Almost 10,000 motorists caught speeding on Northern Ireland’s roads in the past three years avoided punishment because of a loophole in the law.
rivers walked away from fines worth at least £597,300 because they could not be traced by the PSNI.
Non-UK residents, who fail to pay a £60 fixed penalty notice for speeding, cannot be summoned to a court in Northern Ireland.
A total of 9,751 were caught speeding by the NI Road Safety Partnership in the three years to last April, while a further 204 were detected running a red light.
On average, nine motorists per day went unpunished.
In one case, a vehicle registered in the Irish Republic was detected travelling at 116mph on the A6 Glenshane Road.
The details emerged after a Freedom of Information request by this newspaper.
A total of 167 fatalities were recorded on Northern Ireland roads between 2018 and 2020 – 55 in 2018, 56 in 2019 and 56 in 2020.
Road Safe NI chair Davy Jackson urged politicians at Stormont and the Dail to come together to close the loophole in regulations.
“We understand this is not a policing matter and it is something that would need to be a legislative change,” he said.
“It is something we would be very disappointed in if people feel they can come up here and speed. Not everyone will be doing it intentionally but some people would feel they could get away with it.
“We’re very disappointed in those figures and a lot of collisions happen in the border areas which would worry us more that those people are getting out of those offences.
“We would just encourage everyone to slow down and adhere to all the rules of the road.”
Policing Board member and Alliance MLA John Blair pledged to raise the matter at the next board meeting.
“These figures are a matter of concern and it’s something that the PSNI and the Policing Board should jointly give serious and urgent attention to,” he added.
“It fits with our support for the current police road safety campaign which is being conducted in the public interest and all of these matters should be looked at in this regard.”
Inspector Rosie Leech from the PSNI’s Roads Policing team said that speeding fines can be levied in two ways.
Uniformed officers can issue an Endorsable Fixed Penalty Notice (EFPNs) – the endorsement of penalty points on a driving licence with a £60 fine, or through detection by Road Safety Cameras.
However, if the detection is made by a speed camera, the Fixed Penalty Processing Centre (FPPC) will issue a Notice of Intended Prosecution to the registered owner who must provide the details of who was driving the vehicle at the time of the offence, to the FPPC.
“Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) have to be paid in full at the Courts and Tribunals Service Fixed Penalty Office either in person or by post at which time, driving licences must also be handed in so that they can be endorsed,” she added.
“The Courts and Tribunals Service Fixed Penalty Office only deals with the payment of FPNs issued in the north and the endorsement of driving licences.
“If a foreign driver decides not to pay the FPN, there is currently no mechanism to permit lawful postal service of a summons thereby bringing them before a Northern Ireland court.”
Inspector Leech added that FPNs may be issued to drivers who do not hold a Northern Ireland driving licence.
— to www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
