Rich drivers should pay heavier fines for speeding – watchdog

Wealthy drivers should face higher fines when they are caught speeding, according to the Road Safety Authority.

Moyagh Murdock, chief executive of the state agency, has said she favours changing the financial penalties for speeding from a fixed €80 fine to a graduated system where the severity of the offence was matched with a higher fine, and ability to pay is also taken into consideration.

“I have been looking at some of states that have been hitting drivers in their pocket – €80 is nothing to someone who is driving a Range Rover or similar type vehicle,” she said. “An €80 fine going out to a multimillionaire in a 5 Series (BMW) is not appropriate, if he is travelling at 180km/h.”

Ms Murdock said the RSA planned to submit a proposal on graduated fines to the Department of Transport as part of a wider series of measures designed to combat drivers who repeatedly breach road traffic laws.

One of the reasons for the proposal is drivers marginally over the limit face the same penalties as someone driving well in excess of the limit.

Part of the reason for seeking higher fines for wealthier drivers was research carried out on behalf of the authority which showed more affluent drivers had a higher than average predisposition to violate road safety rules.

“What the research shows is that drivers of high-spec vehicles display greater evidence of a willingness to speed.”

“I think this is something that many road used can relate to. Some drivers in this [socio-economic] group jump queues and force their way through when overtaking. They need to be prepared to fork out. You can escalate the fine, significantly based on the extent to which you have exceeded the speed limit and also on the basis of your ability to pay.”

Penalties

Ms Murdock said she had examined speeding penalties in Scandinavian countries, and in particular Finland, which use graduated financial penalties.

In Finland speeding fines are calculated by estimating the amount of spending money a driver has/earns for one day and dividing this in half, setting a so-called day rate.

This sum is then multiplied based on the severity of the speeding offence. A driver 15km/h over the speed limit will see their day rate multiplied by 12 to set the fine level. A motorist 25km/h over the limit will see the day rate multiplied by 22 to set the financial penalty.

The multiplier is limited at 120 but there is effectively no ceiling on the fines, which are taken as proportion of income whether you earn €50,000 or €500,000 per annum.

A multimillionaire in Finland was recently fined €54,000 for breaking an 80km/h.

Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland all have versions of a "sliding scale" fine for motoring offences.

Ms Murdock said she has not decided on which type of system was appropriate for Ireland.

“We need to link fines to the type of driving and the driver. If your driving is crazy and your ability to pay is much better than someone else’s, then the fines should reflect that.”

She said speeding was the only road traffic offence where she was keen to introduce graduated fines.

Ms Murdoch also said RSA research had shown privatised speeding cameras “had saved” 27 lives, based on information on fatalities in the more than 700 zones where they operated.

Gardaí are evaluating tenders for a second five-year contract to operate speed cameras, which is likely to see the scope of speeding enforcement increased.

Ms Murdock said the RSA had contributed to a scoping document for the new privatised speeding camera contract and has called for the range of offences monitored to be expanded to include a vehicle’s NCT and VRT cert. “The new systems can accommodate that.”