Senior Magistrate Will Francis is calling for a change in the law to help free up congested traffic courts.

And so many people are breaking the speed limit he says, that Police can only focus on serious speed merchants, turning a blind eye to motorists travelling at lesser but still illegal speeds.

Mr. Francis appealed to legislators after it was revealed that nearly 500 motorists issued with speeding tickets had been summoned to appear in Magistrates' Court later this month.

And court administrators are now having to contact about 100 offenders to reschedule their appointments to a later date.

But Mr. Francis argued that a small change in the law could greatly improve the efficiency of the traffic court process -- without letting speeders slip through the net.

Currently motorists caught speeding, but travelling at less than 54 kph, do not have to appear in court as long as they pay off their fine within seven days. Motorists caught travelling at more than 54 kph are automatically given a court date.

But Mr. Francis claimed that while anyone who is clocked at more than 60 kph could be banned from driving and therefore has to go to court, speeders doing less than 60 kph will only be fined -- and should therefore not have to appear.

"As the law stands at the moment people don't have to appear for speeds up to 54 kph,'' he said.

"What we would like to see is that limit increased for anyone speeding up to 59 kph. We want legislators to amend the law to enable people to just pay the fine without having to come to court.

"Of course that can't be done for people who are caught doing 60 kph or more because they might face a ban and so have to appear...'' Mr. Francis added that because Police were kept so busy focusing on serious speed offenders, many minor offenders were not being prosecuted.

And he claimed that many motorists were totally ignorant about what the speed limit is.

"The Police are only starting to stop you if you are doing 55 kph or more,'' he said.

"But there's too much speeding right now and we have to crack down on it. I hear people saying that 60 kph is no great speed but I have to pull them up and point out to them that that's nearly double the speed limit.'' Yesterday Public Safety Minister Paula Cox could not be contacted to comment on Mr. Francis's appeal.

But Shadow Minister Michael Dunkley backed a change in the law. However, he added that it should only apply to first-time offenders.

Francis seeks traffic court changes a previous conviction, they should go to court,'' he said.

"But what we need to be doing is enforcing the law. I don't think it's any good just leaving it alone for six months and then coming back and having a crack down.

"I think we ought to be cautious about toughening up the laws. I don't think we need to jump too quickly to that.

"Some people say that the speed limit should be raised. But you hear people talking about the free zone. If the speed limit's 35 kph, then they can go a bit faster than that and get away with it. But if you increase the speed limit, then the free zone is just going to increase. Our roads are too small for that. The important thing is that we enforce the law in the first place.'' Senior Magistrate Will Francis: "Enable people to just pay the fine without having to come to court''