Fair play to the guards

Cyrus

Fair play to the boys in blue saw them out in force this morning on my way to work on that notorious accident black spot the stillorgan dual carriagway.

Checking for speed, hell no, not even catching people doing 62 in a 60 lane dual carriageway

No there was 6, yes 6, of them trying to catch people getting into the bus lane early turning left up to sandyford. now im all for catching these type of criminals ( iwas one myself a few weeks ago) but surely even one of the biys could have done a bit of random breathalysing action the night before instead, and save someones life rather than pick up a load of 60quid fines on a friday morning

priorities, it really annoys me, lives are being lost on rural roads with idiots drink driving meanwhile back at the ranch, tickets issued are up 50% but not a life saved

Kimbot

I have seen a big presance of them lately!! I was driving through clondalking last night and one raod that is a killer for people speeding had Gardai on it!!
They were stopping all cars and TBH as much as I hate them the fella last night was bang on, my tax is out since last month and currently I am waiting for the new dics, paid for it 2 weeks ago but still hasn't arrived. THe gard said nothing at all to me and was very pleasant!!

overdriver

Stopped last night at Glasnevin cemetary where it swings back around into Phibsboro.

2 of them trying to deal with 3 lanes of traffic, which was ok til the bean Garda had to pull someone. Then it got a bit out of hand, Felt sorry for them TBH.

SGKM

Couldnt agree with you more!! Its an absolute disgrace the way that they pick the easiest ways to generate fines for motoring offences,particularly speeding. They are always lurking behind bus stops,bushes and sign posts along the N11 with a speed camera on stretches that the speed limits are far too low.

And then they pat themselves on the back when the latest figures come out for the amount of people that they have caught speeding around the greater Dublin area when vast majority of the road deaths are happening down the country. It'll be very interesting to see where the fixed speed cameras go,will it be accident blackspots or places where the speed limites are far too low that will generate lots of revenue from fines???

SonOfPerdition

SGKM wrote:

Couldnt agree with you more!! Its an absolute disgrace the way that they pick the easiest ways to generate fines for motoring offences,particularly speeding. They are always lurking behind bus stops,bushes and sign posts along the N11 with a speed camera on stretches that the speed limits are far too low.

And then they pat themselves on the back when the latest figures come out for the amount of people that they have caught speeding around the greater Dublin area when vast majority of the road deaths are happening down the country. It'll be very interesting to see where the fixed speed cameras go,will it be accident blackspots or places where the speed limites are far too low that will generate lots of revenue from fines???

I used to have the same opinion. However, recently i've come to change my mind about speed traps and their location. I do belive that when it comes to location of fixed speed camera's they should be put in places that need reduction in speed to improve safety, they should be used to deter not to catch.

However the roaming mobile garda speed traps are different. Anyone who speeds tends to be a habitual speeder. *holds hand in air* So if you catch somone speeding in a nice stretch with a low speed limit it's quite likely that person is going to be speeding on the dangerous stretches too.

I've never been a big fan of the gardai, but in hindsight it's been mny own actions that brought me to their attention and i never accepted the responsibility for my own actions. Now i've come to realise that all those gardai that i thought were assholes were really only doing their job and i was the one with the problem .

To be perfectyly honest, these anti gardai posts/rants are becoming really tedious and do nothing for this forum.

Cyrus

well i for one dont speed on the n11 at all and generally tend to keep below 70mph in the main no matter where im driving, i do use the full 200bhp getting there tho

that said im appalled by the deaths on our road, and while someone speeding on the n11 deserves to be caught cos thems the rules it breaks my heart to see the amount of drink driving people get away with, especially in rural ireland, the focus is all wrong, the sooner they sort it out the better

all it would take in a rural town is a few people to get put off the road then the message would hit home

KerranJast

It'll be very interesting to see where the fixed speed cameras go,will it be accident blackspots or places where the speed limites are far too low that will generate lots of revenue from fines???

The experience in the UK and France has been that it's costs more to maintain the cameras than is collected in fines plus people know where the fixed speed cameras are and just slow down while passing them. The best system is the twin camera system that measures your average speed over a stretch of road. There's no way to beat that afaik. They are trialing it in Scotland. We definitely need fixed camera at all black spots. Really any section of road with a black spot i.e. lots of fatal accidents should be reengineered regardless if land has to be bought for a high price.

dubred

SonOfPerdition wrote:

So if you catch somone speeding in a nice stretch with a low speed limit it's quite likely that person is going to be speeding on the dangerous stretches too.

I am not sure this is true, there seem to be a lot of drivers who will drive at 80km/h regardless of the speed limit, particularly on dual carriageways where speed limits vary from 60 - 100 km/h.

babybundy

dubred wrote:

I am not sure this is true, there seem to be a lot of drivers who will drive at 80km/h regardless of the speed limit, particularly on dual carriageways where speed limits vary from 60 - 100 km/h.

there the dangerious ones they speed through villages and piss everyone off on the faster sections of road

kikel

Fair play to them. there has being a much bigger presence since the carnage a few weekends ago. they still aren't out in the right places (blackspots) but at least there is a presence now. Hopefully it will lead to people slowing down.

