Nearly 2,000 motorists given fines and penalty points on the N17 are to have them revoked, An Garda Síochána has said.
The reprieves are being granted because the static speed safety camera on the Mayo road was found to lack the necessary certification.
The revocations relate to a period spanning nearly two months, from December 20th last to February 12th.
Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien indicated on Friday morning that he had previously been unaware of the issue but that a nationwide double check of speed cameras would now be required.
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The affected motorists will receive letters in the days ahead.
A total of 1,871 speeding fixed charge notices were issued over the period.
Of these, 800 notices were paid and penalty points applied. There were also 123 motorists who paid the fines but the error was identified before penalty points were applied.
Of the remaining 948 notices issued, no payment was made before the error was identified, so no penalty points were applied.
In a statement on Friday morning, the Garda press office said gardaí and the safety camera provider, GoSafe, identified an issue with the static speed camera on the N17 near Claremorris on February 12th.
It was “fully functional and accurately identifying offences” but was not “certified”, the statement said.
“It is standard procedure that all cameras used for speeding detection have valid calibration certificates issued by GoSafe,” it said.
Once the issue was identified, the camera was certified on February 13th and has been operational since February 14th. More than 230 speeding fines have issued from this camera system since that date and these are valid, the Garda said.
All certificates of calibration for cameras used at average speed, static locations and in safety camera vans are now valid.
From now on, An Garda Síochána will request proof of calibration certification upon installation rather than at prosecution stage, the statement said. GoSafe will provide weekly confirmations of certification of all speed safety cameras.
Speaking to reporters on Friday in Adare, Co Limerick, Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien said he was “going to look into it in detail”.
[ Garda enforcement operation finds more than 1,000 drivers speedingOpens in new window ]
“No one should be carrying penalty points that were detected in this way, so I need to look into the detail of that. But you can be assured that that will be done as a matter of priority,” said Mr O’Brien.
When asked how such an error could have arisen, the Minister replied: “I’m being very honest with you, I don’t know.
“I literally heard about this five minutes ago. I will be looking into it. I do take it very seriously,” he said.
Mr O’Brien said there must be “learnings from this” and that authorities will “have to ensure certification” of speed cameras.
The minister stressed the requirement now for a nationwide “double check” of the certification “of all of our speed check vans” to ensure they are “exactly as they should be”.
Chief Supt of roads policing, Jane Humphries, said the error is “very much regretted”.
“An Garda Síochána is committed to reducing road deaths and serious injuries through enforcement of speeding via a variety of speed safety cameras,” she said, adding that the level of speeding breaches issued since the camera became operational last December demonstrates the need for all motorists to slow down.
A GoSafe spokesperson said the issue was spotted during a “routine quality assurance check”. The accuracy and validity of the camera system was not affected and all speeding offences were “correctly identified”, the spokesperson said.
“Following a thorough internal review, we have confirmed to An Garda Síochána that all other static, mobile and average speed enforcement cameras are fully certified.
“To prevent a recurrence, we have implemented enhanced safeguards within our quality assurance processes.”
The Departments of Justice and Transport, the Policing Authority, the Road Safety Authority and the Safety Camera Board of have been informed of the developments.
The matter occurred as a result of the original camera that was used during testing having a faulty focus mechanism and when a new camera was installed the new camera did not have a valid certificate of calibration.
The N17 speed safety camera system went live on December 20th. It was not operational between January 1st and January 17th as it had been vandalised. That vandalisation is the subject of a criminal investigation.
