Speed cameras raising money, not safety, councillors complain

MOBILE speed cameras aren’t being used as a means of promoting road safety but as a means of raising money, several Clare county councillors have claimed.
At the April meeting of the local authority it was also claimed that the drop in road deaths isn’t down to the use of the cameras, but to changing attitudes among the public.
More than one member claimed cameras are being deployed at strategic locations, which are relatively safe, but advantageous for raising money.
At the meeting Councillor James Breen put forward a motion that the council “call on the Minister for Justice to clarify the position in relation to mobile speed cameras. In view of the fact we were originally told that the cameras would operate in high speed and major accident areas, they are now operating within speed limit zones in towns and villages throughout this country.”
Introducing it, the Kilnamona man said; “Originally we were told you could go to a website and see where they were and they were supposed to be in areas of high speed. Now they are in nearly every town and village in the county.”
He said that in the last 60 years two people have died on the road between Kilnamona Cross and the Maid of Éireann roundabout in Ennis and that their deaths was not due to speeding. However, the road is still a target for cameras, he claimed.
“Is it a life saving exercise or a revenue raising exercise,” he queried, before saying that he wouldn’t support such a means of generating revenue.
Councillor Patricia McCarthy said it seemed that the locations where people could most easily be caught are targeted. She claimed that it is a money generating exercise and that places where people have to slow from 100km to 60km were in the crosshairs of those deciding where the cameras be located. She said that on the days of big matches in Limerick and Thurles, the cameras are particularly in evidence.
The cameras are currently being used to penalise people who are not posing any danger to safety, Councillor Richard Nagle claimed.
Fine Gael councillor Joe Arkins said that while there has been an improvement in road safety, this wasn’t down to the use of the cameras, but different attitudes around road safety and drinking and driving.
The Ruan man said he had been driving into Limerick the previous Saturday, in a stream of traffic doing in the region of 105km when all the cars came under the glare of the cameras. “Have there been many deaths there? There couldn’t have been because the road wasn’t there.”
Councillor PJ Kelly said that his own parish (Lissycasey) is very frequently targeted and that he believe it is more about raising revenue than road safety.