Foggy Morning Smash

mike65

Just thought I'd post this piccy i grabbed this morning



Put your lights on and pay attention!

Mike.

Ouch! Nice.

Also why do people blank out license plates when they post car pics

Not as if you can track them down or anything..

Dilly1

Going for the train this morning, watched everyone driving too fast and
was grateful for the train, they just never learn.

maidhc

ronoc wrote:

Not as if you can track them down or anything..

Wrong. With it you can find out the name, address, etc of the owner, along with chassis number of the car etc etc.

How else do they send out the gatso fines?

Access is not all that limited either, and extends the all the county councils, vindicitve traffic wardens etc etc.

elexes

where was this smash .

looks like everyone should of survived

mike65

It happened on the N25 about 4 miles west of Waterford at the Tramore Cross. The estate car on the left of the frame was also damaged.

There were shards of glass and plastic all over the lane I was in so I spent the next 10 mins waiting for the steering to start wobbling!

Mike.

CrowdedHouse

It annoys the hell out of me the number of people driving in fog with side/parking lamps only on(or sometimes none at all)These are useless in fog.It's particularly dangerous at junctions when trying to turn right.(like what might have happened in the pic)
Cars should be wired so that its not possible to use parking lights only when the engine is on.

BrianD3

I just have to say I was shocked at the way people were driving today and this evening. I know Irish drivers are bad but I didn't realise that they're also suicidal. I drove 250 miles today mainly around the north midlands where the fog was bad all day. Saw numerous near misses and appalling displays of driving, the worst i've ever seen in 10 years driving.

-hundreds of drivers going around with no lights or useless parking lights
-drivers going far too fast for the conditions, not only was it foggy it was pretty icy too
-drivers tailgating each other and driving in long convoys too close to each other and too fast through dense fog
-worst of all, drivers overtaking blind into dense fog. I'm baffled as to why anyone would try this. I actually saw an artic driver do it, he overtook me and nearly had a head on with another artic coming the other way. I saw a few other near misses with cars overtaking. Hopefully these bastards die in a single vehicle crash sometime soon, that's what they deserve.

Based on what I've seen today plenty of drivers out there should be banned from driving for life. Might be a good idea sterilise them too so they don't pass on their Moron genes :rolleyes:

:mad: Still shocked at what i saw and feel lucky to have arrived home in one piece.

Sundy

Nice Corrado

Gandhi

CrowdedHouse wrote:

It annoys the hell out of me the number of people driving in fog with side/parking lamps only on(or sometimes none at all)These are useless in fog.It's particularly dangerous at junctions when trying to turn right.(like what might have happened in the pic)
Cars should be wired so that its not possible to use parking lights only when the engine is on.

I don't know why cars even have those stupid side lights. Might as well stick a couple of birthday candles on the dashboard. My '00 Jetta/Bora doesn't have them, which I thought would start a trend. But apparently not.

Borzoi

ronoc wrote:

Also why do people blank out license plates when they post car pics

Politeness if nothing else. This is the net, do you use your real name? (Hmm, possible humanities thread)

Similar story here to BrianD3 - drove Dublin - Sligo and back. Never saw sky untill 10 miles either side of Sligo and and coming back around Ennfield.

What would normally be a 2-1/2 drive each way, became 4 going, over 3 on the way back. Possibly the most stressful day of driving I've ever done for all the reason Brian pointed out - and yet on my way home there ewere still idiots without lights on.

TBH I was supposed to drive to Galway tomorrow but I postponed it, hopefully the wind will pick up and shift that fog, because I've no desire to repeat the experience.

Just like Irsh drivers don't know how to drive in snowy conditions, we've no idea in foggy conditions either

maidhc

Its not just Ireland that people cant cope with different conditions

Spanish drivers in rain are terrifying. They will still drive at exactly the same speed, despite the fact the roads are like glass after 3mths of sun and a deluge of rain. You will find the papers full of pictures of cars on their roof the morning after a deluge.

bazz26

Anyone notice that the people who use their fog lights when there is no fog are the same people who have them switched off when there is fog?

bmoferrall

BrianD3 wrote:

-drivers tailgating each other and driving in long convoys too close to each other and too fast through dense fog

The sad fact is that, if you leave the appropriate gap, the driver behind will probably slingshot in front of you.
I wonder is this territorial behaviour peculiar to Irish drivers?

