THE NUMBER of drivers getting penalty points for speeding this year is expected to far surpass 2010 with motorists in counties Clare, Kerry, Longford, Limerick and elsewhere already surpassing last year’s totals.
The sharp increase follows the introduction of more than 600 privately operated speed cameras around the country.
Almost 96,000 drivers have received penalty points on their licences for speeding from January to June this year. The figure is already over 70 per cent of the total for all of 2010, which was just over 131,000.
The numbers of drivers hit with penalty points in the local authority areas of Clare, Kerry, Longford, Limerick city and county, and Waterford city and county have already exceeded figures for the whole of 2010, according to figures obtained from a parliamentary question put down by Donegal Fine Gael deputy Joe McHugh.
The largest increase was in Clare where more than 3,700 drivers were penalised up to the end of June, compared to just over 2,800 in all of 2010.
In Kerry, 2,745 drivers got penalty points in the first six months of the year for speeding compared to just over 1,800 in 2010.
Limerick city was up by 471 on the 12-month total for 2010 and the county was up by 138. Waterford county was up by 61 and Waterford city was up by 24. A dozen more drivers in Longford got points for speeding in the first six months than in the 12 months of last year.
In Dublin, almost 20,000 drivers got points, two-thirds of the numbers last year.
In Cork, more than 7,900 drivers were penalised, only 1,000 off last year’s 12-month total. And in Galway more than 4,400 drivers got points for speeding, only 300 short of last year’s 12-month total of 4,700.
Other counties with figures close to last year’s totals were Laois, Louth and Westmeath.
But drivers in a few parts of the country seem to have got off more lightly so far; almost 2,600 drivers got penalty points for speeding in Wexford up to June compared to 6,149 in all of 2010. And in Sligo, 856 drivers were penalised up to June compared to almost 2,700 last year.
The increase has been attributed to the roll-out of speed cameras around the country, which was completed at the end of February this year. The GoSafe speed cameras supplied an additional 6,000 hours of traffic monitoring a month in more than 600 locations, including 60 in Dublin.
Mr McHugh welcomed the increase in speeding detection and said the new speed vans were having a positive impact on driver behaviour. But he did question the location of some of the cameras.
“There is genuine concern about the locations of some of the speed vans, especially those at the entrance to lower speed zones,” he said. “There has been a few at entrances of towns and villages that are causing consternation.” He said there could be a “common sense issue” in relation to some of them.
