Penalty points system 'failure' to be queried

Senior gardaí will be asked to explain to an Oireachtas committee this week why the penalty points system appears to be a complete failure in preventing road fatalities 18 months after its introduction.

The meeting, which will also be attended by officials from the National Roads Authority and the departments of justice and transport, comes after a weekend in which another road death brought the total this year to 112, up 25 on the same period of 2003.

David O'Callaghan (24) of Fair Hill, Cork, was killed early on Saturday when the stolen Saab car he was driving failed to take a bend on the Kinsale-Carrigaline road and plunged down an embankment.

The car had been reported missing from Carrigaline a few days previously. There were no other occupants in it at the time of the crash.

Tuesday's meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport also follows strong criticism of the penalty points system by the committee chairman, Fianna Fáil TD, Mr Eoin Ryan.

Mr Ryan said yesterday that as far as he could see, speed cameras and Garda speed checks were being mounted only on motorways and dual carriageways, penalising motorists on relatively safe stretches, while the roads where accidents were happening went unpoliced.

The question had to be asked whether the penalty points system "is just about generating revenue," he added. "It certainly doesn't seem to be reducing the number of serious accidents."

The TD said that Tuesday's meeting would be aimed at finding out if there was a problem with the implementation of the system: "We had the same officials in last year when it was going well. Now it's not going well, and we need to find out why."

Mr Ryan also disagreed with a recent Government decision not to proceed with a traffic corps, because of legal difficulties. The safest roads in the world were British motorways, Mr Ryan said, and Britain had an effective traffic corps.

"This is a life or death issue, and road deaths are first and foremost a human tragedy. But every fatality also costs the State €1.2 million. So there can be no argument against putting resources into dealing with the issue."