LATEST: Dozens of motorists caught at Kildare speed trap have cases thrown out by judge

Christmas arrived early for nearly three dozen motorists who had GoSafe speeding cases dismissed for being “unjust” despite being proven at Portlaoise District Court. 

In all, 32 motorists had summonses for speeding at Clogheen, Monasterevin dismissed by Judge Andrew Cody, who had previously voiced serious concerns about the level of GoSafe speed prosecutions in the 60km zone on a short stretch of the R445 road between Monasterevin and Ballybrittas.

Judge Cody said GoSafe collected more money in fines on the 700 metre section at Clogheen in 2022 then they had in all of Co Kilkenny that year. In fact, the stretch of road was so lucrative that GoSafe had issued fines of €108,240 which exceeded all of the GoSafe fines issued in Leitrim, Longford and Clare combined in 2022. 

“The question has to be asked, how can a 700 metre of roadway have the same level of prosecutions as all of Kilkenny, Louth or Mayo and over five times for the entire county of Leitrim?” asked Judge Cody. 

He described the stretch of road as being 12metres wide and having a large margin on each side. Along the 700 metre stretch there is one farmhouse and one house, said Judge Cody. 

He noted the Department of Transport gives guidelines for setting speed limits to Local Authorities and he quoted the Department’s guidelines as stating that “wide two lane roads with hard shoulders and have an overall minimum paved width of 8 metres, have grass verges and are characterised as being ‘improved’. For those roads the appropriate speed limit should be 100km/h.”  

Judge Cody said the stretch of road at Clogheen was “exactly such a road” and drivers could be forgiven for believing they were in a 100km/h zone. 

“Mr Donal Hodgins Senior Engineer in the Roads and Transport Department of Kildare County Council recommended on the 26th of July 2021 that both the 60kph and 80kph zones in Clogheen be increased to 100kph,” said Judge Cody. 

“Unfortunately, despite the passage of 3 ½ years the speed limits have yet to be reviewed by Kildare County Council,” he noted. The 60km/h limit was set in 2011 and came up for review in 2016 and 2021, he added, noting the setting of limits was entirely a matter for Kildare County Council. 

“There is no doubt in my mind that Kildare County Council are in dereliction of their duties to the citizens of Kildare, Laois and Offaly and the entire State by failing to review the speed limits in accordance with their duty,” said Judge Cody. 

“While I accept that the townland of Clogheen has historically been the location of fatalities and this should be one of the factors to be taken into account, in determining the location of speed checks, I have come to the conclusion that the huge number of prosecutions by GoSafe for the 60kph zone in Clogheen has absolutely nothing to do with criminality and little to do with road safety and are driven not by safety but by targets, statistics and finance,” said Judge Cody. 

“Prosecutions that are driven by targets, statistics and finance have no place in this Court and bring the administration of Justice into disrepute. I have come to the conclusion that GoSafe deliberately targeted an unjust speed zone in the townland of Clogheen where there were rich pickings and as the saying goes they were “shooting fish in a barrel”,” he added. 

He said that while he was duty bound to uphold the laws of the land he was also cognisant of the Supreme Court’s decision in The People Vs Casey. He cited part of the decision which noted that:  “In responding to a criminal charge with an account which asserts that while there has been a breach of the law, an outcome of a guilty verdict would amount to an affront to justice, an accused both admits the commission of an offence and also seeks the application of constitutional fairness.”

He listened to details of 38 speeding  summonses issued to motorists for driving over 60km/h  at Clogheen.  All summonses for driving below 80 km/h were dismissed as Judge Cody said  “ it would be unjust to convict” the drivers.  Just six motorists who exceeded 80 km/h were convicted.   

“Finally, I wish to make it clear that the foregoing comments are not in any way reflective of the rank and file members of An Garda Siochana, particularly those in the Road Traffic Unit here in Portlaoise. Until recently the County of Laois was the only county  without a road fatality this year, and very regrettably a lady lost her life on the roads in Laois recently. Despite this Laois still has the lowest number of fatalities in the State this year and that is testament to the good work and dedication of An Garda Siochana in Laois and the Road Traffic Unit in particular, who continue to detect and prosecute cases in a fair and proportionate manner based on the need to keep all of our citizens safe on our roads,” said Judge Cody.