When exceeding the speed limit isnt speeding.

last updated 8 January 2015

Ireland

Willie Kealy

Irish drivers are at the mercy of faceless bureaucrats, said Willie Kealy in the Dublin Irish Independent. Police no longer have any discretion in handing out tickets—if they clock you going over the speed limit, they must fine you. Recently, an officer caught me in an outrageously unfair speed trap, set up just a few dozen yards after the speed limit abruptly changed from 100 kilometers an hour (62 mph) to 60 (38). I slammed my foot on the brake the second I saw the sign but was still going a bit too fast for the speed trap. “I should have said I wasn’t speeding, I was exceeding the speed limit.” The two are not the same thing. “Just like being slightly over the drink-drive limit doesn’t automatically constitute drunk driving.” Police, alas, can’t comprehend such subtleties. The result is that I now drive like a robot. “If I see a 30 kph sign—and they are used liberally, usually in a temporary capacity—I drop down to second gear and crawl along, with everyone blowing horns and passing me out, but more often, causing a big tailback.” Next time you’re stuck behind my car, don’t blame me. Write your member of Parliament.