Erratic Garda Driving

Vikings

I'm going to have to agree with Chief on this one, who knows why the Garda was driving like that... maybe it was the end of his shift or maybe he was dealing with a Garda issue, as we dont know its easy to throw out accusations.

I'm pretty sure everyone here has seen far worse driving on our roads than the driving of our Gardai yet you wont see half as many posts about those nutters as you will the Gardai. And I know that the Gardai are/should be trained drivers but without knowing all the facts give them a break, for all we know he was trying to catch up with a lunatic driver further on and the OP wouldnt get out of his way?

And it's more so every driver on the roads who think they are above the law than the Gardai, why else do we see so many posts complaining about the Gardai when people are caught speeding or doing doughnuts in industrial estates

tallaghtoutlaws

Normally im the first to defend the Gaurds but after last night Im not. At the N81/M50 roundabout lights about to head northbound on the M50. Light was red then went green. Two cars in front of me.

Driver 1 was in a world of his own messing with his dashboard and Driver 2 a Guard messing with something on his centre console.

After 60seconds of the light being green I tapped the horn to let them know there was a green light both heads jumped up to move their asses. The guard didnt take kindly to it though.

As we hit the slip road the unmarked car lit up and pulled over and as I went by he followed me onto the M50 and then pulled me over.

He told me Im not allowed to beep my horn at lights as it was against the law. My words "Guard 60 seconds had gone by and neither your car or the one in front had moved. I was simply letting you kno the green was lit."

This pissed him off he start making up bull**** then by saying I was starting to speed down the sliproad and was on my phone. Now ask incredible bulk above me here my van couldnt speed even if I wanted to. As for the Phone bs how would he know he wasnt even paying attention the twat.

He became very rude and a twat. So I simply asked him to charge me with something and let me on my way and I also asked him for his number and name. At this point he walked off and that was that. Got his licence plate and took his description and reported the fooker this morning.

Some of the garda are decent guys doing their jobs others are just pr*cks.

Nephew

ned78 wrote:

I've yet to see a Garda car actually driving 50kph.

Actually on the N11 just before Kilmac, its a 50km zone because of the roadworks. There was a squad car in front of me in the inside lane doing exactly 50km/h. When some gob****e came up in the outside lane doing about 65km/h, he slowed down to 50km/h when he seen the cop car ahead, he continued at this speed for a few seconds. When all of a sudden he decided it would be a good idea to speed up and overtake the squad car at 65 or 70km/h in a 50k zone. Needless to say the blue lights went on and he was pulled over. What a bloody moron, 2 points for complete stupidity.

Wishbone Ash

tallaghtoutlaws wrote:

After 60seconds of the light being green I tapped the horn

Do you really expect us to believe that you waited 60 seconds before you "tapped the horn"? Most traffic light sequences don't wait that long before changing. :rolleyes:

tallaghtoutlaws

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Do you really expect us to believe that you waited 60 seconds before you "tapped the horn"? Most traffic light sequences don't wait that long before changing. :rolleyes:

Yes they do 1minute 33 secs timed them earlier tonight. And I dont give a flying fook whether you believe it or not. Both morons should have been paying attention for the green light not messing with their radios or whatever etc etc.

Oh and Ash yes I tapped the horn why put it in "". I drive for a living im no boy racer moron and I knew the car in front was an unmarked Garda car. I wasnt born yesterday.

Wishbone Ash

tallaghtoutlaws wrote:

Yes they do 1minute 33 secs timed them earlier tonight

Fair enough but that would be quite unusual.

tallaghtoutlaws wrote:

And I dont give a flying fook whether you believe it or not.

Charming! Why bother posting then?

tallaghtoutlaws wrote:

im no boy racer moron

I didn't suggest that you were. But now you've sown that seed of doubt!

tallaghtoutlaws wrote:

I knew the car in front was an unmarked Garda car

Which begs the question why did you wait 60 seconds before you "tapped the horn"? I would have waited about 5 seconds!

colm_mcm

or probably given them a little nudge

tallaghtoutlaws

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Fair enough but that would be quite unusual.
Charming! Why bother posting then?

I didn't suggest that you were. But now you've sown that seed of doubt!


Which begs the question why did you wait 60 seconds before you "tapped the horn"? I would have waited about 5 seconds!

Why wait because there is the difference between beeping impatiently and pushing hard of the horn or letting the two drivers know politely with a tap on the horn. If I had have slammed the horn after 5 seconds the Garda would pulled staright away no question. By tapping I presumed he would leave it but obviously he didnt the tool.

And I have sown the seed of doubt Brilliant why don't you just come out and say it now sewn the seed is taking the long way round calling me a moron Ash. Cant be seen to call someone names as a moderator no??

