It was announced last week that gardaí will waive documentation fees for families of people killed in road crashes, following a long campaign by road safety group PARC. Founder of PARC Susan Gray, whose husband was killed in a crash in rural Donegal in 2004, has welcomed the decision…

IN THE EVENT of a serious/fatal road traffic collision statements are taken by the gardaí from witnesses. These statements, which include Garda statements, form part of the Book of Evidence. However, victims’ families are not allowed to see the statements until all criminal proceedings (if any) are exhausted and in the case of a fatal crash not until the full inquest is concluded.

If families of victims request documents from the Coroner, they may only receive edited versions (depositions) of the witness statements as they are redacted for the inquest.

This highlights the importance to families of getting hold of copies of the full witness statements, as they are often the only source of information to explain how their relative met their death. In instances where there was no court hearing arising from a crash, Garda crash documents offer the only information to relatives about what happened.

The recent ruling on charges for copies of witness statements by the Garda Commissioner was warmly welcomed by the PARC Road Safety Group.

Until now bereaved families were charged for these very important documents while the defendant gets the whole book of evidence including all statements free of charge to defend the case.

This payment had to be made by cheque and upfront to the Superintendent in the area where the collision occurred before the copies of witness statements etc. could issue.

Since 2008 the issue was raised repeatedly with successive justice ministers by TD Tommy Broughan. Replies stated that “Fees for abstract reports and copies of witness statements and photographs are charged in order to recoup costs incurred in the preparation of same”.

Those of us who have experienced losing a loved one were incredulous at being told that we would have to pay. It seemed heartless, cruel and downright unfair when we were at our lowest ebb.

Long campaign 

PARC’s campaign to have the fees lifted for bereaved families began in 2008 with Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy setting up a Working Group to examine the issue.

No change was made to the charging of fees during his tenure. However, during Martin Callinan’s reign as Commissioner the fees doubled from 7 October 2011 – with a twofold increase for a copy of a witness statement (from €21 to €40) and an increase from €41 to €60 for a copy of the abstract of the Garda report.

This drew outrage from the membership of our group. It was the final straw.

Thankfully our present Garda Commissioner, Noírín O’Sulllivan, has taken steps to show empathy and compassion for bereaved families by introducing a waiver of fees, and a maximum fee of €1,000 in cases of crashes where a person is injured.

This was an unprecedented move and Commissioner O’Sullivan deserves much credit for it. In Northern Ireland and across the channel, the charges remain.

We hope the Commissioner’s move last week heralds a new era of putting victims ‘at the heart of the Garda service’.

PARC Road Safety Group (Promoting  Awareness Responsibility & Care on our roads​) is a civil society organisation made up of people throughout Ireland who have been affected by road traffic collisions. You can find out more on the PARC website.