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Penalty kicks
Page 36
Page 37
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The Irish are closing down the game for rogue players and making it easier to seize vehicles.
Ann Marie Foley reports.
penalty points or disqualification for striking a bridge, greater powers to seize vehicles and a ban on the use of mobile phones and other hand-held communications equipment are just some of the measures in the Road Traffic Bill 2006 being introduced in Ireland this month.
The Bill follows the introduction of 31 new penalty-point offences in April and a period that saw an unprecedented number of road accident deaths. No one wants to criticise measures that might help stop the carnage, hut there are some areas of concern.
Operators are still reeling from the introduction of penalty points for driving LGVs on the outside lane of the motorway. The ban also applies to passenger coaches and any vehicle towing a trailer.
The interpretation of the new Road Traffic Bill 2006 will be vital, says the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA). -We flagged up 'no overtaking on a motorway' with various ministers and were told the gardai would use their common sense," says IRHA spokesman Jimmy Quinn. "But we've had cases where people have been overtaking tractors and trailers and really slow equipment that should not be on the motorway at all, and the gardai have issued them with a penalty point.
"It is a very bad law to be depending on a garda's discretion; the law should be there in clear terms."
Interpretation worries
Operators are wary as to how gardai will interpret and enforce other provisions under the new law. Their powers to impound are strengthened and will encompass vehicles from outside the state.
Uninsured trucks whose tax is out of date by two months three months was previously allowedcan be seized.
Vehicles without a current Certificate of Roadworthiness can he seized immediately without any period of grace applying.
-How rigidly will it be applied? III was out there today and the certificate had lapsed yesterday, would I have an enthusiastic garda saying 'give me that truck'?" asks Ciaran Dowling, transport manager of Globetrotter International, Dublin.
"There's a lot at stake. It depends on the gardai approach and how they enforce it. But in general the new measures are all good things."
The new law creates a penalty-point offence of driving while holding a mobile phone (though hands-free versions are allowed), and the minister can issue future regulations restricting the use of other communication equipment while driving. Th i s worries some operators.
"I have all hands-free sets anyhow," says Myles Stamp, of Stamp Transport. Wexford. "But a lot of lads are using the laptop as a direction finderthey have a GPS linked into it and it tells them where they are going. I wonder whether that will be banned."
Another new measure is automatic disqualification for striking a bridge leading to death or serious injury four years for the first offence and six for subsequent offences or penalty points when the strike does not cause death or serious injury.
The IRHA has worked with Iarnrod Eireann (Irish Rail) on education campaigns to help prevent bridge strikes, and modern technology can be used to alert drivers to bridge heights. The IRHA is advocating that container firms put height readers on all container vehicles and it wants those responsible for bridges to install laser warnings that flash up a stop sign before the truck reaches them.