I recall many years ago being aboard a Greyhound bus on a US interstate in torrential rain. Despite travelling at speeds in excess of 70mph, you couldn't fit a car in the gap between the bus and the vehicle in front.
Scary stuff at the time, and they were all at it.

I've since been to India and, frankly, they leave everyone else in halfpenny corner. Semi-orchestrated chaos - the occasional white-helmeted official can be seen waving a stick around like a baton.
The natives have obviously evolved bat-like sonar to avoid each other. I recall a family of four! on a scooter, weaving in and out of the delboy tuk-tuks and rusty Ambassadors, the mother's sari billowing in its wake.

mike65

Thats called local colour!

Mike.

Rudolph Claus

Anyone notice that the people who use their fog lights when there is no fog are the same people who have them switched off when there is fog?

Ehhhhhh,,,,, No I didnt actually!! :rolleyes: Did you just say that for the craic of saying something retarded?

Squirrel

mike65 wrote:

Just thought I'd post this piccy i grabbed this morning



Put your lights on and pay attention!

Mike.

Not in your merc Mike?

mike65

Nope at work so in the van

The car in the middle was coming out of Waterford and got struck by the estate coming from Tramore. I'd say the latter never even saw the former until they met. As noted above side lights are useless in such conditions.

Mike.

Squirrel

mike65 wrote:

Nope at work so in the van

Right so, just noticed it had at least 2 windscreen wipers, unlike the merc

The car in the middle was coming out of Waterford and got struck by the estate coming from Tramore. I'd say the latter never even saw the former until they met. As noted above side lights are useless in such conditions.

Mike.

What we need is advertising about how to use lights in this country

bmoferrall

bmoferrall wrote:

...India...Semi-orchestrated chaos...

A brief pause before the dance resumes:



Is that a helmet I spy

bazz26

Nuttzy wrote:

Ehhhhhh,,,,, No I didnt actually!! :rolleyes:

I witnessed this today, lots of cars with no fog lights on yet you could barely see 100 yards in front of you. Bet some of them drive on a clear night with their front fog lights on.

Nuttzy wrote:

Did you just say that for the craic of saying something retarded?

Yes, not quite up there with your enlightened response.

BrianD3

bmoferrall wrote:

The sad fact is that, if you leave the appropriate gap, the driver behind will probably slingshot in front of you.
I wonder is this territorial behaviour peculiar to Irish drivers?

Didn't see anyone leapfrogging in the fog and if drivers were tailgating I don't think they were thinking about preventing other driver leapfrogging. I believe they were tailgating because in fog drivers like to have a car to tailgate to "show them the way" :rolleyes: Highly dangerous thing to do and the cause of countless motorway pileups in fog in the UK.

Admittedly it is easier to see in the fog if you can see the lights of vehicles ahead. But it is essential to concentrate hard and leave a big gap so that if the traffic in front comes to a dead stop there is loads of time for you to react. Also it's easy to get sucked in to driving as at the same speed as the guy in front rather than at the speed appropriate for the conditions.

But going back to the leapfrogging I don't see it that much apart from in very heavy traffic such as at the westlink toll booths. If it does happen at faster speeds I don't see the harm if a driver wants to overtake into a gap ahead or leapfrog in a queue then let him, He'll probably be past the next guy in a few seconds anyway. He's only trying to make progress and I don't think he's really costing anyone time. Maybe the rest of the drivers in the queue are too timid to overtake even though it's perfectly safe. Of course that won't stop them "defending" the space in front of their car, if anything this is a better example of Irish driver's territorial attitude to driving.

bmoferrall

BrianD3 wrote:

But going back to the leapfrogging I don't see it that much apart from in very heavy traffic such as at the westlink toll booths. If it does happen at faster speeds I don't see the harm if a driver wants to overtake into a gap ahead or leapfrog in a queue then let him, He'll probably be past the next guy in a few seconds anyway. He's only trying to make progress and I don't think he's really costing anyone time. Maybe the rest of the drivers in the queue are too timid to overtake even though it's perfectly safe. Of course that won't stop them "defending" the space in front of their car, if anything this is a better example of Irish driver's territorial attitude to driving.

