill on a 60kmph dual Carriageway. Distance to depot 1.5km accidents at that spot 0
As if to prove my point the lazy b&sta&d is out on the N11 at this spot right now.
It’s a load of boIIocks that they’re in “accident blackspots”. They’re in the places that will generate the most revenue, like speed drops from 120 to 100 on the motorways, not the secondary and tertiary roads where people actually die due to speeding and careless driving.
More stealth tax.. Motorists in this country are propping up a sizeable amount of tax. Not condoning speed , but the hiding of speed vans and their locations are showing how much of a stealth tax this is. Why not have a more visible deterrent . Wouldn’t that have more of an effect on speeding? But it wouldn’t generate the huge steath tax as is.
No doubt they chose the cash cow approach, but are people honestly trivialising road safety? Drive safe, drive easy keep’r between the ditches.
speeding fines have nothing to do with safety … We have fairly safe roads here to improve further proper road markings on all roads would be far more effective in furthering safety than cash cow stance on minor speeding
We live in such a police and nanny state.
Spend a month driving in the U.S. and you’ll think Ireland is lawless.
Ireland I’d pretty lawless esp if your friendly with the rite people
Well the USA is definitely a police state with 1% of the population in prison.
I got caught doing 54 & 53 on the same day in kilkenny. That was not speeding. I refused to pay. Never heard anything after that.
Should have been doing 48/49 so… It’s like they don’t put signs around the place?
If you don’t have a digital dashboard, it’s very easy to let the speedometer arrow hover in or around 50kph. Sometimes that can be 48, sometimes 53.
No surprise there, Dublin, where the speed limit on some dual carriageways is 50km whereas outside of Dublin the speed limit on some narrow country roads is 100km. If you drive in some of these roads at 100km you’re gonna crash. Two speed limits, one for Dublin, one for everywhere else
are they still giving bonus points for the ones who are eliminating points for the elite
I installed a dash cam a couple of years ago every car should have one , you wouldn’t believe the stuff it’s recorded , very very handy if you think you have been wrongly caught .
Should have one front and rear, how many dopes have you seen nearly rear ending you in traffic(happy phone time). And have a third setup pointing at yourself all synced to prove you weren’t on your phone. Axa should do a holy trinity of camera based policy reductions
What type of dash cam did you buy. Would agree these cameras are money generating machines for government given their locations. More often than not are located around bends and straight after a speed limit restriction i.e. dropping from 100 to 50 km where its nigh on impossible to reduce speed to the required level. Banogue in Limerick is one example of this. Limited warning signs to reduce speed.
i have a cam that records front and rear plus inside car has sound and gps great bit of kit … After 5 years of footage it’s amazing that the good oul iris motorist still has surprises up their sleeves !!
Is cam footage accepted by insurance companies or Gardai or just a big waste of time.
Sometimes it is accepted and other times they will ignore it. I’ve been in court when the sec I showed footage it was thrown out and I’ve seen a judge look to her left and ignore the video as it made a shambles of the garda evidence. what ever the outcome your better off to have good evidence.
Just a little bit over the speed limit is still over the speed limit. Sort yourselves out lads, it’s this attitude of “ah sure we can bend the law a bit” that has our country in the state it is.
I agree that if we are going to shoot fish in a barrel we should do it right, but don’t come here crying about getting caught and subsequent points/fines.
What’s the breaking distance on your car doing 100 kph on a secondary road? Now what’s the breaking distance on that same road when it’s wet? Now what’s your reaction time for pushing the break pedal? Now what Lateral G force will your tyres lose traction on that secondary road? If you have the answers for those questions then yeah, sure, you know your stuff. Otherwise just accept your no where near a good a driver as you’ve convinced yourself you are. FFS…
I know enough to know that your post is rabble and waffle …. but embarrassing dressed up to pretend your smarter than a 10 year old.
What are your views on parking safely 100 yards either side of the go safe vans and / or garda speed check points with a big banner stating “speed check ahead please slow down”, would that be helping the whole process of saving lives, I know that the cash collectors would be steamy pissed off
An interesting and relevant quote:
“Measure what’s important, don’t make important what you can measure” – US Defence Secretary Robert McNamara, when informed that the US Army were using the number of buildings bombed as a metric of success in the Vietnam war.
Despite what the Gardai, the RSA and GoSafe will tell you, remember that:
“You can’t measure safe driving in kilometres per hour”.
Was this speed cams and points for safety and help bring down the price of insurance and I see it the cost of insurance has increased
Most of recent experiences of getting penalty points With Gatso Vans I would describe as ‘cynical’.
Kicking myself with recent 3 points because unaware the vans can see in both directions – not just traffic coming at them. Recent Increase to 3 points for ‘speed’ has effectively increased the likelihood of getting to critical 12 points by 50%. (i.e. From 6×2 points to 4×3 points).
Agree, 3 points is too much for first time. Perhaps it should be 2 points if you do not have points on your licence, 3 points for the 2nd and 3rd offence and 4 points for the 4th.
Didn’t know that that’s how the ffrs did me for 53 bstrds
Figures for 2015 are trending very high in some areas compared to previous years.
Conviction rate for motorists is the highest of any other crime. It is also the most profitable of any other crime.
The conviction rate for motorists is the highest of any other crime. It is also the most profitable of any other crime.
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