Oh and Im far from a boy racer. I dont or have I ever driven a modified car of any sorts I despise them. I drive vans mainly. Current Van a renault Kangoo.

Wishbone Ash

tallaghtoutlaws wrote:

Oh and Im far from a boy racer. I dont or have I ever driven a modified car of any sorts I despise them. I drive vans mainly. Current Van a renault Kangoo.

Relax tallaghtoutlaws. You keep bringing up boy racers. I've never referred to you as one.

tallaghtoutlaws wrote:

Cant be seen to call someone names as a moderator no??

No. I'd lose my substantial boards.ie salary, perks, bonuses, expenses, car, beer money etc. It's not worth it.

ballooba

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Which begs the question why did you wait 60 seconds before you "tapped the horn"? I would have waited about 5 seconds!

It may not be on the driving test, but you generally don't beep your horn at Garda cars or any other behaviour likely to piss them off.

unkel

colm_mcm wrote:

or probably given them a little nudge

LOL! Sometimes trolling = good

McSpud

Guard in squad car driving behind me on the Old Cabra road to Hallons Corner last week in the morning. He is just tipping along as traffic backed up from the corner. As soon as I stop in traffic with him behind me he flips on the siren & skips all the traffic down to the junction & heads towards Phoenix Park HQ.

It would be some coincidence that he just a call at that very moment, seemed more like he didn't fancy waiting a few minutes in traffic :rolleyes:

dubtom

Turning the siren on and skipping the traffic is surley a perk of the job isn't it. Just like if you work in a chinese you get extra curry sauce,or the county council you get to do nothing, or a teacher you get every second tuesday and thursday off and call them training days. Personally I have no issues with Garda speeding or skipping the Q in the chipper, it's a perk.

Fey!

dubtom wrote:

Turning the siren on and skipping the traffic is surley a perk of the job isn't it. Just like if you work in a chinese you get extra curry sauce,or the county council you get to do nothing, or a teacher you get every second tuesday and thursday off and call them training days. Personally I have no issues with Garda speeding or skipping the Q in the chipper, it's a perk.

...or taxis stopping anywhere!!! (couldn't resist!)

Rovi

The thing is though, Chinese restaurant staff, county council staff, teachers, and taxi drivers have no power or authority (or 'duty') to invoke sanctions on anyone else who eats extra curry sauce, does nothing, takes Tuesdays and Thursdays off, or parks anywhere.

MarkN

dubtom wrote:

I do have a problem with sh*theads with clifford alarms that can go woo woo and not a real guard in sight to catch them.

A Clifford alarm can HARDLY be used as a siren in a moving car. :rolleyes:

colm_mcm

I was driving a white jeep once, there was a fault with the alarm, so it kept going off, had to drive a few miles down the road. Everyone got out of my way!

ballooba

colm_mcm wrote:

I was driving a white jeep once, there was a fault with the alarm, so it kept going off, had to drive a few miles down the road. Everyone got out of my way!

Sister's bf had the lights in his Passat go funny on the way into work one morning, they started flashing on and off. The traffic cleared to let him through, so felt he had to do so. He said he was too embarassed to just sit there with the lights flashing. :rolleyes:

Longrangedriver

ballooba wrote:

Sister's bf had the lights in his Passat go funny on the way into work one morning, they started flashing on and off. The traffic cleared to let him through, so felt he had to do so. He said he was too embarassed to just sit there with the lights flashing. :rolleyes:

I had an incident a few months back when I was driving at night on the Naas Rd.
I had to stop at the lights at the Kylemore Rd-Walkinstown Ave Junction, next to Nissan Ireland. Now I had a snooper radar detector on the dash, and it went off for the camera at Bil Griffins garage, with the LED's flashing real bright red and blue, all of a sudden cars in front started to move out of the way. Luckly the lights changed and I took off ahead and kept going, needless to say I was embarassed to hell.:o

unkel

dubtom wrote:

Turning the siren on and skipping the traffic is surley a perk of the job isn't it

I was going to post something very similar. It's the Garda's prerogative. Not for us to know if he's in a situation that calls for a certain behaviour, or if he's just skipping the queue or something

dubtom

MarkN wrote:

A Clifford alarm can HARDLY be used as a siren in a moving car. :rolleyes:

Yes it can, they have a panic button and a choice of about 10 different alarm sounds,among which is a police siren.

seamus

Let's be perfectly honest here; 99% of us, assuming that we could, would use the siren to skip the traffic, or drive down the bus lane every now and again.

