Because no guidelines are in place to instruct judges on how to hand down penalties to offenders, fines, driving bans and jail terms vary wildly in severity, even in cases where similar offences are committed. In Ireland's district courts, where most of these cases are heard, the verdicts are at the judges' discretion, and different judges have different approaches when it comes to penalties. But there are many incidents where similar cases heard by the same judge have different outcomes.

Call for mandatory bans Fine Gael's spokeswoman on transport, Olivia Mitchell, has called on the government to introduce mandatory driving bans for those convicted of dangerous driving. "I think it would be appropriate, " she told the Sunday Tribune. "Dangerous driving is as serious as you can get without injuring or killing someone." Fine Gael has previously urged the government to introduce a hierarchy of penalties so that judges would have some guideline on how to sentence somebody charged with dangerous driving or the lesser offences of careless driving and driving without due care.

"Once people are convicted of dangerous driving, it's a very serious offence and a statutory disqualification should be part of that, " she said.

Mitchell believes a succession of Road Traffic Acts is confusing for judges and that all the acts and their amendments should be consolidated into one. So far this year, the Dail has passed three acts, and another will be passed before the end of the year. "They are amended over time and amendments have been amended. Now we are amending the amendments of amendments."

Inconsistency in sentences The Sunday Tribune examined three so-called 'racing' cases, including the recent Mullingar case. All had different outcomes. Two were presided over by Judge Neilan. One heard in November of last year involved an 18year-old from Offaly who was racing another motorist on a roundabout in Tullamore. Neilan fined him 1,750 for careless driving and driving without insurance, a licence, tax or L plates.

The driver, Paul Egan, was also banned for three years. Another case heard in January this year was similar to the Mullingar incident, where Tommie Gorman and Alberto Rizzini raced at speeds of up to 200km/h.

In the case, heard at Galway District Court, Judge Mary Fahy heard that two men, one driving a Ferrari and another a high-powered motorbike, raced each other at 192km/h. Fahy fined the Ferrari driver Peter Maher 600 and disqualified him for six months. The motorbike driver, Kieran Flaherty, was fined 800 and also disqualified for six months.

Although the Road Safety Authorty chairman Gay Byrne was highly critical of Neilan's ruling in the Mullingar case, the chief executive of the RSA, Noel Brett, told the Sunday Tribune that he could not comment on individual cases. "Speeding is one of the major contributing factors of deaths on roads. It's a matter of personal responsibility. It's clearly in the gift of the DPP and the garda commissioner if they're unhappy with the leniency of a sentence. There is a provision for the DPP to appeal if he feels a sentence isn't appropriate."

The sentencing for speeding has been a contentious one for some time and legal challenges to the penalty points system this year have seen hundreds of speeding summonses struck out. During a case in April 2003, Judge Mary Martin expressed her doubts about the points system and suggested new regulations should be challenged legally. Since then, multiple problems have transpired. Last June, Wicklow District Court judge Murrough Connellan struck out more than 150 charges after the speed limit on the N11 road was deemed to be not legally binding during an 18-month period between April 2000 and November 2005. It is the duty of county councils to ensure speed limits are adopted and brought into effect by passing a resolution.

The Sunday Tribune also examined several recent speeding cases that had been struck out, including one by Judge David Maughan, where a man caught speeding at 190kmph faced no ban when the judge heard he was rushing home to see his sick mother.

Road safety chief criticises TV risk-taking THE Chief Executive of the Road Safety Authority Noel Brett has expressed reservations about the message being portrayed by motoring television programmes. He was speaking in the wake of the serious injuries sustained by Richard Hammond (RIGHT), a presenter of the BBC show Top Gear, while driving a jet engine-powered vehicle last week.

"We do have a concern about the glamourisation of excessive speeds and risk-taking that are counter to the road safety message we're trying to get across, " Brett told the Sunday Tribune. "On occasions some motoring programmes can be broadcasting a contradictory message in terms of road safety. We have no problem with motor sport in an appropriate setting, but we do have a problem with anything that glamourises excessive and inappropriate speeding or risk taking."