Traffic cops on the prowl!

mike65

Checking speeds, tax/insurance, pulling someone for random breath testing (a trucker at 9 am!). I guess this might be another passing "crackdown" (!) or maybe it signals something else. The action was in Cork, Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny and involved unmarked cars in two cases.

Mike.

mloc123

Didn't notice any stopping today on my way to work, I did notice allot of the 'Traffic Corps' cars about tho'

franksm

Got stopped on the M1 near Balbriggan on the way to Belfast - unmarked Mondeo, nice car. He checked my license and asked if my insurance covers me for south as well as north (I have yellow plates) - luckily I keep a copy of the insurance schedule with me, so when he saw the wording he let me go on.

What's odd is that I got stopped by the PSNI on the new link north of Newry an hour later, they checked my insurance too. Wonder what gives. When I told them about being stopped by the Garda for the same thing, he says "it's like they say, pigs are the same the world over"

LOL - his words not mine

Wickedcat

well, with the way drivers drive and weighing road accidents lately, it is just but right to be pulled down for some check..it's for all the motorists protection, and not a crackdown.:cool:

the_syco

I've noticed it. Walking home a few times, I've seen the Gardai @ bottle necks checking people's insurcae tabs, and the odd young man for alcohol.

R.O.R

There was a checkpoint (about 6 Garadai) on the N1 south of Drogheda at 06.30 on Monday morning. Stopping both south and north bound traffic. Think they were checking tax, insurance and breath testing the odd driver. I got waved through but the van driver in front was pulled over for a breath test.

CJhaughey

I don't mean to sound like a *rick but this is a good thing, People are always rattling on here about bad driving habits, speeding and general discourteous road behaviour so the more enforcement there is the better the situation should become.
Plus anyone that has been drinking and driving should bend over and take the consequences.

Seth Brundle

@ CJ - nobody said anything to the contrary.

seamus

I've seen less checkpoint of late. Are they concentrating outside of the M50?

mike65

Re CHaughey - tis a good thing. Practical policing.

Mike.

Jumpy

Guys there is a simple answer for this. Look at the date. They are filling quotas.

mike65

Hmmmmm! Is there really a quota or merely a suspicion of one for the purposes of fullfilling an urban legend?

Mike.

layke

Yup Jumpy, Month end/start they are always out.

Quota filling time.

Seth Brundle

@Mike - at the AGSI or GRA conference last year their president informed the audience that meeting targets was not the method of enforcement they wanted.
Seemingly, if a station had insufficient catches they could lose a man to a better performing station.

Rew

Iv been on the M7/N7, M4/N4, N2 and M1 alot recently and I havn't seen any Garda presence.

Fey!

kbannon wrote:

@Mike - at the AGSI or GRA conference last year their president informed the audience that meeting targets was not the method of enforcement they wanted.
Seemingly, if a station had insufficient catches they could lose a man to a better performing station.

Could that be that the station with less catches could be deemed as having a smaller problem, wheras the station with more catches has a bigger problem, so juggle the manpower to where the bigger problem lies and more bodies are needed?

the_syco

mike65 wrote:

Hmmmmm! Is there really a quota or merely a suspicion of one for the purposes of fullfilling an urban legend?

Mike.

Its not an urban legend. Me mates a Garda, and he says he must fill a quota.

Seth Brundle

Rew wrote:

Iv been on the M7/N7, M4/N4, N2 and M1 alot recently and I havn't seen any Garda presence.

There may have been plenty of unmarked patrols though.

Fey! wrote:

Could that be that the station with less catches could be deemed as having a smaller problem, wheras the station with more catches has a bigger problem, so juggle the manpower to where the bigger problem lies and more bodies are needed?

The statement (which I can't find on google now) gave the impression that the gardai almost regarded it as a punishment.

Funxy

R.O.R wrote:

There was a checkpoint (about 6 Garadai) on the N1 south of Drogheda at 06.30 on Monday morning. I got waved through but the van driver in front was pulled over for a breath test.

I have no problem with checkpoints and i must say i've seen so many more of them this year then last year. But i must say it does sometimes worry me when they breath test randomly in the early mornings. You know from 6am-11am. I'm always worried if you went out on a big night the night before and lets say went to bed about 1am and had been drinking all night, then got up about 9am and headed off on your journey, that you could still be over the limit, but feel perfectly fine because of all the sleep you've got. Am i the only one who worries about this?

Supercell

N81 - fish in barrel section yesterday (60k zone on nice open road just before Cabinteely villiage turnoff northbound and the limit changes to 80k about 20 yards away)

There was SUV driver in front of me with kids going mental in the back and as a result she was driving under 60 (thankfully) while loads of people where whizzing by at around 80k which tbh is totally safe on that stretch of road.

The Gardai had a whole line of drivers pulled over to get their tickets.
Imho..given the date I did wonder wtf they were doing there (I drive there regularily and by now know this is a honeypot so am very careful to drive "slowly" compared to the others just passing through) and why where they doing this on a perfectly safe stretch of road with a silly speed limit rather than on a genuinly dangerious spot to be speeding..unles they were making up quota's .
Hand on heart, cannot say i've seen them there any other time bar near the end of a month.

ninty9er

layke wrote:

Yup Jumpy, Month end/start they are always out.

Quota filling time.

Just had a conversation with 2 friends where we concluded the exact same. Come next monday they'll all be back in the station suppin coffee again

Sizzler

franksm wrote:

Got stopped on the M1 near Balbriggan on the way to Belfast - unmarked Mondeo, nice car. He checked my license and asked if my insurance covers me for south as well as north (I have yellow plates) - luckily I keep a copy of the insurance schedule with me, so when he saw the wording he let me go on.

Havent seen them do that with any PL/LT/LV/CZ reg cars though, yellow plates seem to be a much easier target dont they :mad:

miju

mike65 wrote:

Hmmmmm! Is there really a quota or merely a suspicion of one for the purposes of fullfilling an urban legend?

Mike.

i was told by a Garda in Cavan when i got a fine for having my tax out of date that "while the reason for it being out of date was acceptable he had targets to fulfill and gave me the option of confiscating car or a fine"

(car was new hence no tax BTW)

seamus wrote:

I've seen less checkpoint of late. Are they concentrating outside of the M50?

i think they might be because in all these crackdowns ive not come across a checkpoint in a loonnng time (i'll hit one tomorrow now for saying that though )

darkflower

knowing how bad irish drivers are...(knock knock):mad: find it okay to be stopped and pulled for a while for inspection.:rolleyes: this way, we'll slowly learn the lesson of good driving!;)

Rew

kbannon wrote:

There may have been plenty of unmarked patrols though.

Lots of people hitting 140-160kph on some of those roads so if there were unmarked cars I reckon they would have been pulling people left right and center.