Speed camera van called into question over named Galway man's speeding case
The accused was allegedly caught 15km/h over the speed limit
A case centred around an allegation of speeding, which has called the integrity of the speed detection systems used by GoSafe vans into question, has been adjourned.
The alleged speeding offence occurred on November 25, 2024, on the N24 in the Herbertstown area near Caherconlish.
A GoSafe van detected the driver Wilson Robb with an address in Moycullen, Galway allegedly driving at a speed of 95km in an 80km zone.
Representing the defendant, solicitor Patrick Horan called engineer Mark Jordan to give evidence about an inspection he carried out on the systems used by GoSafe vans to detect speed.
The chartered engineer told the court that the inspection was carried out on February 16 of this year.
He told Judge Patricia Harney at Kilmallock District Court that it was the “same van with the same equipment” as the one involved in the speed detection in question.
Mr Jordan explained that the vans use a radar speed detection system and that these can be entirely automatic without the need for an operator to manually train them onto a specific target.
In his report, which he read out in court, Mr Jordan said that he “could not verify” if the operator can delete files on the system, as digital images are taken when a speed is detected.
He also could not verify the process when a number plate is not readable in whole or in part.
Mr Jordan told the court that he couldn’t validate claims that the system can monitor up to 10 vehicles at a time.
“Expertise was not at hand to answer questions about the system,” he said.
The State had an innovation engineer from Redflex who designed the system, along with another engineer from a Dutch-based company who certify and validate the equipment, present in court, but didn’t get the opportunity to testify.
The court heard that during his inspection, the engineer Mr Jordan was not allowed to take photographs of the computer screen and to see how the software worked at each level.
On the day of the inspection, Mr Jordan drove his own car past the GoSafe van four times in different directions and the GoSafe radar detection as well as a separate laser test were used.
Mr Jordan agreed with Inspector Liam Wallace that the results were “within fairly close correspondence” with each other.
However, he added: “Staged tests don’t establish the forensic integrity of something.”
The case has been adjourned to a later date in October.