Speed Cameras

The new mobile speed cameras in Ireland have been in the news a lot recently – and the Garda.ie website even crashed because of all the visitors looking for the location map.

November 16th 2010 sees the launch of the  new speed camera vans around Irish roads . Initially there will be just 15 camera vans – but by February 2011 there will be 45.
Here are some Pictures of the Speed Camera Vans

Up  to 1,500 roads across the country will also be  designated as “speed enforcement zones”  as part of the roll-out of the mobile speed camera network.

A private consortium known as GoSafe is  being employed to provide these mobile speed cameras at about 600 locations all over Ireland. We are told these locations are accident blackspots and that the cameras will operate “24 hours a day”. The speed cameras will be rolled out incrementally and are not all expected to be fully operational until February 2011

The Irish GoSafe consortium  includes Spectra, French firm Egis and Australian company Redflex. Spectra is owned by millionaire and hotel owner Xavier McCauliffe a well known Fianna Fail supporter. GoSafe is also the name  used by the the mobile speed camera vans in Wales – but there is no connection between the two.

They will operate  just 45 vans with cameras that will cover  the 600 or so  locations.  They are contracted to provide monitoring cover  for 6000 hours a month  – which works out at just  4.5 hours per van per day.
So – when  the Gardai tell us that the cameras will be operating 24 hours a day 7 days a week – what they really mean is that at least one camera may be operating in he country at any given time  – but not all of them .
The GoSafe 5 year contract is costing the State  €65 million  which works out at about €180 per hour of monitoring .

With a speeding fine costing €80 – if the the vans catch 162,500 speeders a year  – the state will recoup the cost of the private contract. That works out at just 10 speeding fines per van per day.
Of course – the main aim is to reduce car speeds and hopefully reduce deaths and injuries – which if it works is worth the money.

The locations of the camera vans should be available on Garda.ie – but their website was having problems . You can also look at them here – Speed Camera Location Map