I guess I had in mind inappropriate inter-vehicle gaps in general; and particularly the dual-lane scenario, whereby drivers in the inside lane will nip into a gap in the outside lane if it's more than a few car spaces long (Irish Drivers abhor a vacuum :rolleyes: ), leading to the territorial behaviour that's so commonplace on m'ways and dual carriageways.

ambro25

The problem(s) with fog-driving in Ireland (along with just 'driving', if I may so generalise), is that drivers 'in general' (I'm considering here the amount of cars on roads at any one time today vs, say, 10 years ago) haven't had that long a time 'in all' to regularly experience extremes of wheather, e.g. thick fog, snow, extensive ice, and adapt driving and/or driving tuition (even if in Summer) to include such experience.

I come from NE France, where habitual temps in Winter are closer to -15C in the day / -20C at night, fog with 50-yards or less visibility and blizzards are a regular, weekly occurence during the 'Dark Months'.

[voice of experience, acquired the hard way]

Was once driving from Reims back to Strasbourg on A-roads, was very young & of course very daft + omniscient at the wheel, and knew the road like the back of my hand (e.g. knew where there was a mile-long straight, a bad right-angle turn, etc.).

So I thought nothing of overtaking in 100 yards visibility fog (at night) traffic moving at 30 mph or so and 'hopping' between cars in the queue -

'til I realised mid-overtaking manoeuvre that I'd started to overtake when approaching an island delimited with bollards (thick plastic grren ones) :eek:

I couldn't either (i) complete the manoeuvre or (ii) cower back in my spot in the traffic queue... and of course the dreaded oncoming headlights appeared :shudder, troiser-soiling moment:

luckily enough, I had just enough time to dive left (would be right in RHD countries, UK/IE) into the T-junction across from island and let the oncoming car past by my right, which justifiably had much horn going on. I've never once overtaken in fog since, ever

[/voice of experience, acquired the hard way]

Seth Brundle

mike65 wrote:

Put your lights on and pay attention!

and make sure you turn the fogs off afterwards!
Over the last two or three days there is a huge increase in numpties driving in rush hour traffic with rear fogs on dazzling the cars behind.
Most appear to be women and both men and women can't hear me beeping the horn beside them [as I try and get their attention to tell them] and are probably oblivious to everything around them!
I drive down the M1 last Sunday and met patchy fog along the way. If I felt it was necessary, I switched on the front fogs. There was definitley no reason for the rear lights as while it was tricky following the road in the dark fog, it was easy to see the rear lights of traffic ahead. Anyway, once I left the fog, the fog lamps went out! (Amn't I brilliant! )

WRT ovrtaking, I will never forget a time driving towards Dublin on the N4 in really heavy fog. You literally could not see 5 or 6 metres ahead. I was only able to steer using the side of the road as a guide - I was literally blind. I can't remember my speed but a car overtook me doing I reckon 60 or 70mph. I don't know how he made it home alive!

K2

I came across a car yesterday with none of the rear lights working, not even the indicators. I thought he/she had not put their lights on until they stopped and turned off the main road into westport, and I could see the front lights on.:eek: (the fog has been like peasoup here for the past few days, thankfully it has cleared today)

I have also noticed a trend among the boy racers in Westport and Castlebar to just put their fog lamps on - no other lights. How do these people remember to do complicated things like breathing?

VeVeX

mike65 wrote:

Just thought I'd post this piccy i grabbed this morning



Put your lights on and pay attention!

Mike.

Stop taking pictures while driving and pay attention!

unkel

VeVeX wrote:

Stop taking pictures while driving and pay attention!

Looks to me he was actually stopped in traffic because of an accident further up the road

Ronan|Raven

Driving to work the last few days has been fun. So many cars with NO lights on even though you cant see 10 feet infront of you. No fog lights or when they do use lights they use the parking lights. Best was moving along and all of a sudden a cow is staring at me from the back of a trailer with no lights on at all. Thankfully I was only doing around 20 at the time!

MercMad

Get this !

My colleague drove from Tralee to Dublin in the fog, this was his comment, I kid you not ...................." Each time I overtook someone I had to drive as fast as I could to catch up with the next car ahead of me so I could tailgate them home ! "

WFT ??

ballooba

unkel wrote:

Looks to me he was actually stopped in traffic because of an accident further up the road

Looks to me like people are causing a jam by slowing down to gawk at / take pictures of accident.