More than 900 speeding fines revoked following ‘human error’ on N25

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

More than 900 speeding fines from a speed camera in Kilkenny have been revoked over “human error” in processing the location of the alleged offences.

It means almost 2,800 speeding fines and associated penalty points have been revoked by gardaí this year because of significant errors with safety cameras.

On Friday, An Garda Síochána started telling motorists that fines and penalty points issued to them for speeding offences on the N25 in Kilkenny detected by the static speed safety camera system between May 30th and June 30th are being revoked.

This corresponds with the first month the speed camera was supposed to be running, having been made operational on May 30th.

A total of 914 speeding fixed charge notices were issued over this period.

Of that total, 128 fines were paid and penalty points applied but these will now be repaid and revoked.

Fifty six were paid but the error was identified prior to penalty points being applied, and the fine will be repaid.

No payment had been received in the remaining 730 notices and therefore no penalty points had been applied.

A garda spokesperson said the service had confirmed an error with the “offence location on Fixed Charge Notices” from the static safety camera located on the N25, Kilkenny.

The spokesperson added: “This error is a result of human error when inputting the offence location onto the processing system.”

It said the issue was rectified “immediately” upon its discovery on June 30th and the camera resumed operations on July 4th.

An Garda Siochana said it “takes full responsibility for this error”, adding that it had completed a review of all offence locations associated with static and average speed cameras.

Chief Superintendent David Harrington, head of the National Roads Policing Bureau, said: “This error is very much regretted.

“An Garda Siochana continues to work steadfastly with all our partners in road safety endeavouring to reduce the human toll of road deaths and serious injuries on our roads.”

In February, 1,871 speeding fixed charge notices were revoked following an error with the N17 static speed safety camera system.

The charges related to notices from the period of December 20th and February 12th.

Eight hundred of the fines had already been paid, with penalty points applied to the driver.

They were all revoked.

In that instance, safety camera provider GoSafe identified an issue on February 12 and said the static speed camera on the N17 was “fully functional and accurately identifying offences, but not certified”.

It said the certification for the radar component of the camera had expired.

The issue arose because a camera was found to have a faulty focus mechanism during testing and was replaced with a new camera, which did not have a valid certificate of calibration.