Speeding fine chaos in court

A MYRIAD OF ERRORS SEES DOZENS OF SPEEDING FINE SUMMONSES DISMISSED

FEWER than 20 of the 83 speeding matters dealt with at Killarney District Court last week resulted in conviction after the judge was forced to dismiss the matter for reasons varying from spelling errors and non-receipt of the notices to the drivers being accused of going faster than a jet or event the possibility of a ghost driving a vehicle!

While a small number of cases were adjourned, a bench warrant was also issued for a Waterford man who was not in court and is alleged to have broken the 60 km speed limit at Faha East three times, including twice in one week in September 2009.

A number of people before the court said they had not received the speeding notices , which are issued by ordinary post from Thurles, and knew nothing until the Garda summons arrived by registered post.

Several said they had tried to contact the office in Thurles but had their payments returned because they were out of time, other reasons.

The driver of a black Landrover was accused of exceeding the speed limit of “802 km” at Killaha , Glenflesk Killarney (an 80 km zone) on September 27 last.

This was struck out after solicitor Eoin Brosnan drew attention to the error on the summons, prompting Judge James O’Connor to remark: “This is the speed of a jet engine!”

Basic misspellings of names, and addresses were other reasons for a strike out.

There were technical issues too: A speeding summons was withdrawn against a man alleged to have broken the 80km speed limit at Killaha “on a date unknown” on June 21 last.

Solicitor Dan O’Connor drew the judge’s attention to a second error on the summons “in the District Court Area of Kenmare”

A temporary postman was on duty in the case of another dismissal where a a woman was accused of driving at a speed of 83 km in the 60km zone on the R563 at Faha.

She had not received the unregistered fixed penalty notice and it may be because a temporary postman was on duty, Mr O’Connor said.

Others said they were at sea or out of the country and did not have an opportunity to pay; while in a number of cases the person summonsed was not driving the car.

The owner of an electrical company who was accused of speeding in the 60km zone at Faha East on the night of October 20 told the court he had not been driving and none of his four employees knew who had been driving and could not remember.

“Was there a ghost behind the wheel so?” Judge O’Connor asked before striking out the summons.

Meanwhile, the driver of a county council van alleged to have broken the speed limit three times in six days at Faha East between January 6 and 12 last, said the council were fixing a water leak and he was one of three drivers of the van but could not be sure on which day he was driving.

Judge O’Connor struck out all three summonses.

Photo by Michelle Cooper Galvin Faha East, where a speed camera van is regularly located, was the subject of much criticism at Killarney District Court last week – where it emerged that 68 of the 83 speeding offences before the court were detected at that location.