The number of zones on the road network where mobile speed detection cameras may be deployed by the Garda is to be increased by about 30 per cent to more than 1,000 locations.
A total of 355 new zones have been identified for speed monitoring, in addition to the 700 or so where speed detection cameras have been used regularly since the system was introduced on a phased basis between November 2010 and March 2011.
The decision to monitor driver behaviour in 355 more zones on the network, each about 10km in length, follows a detailed analysis of fatal, serious and minor road crashes.
This analysis, combined with knowledge that the total of fatal crashes on roads featuring cameras has been reduced from 31 per cent of all fatal crashes to 14 per cent, has prompted the expansion.
The analysis has also led gardaí to remove 49 speed monitor zones from the network, because analysis showed there had been no fatal crashes in those zones for five years.
The mobile speed monitoring system, known as GoSafe and operated by private company Road Safety Operations Ireland - owned in turn by an Isle of Man entity - has caused what gardaí describe as a “dramatic reduction” in fatal crashes in parallel with “a huge increase in terms of road safety”.
GoSafe cameras are detecting an average of three vehicles breaking speed limits every two hours. As a result, more than 938,000 fixed charge noticed have been issued to errant drivers.
Short shrift
Announcing the expansion of speed monitoring by mobile cameras, Garda Derek Cloughley of the Garda National Traffic Bureau gave short shrift to the oft-stated assertion by speed camera opponents that the system was designed to make money for the Garda.
“[The company] are paid by the hour,” he said. “It is not a revenue-gathering exercise. In fact, it is loss-making,” he added, in terms of the fee paid to the company versus the money paid in fines.
A cost-benefit analysis carried out at Trinity College Dublin’s Department of Economics by Dr Derek Rafferty of the Government’s Department of Transport, showed substantial monetary value benefits to society as a whole.
“Safety cameras are an effective means of reducing road traffic collisions and related deaths and injuries in Ireland,” his July 2014 study showed, “and because of this they generate a significant benefit to Irish society of over €70 million each year. . .The operational costs of running safety cameras in Ireland are more than double the fine income they generate.”
Identifying the 355 new road zones for deploying mobile speed cameras, of which there are approximately 50, involved analysing collisions over the past four years.
Weighted value
Each crash was given a weighted value: 10 for a crash involving death; five for a serious crash and one for a minor crash.
Potential new 10km-long road zones for speed camera monitoring had to achieve a minimum weighted value of 10.
From this, the 355 new zones were identified.
Fifty-four per cent are regional roads, 32 per cent and 7 per cent each are local roads or motorways.
In tandem with expanding the target roads for speed camera enforcement, the Garda is to hold a National Slow Down Day on May 27th/28th during which the force is promising high visibility enforcement of speed restrictions.
Details of where mobile speed cameras will be deployed may be mhad from the Garda website
can be found on the Garda Síochána website.
