Privatised speed check vans go live on Monday

A NETWORK of privatised mobile speed enforcement cameras is to begin operating from Monday.

A limited number of the cameras will be used over the coming months but they are all expected to be operating by February.

Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern signed a five-year €65 million contract with the GoSafe consortium to provide the service last November.

It was agreed that 45 mobile cameras would provide more than 6,000 hours of speed checks per month across the State. It is the first time that a key element of day-to-day policing has been outsourced from the Garda.

The new cameras, to be housed in clearly marked vans, will periodically monitor some 600 areas, more than 60 of which are in Dublin, identified as regular sites for speed-related traffic collisions.

It is intended the cameras will perform speed checks on the various stretches at times when crashes have occurred in the past.

A list of the areas that will be monitored by the cameras is on the Garda website, www.garda.ie. Such was the level of public interest in the locations that the website crashed a number of times yesterday.

The force uses eight mobile cameras in vans, 400 hand-held speeding devices and more than 100 automatic number plate recognition cameras which are installed in Garda cars for checks that capture about 200,000 speeding motorists annually.

Motorists caught speeding by the new cameras will be liable to penalty points and fines which will be administered by the Garda.

A transport source estimated some 11 million cars would be monitored by the cameras annually.

The consortium is being paid a flat fee for the service. There is no provision for commissions or bonuses related to how many motorists are caught speeding.

The secretary general of the Department of Justice, Seán Aylward, previously estimated the proposed network might generate half a million speeding penalties a year. At €80 per speeding fine, the privatised speed cameras alone could generate roughly €40 million per annum.

A Garda spokesman said the cameras were not a revenue-gathering exercise but a means to improving safety on the roads.

The consortium, led by the Spectra company, will be directed by the Garda and overseen by gardaí at the Garda Office for Safety Camera Management.

A Road Collision Factbook produced this year by the Road Safety Authority shows that in single-vehicle crashes, speed was cited as the main factor in 54 per cent of cases. When two vehicles were in a fatal crash, speed was deemed to be the main cause in only 15 per cent of cases, with driving on the wrong side of the road causing 52 per cent of these.