Punishments for driving offences 'insufficient', says senior police officer

A senior police officer has expressed frustration at "insufficient" punishments handed down by the courts for driving offences in Northern Ireland.

Chief Superintendent Sam Donaldson also voiced support for increasing fixed penalty notice fines issued to drivers for offences such as speeding.

Giving evidence to the Assembly's Infrastructure Committee, Mr Donaldson, who is from the PSNI's Operational Support Department with responsibility for roads policing, said an average of five people were dying on Northern Ireland's roads every month.

He said changing driver behaviour was key to bringing those numbers down.

Mr Donaldson told committee members that more had to be done to bring home to the public that motoring offences came with serious consequences.

"In terms of the courts, I have to say I'm frustrated at times," he said.

"But I have to be respectful to the courts, because there's a whole lot more than meets the eye than just one individual standing in front of the court, but sometimes it is very, very frustrating when people who have been caught ... for example, disqualified driving, who are repeatedly caught for disqualified driving, and sometimes I think the consequences are insufficient.

"And if the consequences are insufficient in my mind, perhaps the consequences are insufficient in your mind (the MLAs), maybe the consequences are insufficient in people's minds."

He said the issue was linked to a key factor in crashes - driver decisions and errors.

"And sometimes I think the biggest issue of all on our roads ... is people don't realise the consequences," he said.

"People absolutely don't think it's ever going to happen to them. And even if they get caught speeding, I sometimes think people see breaking traffic laws as something that is lesser than breaking criminal laws.

"I think if you were to ask the average member of the public which of those is the most serious: so is it more serious speeding or is it more serious assaulting someone? I think that the vast majority of people would say 'absolutely, if you're involved in disorder and assault, that's much more serious'.

"They're all breaches of the law. And they all carry significant consequences and there's something in my mind around trying to get people to see the consequences."

In Northern Ireland, motorists detected speeding can be issued with a fixed penalty notice for £60.

Mr Donaldson said he did not believe this was enough.

"I would not be doing the police service or myself any justice if I came here today and said the deterrents are sufficient," he told the committee.

"I do not think they are. I think in terms of the fixed penalty notices, it's a long time since the fee rose, and we've already been having some early conversations with DfI (Department for Infrastructure) around that.

"We actually have a control strategy for 24/25 and on the control strategy we've simply written 'explore the possibility of an increase in the fines and the fees for fixed penalty notices'.

"And I know that that will not be popular in the community, especially at this time."

When pressed on how much of an increase he would like to see, the senior officer said he would not like to put an exact figure on it.

But he cited the example in England and Wales where he said some fines had been raised to £200.