There isn't a police force in the world where this doesn't happen. Except maybe Israel. They just bulldoze the other vehicles out of the way.

antodeco

Agreed. I would do the same. However, when their actions could cause a danger to the general public, thats where a line needs to be drawn. Most of the time any gardaí I encounter are very corteous and pleasant, but as with everything out there, its the bad ones that make it worse for everyone else!

ctc_celtic

bring this post back on topic.
can people on these boards not see the blatantly obvious, or do you perfer to pick holes in the obvious answer.
the incident with the OP was the garda provoking a response from the driver, as the OP said in his post.

The garda seen the OP speed up to pass out.
when the garda reached the OP he was back to within the speed limit. the garda assumes the OP has a tendency to speed, and will speed again.
the garda moved out to indicate he was going to pass, to see if the OP would speed up and break the speed limit.
gardas know that people are more weary (think its a garda) when a car speeds up behind them, but doesn't pass out.
the act of moving out to overtake will reassure people that it's not a garda.

everybody knows the kind of driver that would speed up because they see a car trying to overtake. these drivers are the ones garda will target, as they drive recklessly.

the garda in question might have been over zealous (epsically if the OP seen more dangerous driving)
This OP's incident is what the unmarked traffic corps cars are for, to see how drivers drive when they don't think a garda car is about.

event

Kaiser2000 wrote:

Ah you gotta love Boards really..

Someone highlights an incident where there is clearly no legitimate excuse for a Garda's behaviour, and the usual suspects jump in to explain that (in this latest case) the Garda was weaving all over the place because he was probably responding to a call??

......

Far too many people on this website are apologists for the Gardai when the evidence is there to show there are a lot of individuals in the force that are corrupt, incompetent and abuse their authority. Don't believe me? Ask the victims of that abuse, or the (all too few) Gardai that have been prosecuted for it!

true

you also have the same people who love to jump in and make claims of widespread incident of this with no proof.

and the hilarious people who make jokes about takeaways.

BTW, how many would you define as 'a lot of individuals in the force' ?
can you show us this evidence?

KeRbDoG

antodeco wrote:

Hi Folks,

Was driving down chapelizod by-pass lat night around 10pm. Speed limit there is 80. Went upto 100 for around 5 seconds, overtaking a car and dropped back down (Anyone who knows the road knows how it easy it is to go over the speed limit. Empty dual carriageway downhill). Around 5 seconds later a mondeo flew down behind me, and started drving around 2 foot from my bumper. I could see there was one driver, but couldnt see the roof to see if it was a garda (aerials). I assumed it wasnt seeing as he was in the car on his own.

Anyway, he then swung out beside me and maintained the same speed as me right beside the car. Swung right back behind me again. repeated this 2 or 3 times. Then He overtook and flew off, then I saw he was a garda(1 front, 1 rear, 1 bullet aerial). The way he was driving was so dangerous. I got the feeling he was doing it to get me to speed up so he could catch me for speeding. I then saw him a few minutes later weaving in and out of traffic around the lucan/palmerstown roundabout. I just couldnt believe the way he was acting and could have caused a severe accident if I wouldve had to jam on the breaks.

Has this ever happened to people before?

Did yea get the number plate number? Why not report it and ask if it was a guard or not?

Marcus.Aurelius

OP, sorry to hear you were given such a fright by that driver. But pls be aware that you cannot be sure it was a Garda, and reporting him/her could lead to their dismissal. Unlike other jobs, if a Garda is dismissed, he/she loses all pension rights, no matter how close they are to retirement.

It's unfair to both parties that some guards aren't much good, but he could have been looking out for someone v dangerous, and you can forgive him for being nervous himself. We never know what's really going on.

Jumpy

Ok. I admit to say I am not proud to have clicked on this thread thinking it was about "Erotic Garda Driving"

_Kaiser_

event wrote:

true

you also have the same people who love to jump in and make claims of widespread incident of this with no proof.

and the hilarious people who make jokes about takeaways.

BTW, how many would you define as 'a lot of individuals in the force' ?
can you show us this evidence?

*sigh* the usual response of a Boardsie who knows (s)he's wrong (and/or is a Garda themselves or has friends/relatives who are) so resorts to asking for links. :rolleyes:

Clearly you think these things don't happen and anyone who has a problem with the keystone cops brigade we call a police force MUST be making it up, right?

Watch the news, read the papers (incident reported regarding Blanch Gardai last weekend in the Sunday Tribune for example) or even read some of the other Gardai-related threads all over this site (including ones I've posted extensive examples of Garda corruption and incompetence in) and then come back to me!

murphaph

The only professional drivers the Guards have are their motorcycle ones. They have to go to England for training. Embarrasing if you ask me. We should be able to train ALL our Gardai in defensive driving and train certain units in high speed pursuit. What do the PSNI do in that (smaller) country?