SGKM

The presence that they have currently on the roads is generally only places where they can get the speeding fines like Dublin dual carraigeways where the speed limit is 60km/h when it should be 80 or 100.

That is just for making themselves look good by saying that they have caught X amount of people speeding in the last X months and generating revenue through fines. Its a total disgrace and all it does is p1ss people off!! I drive the exact same way now as I did before they started blitzing Dublin particularly the N11 and so does everyone I know. All that I do now is look out for them hiding when I'm approaching the known speed traps. It would be very interesting to find out how many road deaths there have been on the N11 in the past 10 years!! I'd guess very few!!

There practice of catching innocent motorists on stretches of road where the speed limit is to low does little or nothing to stop road deaths. If they were catching people on country lanes with speed limits of 80 where many deaths have occured then that should have a major impact on the number of road deaths. But this is much harder and more expensive to do so they pick the easy way out.

dubtom

The Guards have of late been sitting on the approach and exit road at the airport roundabout (M1). The start of the M1 is an 80 zone which goes to 60 on the approach to the airport, it's three lanes wide with a very nice curve and is an open invitation to put the foot down so a checkpoint is probably justified, the exit on the other hand is not, you exit a roundabout and drive no more than 1/4 of a mile to another roundabout, but yet they stand or hide there waiting to catch someone, all but the most powerfeull of cars would make it to 100kph given the distance and traffic yet they seem to be there more and more.I don't blame the average guard for where they put their checkpoints or gatso's, I'm sure they don't pick the spot themselves and are just following orders, but it does seem to me to be a money making scheme. Anyone with the least bit of common sense, which the powers that be don't seem to have, would realise that putting a checkpoint on a main route at peak times, which I admit is my pet hate, doesn't infact catch speeders it just creates havoc for everyone. I have been stuck in traffic at the airport loads of times at peak times, waiting to get out of the airport only to see a lone guard standing at the upper rounabout with his hand in the air, his partner looking through a camera hoping to catch someone, all the while no one can reach 10kmh no mind 60.Why are their superiors not answerable for this.

GlennaMaddy

babybundy wrote:

...the dangerious ones they speed through villages and piss everyone off on the faster sections of road

Yes, pissing everyone off is something that'll have to be addressed in the future now that they seem to have the basic stuff sorted with penalty points.

One point for pissing off one driver, two points for pissing off two drivers, and so on:)


Driving in the overtaking lane on Motorways should be a penalty point.

Seth Brundle

I was out for a few (non alcohol) beers in Raheny on Tuesday and on my drive home (~11 or 12pm) I passed two dark coloured cars, one on the M50 and one on the N4. Neither of them had rear lights.
On the N32 a woman behind me in a 06 Megane coupé had her fogs on which seemed brighter than normal fogs.
I had someone in the right hand lane of the slip road at blanch cut across me and head into town.
On the back road between Clonee and Leixlip/Lucan I reckon I passed someone totally out of it judging by their driving.
I was getting fed up with it until I saw a DUI checkpoint outside my estate. Give it time and they will have the idiots off the road.
Maybe!

Spitfire666

Ok. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but people also need to realise that checkpoints cant be done on most "rural" roads as its not safe. picture it, a road just wide enough for two cars full of bends and twists. garda car pull in to do speed check. the car would need to be there as they need A) Light and transport if needed in a rush, now your down to one lane and a partial lane. now if somehow you manage to clock a speeder with the gun and stop them, there is nowhere to pull a car in in most "black spots" so the car blocks the road. then while dealing with the car, another car comes speeding around the bend and whipes the garda, the garda car, and little jimmy off the road for good. now what use was the checkpoint? then the argument switches from the garda not doing checkpoint in the right places, to the garda not doing the checkpoint in safe places. then we get another load of anti garda threads.
put simply, the roads are not safe for driving and they are even less safe for people to work on.

mdebets

KerranJast wrote:

The best system is the twin camera system that measures your average speed over a stretch of road. There's no way to beat that afaik. They are trialing it in Scotland. We definitely need fixed camera at all black spots. Really any section of road with a black spot i.e. lots of fatal accidents should be reengineered regardless if land has to be bought for a high price.

Would that not be more dangerous, as everyone who saw the first camera and was speeding would slamm on the breaks to decrease his average speed and thereby being more dangerous for eeryone following him?

DublinWriter

jonny24ie wrote:

I have seen a big presance of them lately!!

Of course you have, it's nearly the end of the calendar month and targets must be met!

Wishbone Ash

Cyrus wrote:

now im all for catching these type of criminals

Offenders - not criminals.

Seth Brundle

Criminals are innocent until proven guilty.
Motoring offenders are guilty until proven innicent.

junkyard

They should put Revenue.ie on the sides of the Garda cars because thats all they seem to be doing these days is collecting money. As I've said already driver education is the problem, you don't see the Government rushing out to employ more driver testers to ease the backlog of unqualified drivers. When you consider the money that's generated from fines and taxes its the least they could do.