Flawed speed revisions ‘ripe for court challenge’

A barrister has predicted that the legal profession locally will ‘have a field day’ challenging speeding summonses in court if the county’s new speeding bylaws are passed next week.

James Charity, who is also a county councillor, said ‘every summons will be challenged’ in the District Court if he and his colleagues passed a report on the draft Road Traffic Special Speed Limits for County Galway Bylaws. “The District Court will have a field day,” he said.

“If I’m doing 62 kilometres (per hour) in a 60km/h zone, I’m going to go back and look for the maps and if there’s confusion (as to where the 60km/h zone starts) then it will be challenged. The proposals (for changes to speed limits) need to be mapped. You can’t say ‘lower the speed limit 200 metres from John Joe’s house to the crossroads’. It needs to be point A to point B and shown on a map,” he said.

Cllr Charity predicted a surge in challenges to speeding summons if the Athenry/Oranmore Municipal District proceeded to make changes to the draft plan without being shown where the proposed new speed limits would be on a map.  Twice during the discussion on speed limits, Leas Cathaoirleach of the Municipal District, Cllr Martina Kinnane (FF) said ‘confusion reigns’.

“At least if we make the changes here, we won’t be doing it in a courthouse down the road,” she said.

Speed limits were also on the agenda at this week’s meeting of the Connemara Municipal District, where a proposal by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to reduce the speed limit on parts of the N59 to 80km/h caused outrage among some councillors.

The proposals by TII, includes maintaining the 100km/h limit between Galway City and Roscahill, a reduction to 80km/h between Rosscahill and Lettershea, and maintaining the 100km/h limit from there on to Clifden.

This, according to the TII, is taking into account the dangerous parts of the road where width and bends are most prevalent. Towns and villages along the road will see reduced limits on approach, with a 50km/h speed limit within the boundaries.  There are also proposals to include periodic speed limits at schools such as Rosscahill and Scoil Doire Glinne.

However, local councillor Tom Healy (SF) said the move would make life more difficult for the people of Connemara who have to use the N59 to commute.

“An 80km/h journey already takes an hour-and-a-half. Do you want to throw a gate up somewhere and close the whole bloody place off?” he blasted.

Each of the five Municipal Districts in County Galway have discussed the proposed changes in speed limits for their area.  The changes to each area arise following recommendations from elected representatives and the public following a statutory consultation process where the draft bylaws were out on public display.

Máire Ní Chíonna outlined to the Athenry/Oranmore meeting that there were 56 submission received about the bylaws. Some of the recommendations in these submissions were taken on board and included in the bylaws, and others were not.

Ms Ni Chíonna explained that eleven of the submissions related to Athenry/Oranmore Municipal District area, including one submission from Cllr Jim Cuddy (Ind), who made recommendations to lower the speed limit on 22 roads.

Cllr Cuddy said it was “for the birds” that some of his recommendations were ignored; and because speed limits on local roads was a reserved function of councillors, he wanted to vote through his proposals anyway.

Ms Ní Chíonna said that many of the proposals from Cllr Cuddy were for reduced speed limits on local roads that are rats runs and used by commuters to get to Galway City. She said residents in those areas were understandably frustrated but it would be preferable to use alternative methods to make those roads safer, such as traffic calming, rather than lowering speed limits.

The draft bylaws were due to be discussed at the next full County Council meeting but it was agreed to defer the passing of the bylaws until the November meeting in order that the confusion in Athenry/Oranmore was cleared-up first. They will discuss the matter again at next week’s meeting before it goes to the full Council.

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