Penalty points for Litter

barryfitz

seamus wrote:

Yes it is.

There was a big thread on it but rubbish thrown out a car window, particularly cigarettes, have a tendency to hit a biker that's driving behind you, no matter what way you throw it out your window (it has to do with air currents).

Perhaps I should edit.

Is it anymore dangerous than someone throwing a lit fag or any other rubbish from the footpath In front of a biker.

ballooba

The motivation behind this proposal is nothing to do with road safety. We already have enough unenforced penalty point offences.

The approach to road safety in this country is a disgrace. The RSA must spend hundreds of thousands on silly tv ads every year that people just laugh at. That money would be far better spent on proper education initiatives rather than cheap tv drama.

DonJose

I'd like to see a large fine plus a couple hours community service cleaning the roads. OT : If I had my way I'd also like to see dole scroungers do a couple of hours litter collection every week. The waster next door to my old home hasn't worked a day in the last 20 years, this doesn't stop him spending all day in the bookies. Rant over.

Our man in Havana

Cue a high court challenge to this mad idea. It is not a traffic offence.

egan007

unkel wrote:

Gormley welcomes points for litter idea

What a load of rubbish

To be fair to John Gormley he is being mis quoted on this forum...

"The Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, has said that he thinks that punishing drivers who litter from their car with penalty points is a good idea in principle. "

and he was just answering a reporters question...

"The idea was raised by an anti-litter group which wants one penalty point to be imposed on every person who throws litter from a car or truck window."

Saying you agree with something in principle means that you agree that the problem exists and you recognise new measures are needed, it's not a total agreeement on the suggested implementation.

ballooba

John Gormely is heavily implicated in this madness. He actually said he is considering talking to Noel Dempsey about it. It's primarily an environmental issue, i.e. an issue for his Department not Dempsey's.

Guy:Incognito

Andrewf20 wrote:

Worst I ever saw was a car a few years ago dropping a full bag of McDonalds foods out the rear window.

If anyone knows the mill centre in Clondalkin, the state of th eplace is a disgrace. McDonalds pretty much have a person fuill time out picking up mounds of crap beign dropped out the windows of cars because people are too lazy t owalk over to the bin.

Personnaly I dont care if laws like this are brought in, the only way it will effect me is that (hopefully) i'll see less litter on the streets.

Cat-o-nine-tails is another method I'd like to see brought in.

mikemac

DonJose wrote:

I'd like to see a large fine plus a couple hours community service cleaning the roads. OT : If I had my way I'd also like to see dole scroungers do a couple of hours litter collection every week. The waster next door to my old home hasn't worked a day in the last 20 years, this doesn't stop him spending all day in the bookies. Rant over.

I suggest you read Major Guiliani's book. He got long-term unemployed people to work cleaning parks and do other useful work.

That had some great ideas in New York!

Kalashnikov_Kid

What if a passenger is caught littering, I suppose similar to the seatbelt law the driver would take the bullet.

That would be pretty harsh...

Our man in Havana

Kalashnikov_Kid wrote:

What if a passenger is caught littering, I suppose similar to the seatbelt law the driver would take the bullet.

That would be pretty harsh...

Nope, why should the driver take the hit? The idea won't fly anyways. There is already enough laws out there to deal with the problem. Just enforce them.

ballooba

Stekelly wrote:

Personnaly I dont care if laws like this are brought in, the only way it will effect me is that (hopefully) i'll see less litter on the streets.

Unless you are killed or injured in a RTA because one of the few Traffic Corp Gardai in the country was off dealing with an environmental issue instead of tackling the bad behaviour of the driver who hits you.

colm_mcm

maybe they should bring in penalty points for people who don't buy a TV licence, it makes about as much sense as bringing them in for littering

ballooba

colm_mcm wrote:

maybe they should bring in penalty points for people who don't buy a TV licence, it makes about as much sense as bringing them in for littering

An even closer analogy is to bring in penalty points for kerb crawling or drug dealing.

Miami Vice meets CHIPS.

colm_mcm

yeah, the thought of higher insurance and possible court appearance would make you think about dealing drugs!

cabla

good idea in a way, but is penalty points not supposed to be about how crap you drive?? Like imagine getting banned because you threw 12 peices or litter out the window?

Gran Hermano

Will I get penalty points if I have a puppy in the back of my car but don't
have a dog license?

colm_mcm

I think the puppy is allowed as long as there's a dog with a full dog license present, or if said dog is on their second provisional license.

Gran Hermano

Wasn't there an amnesty a few years back giving all puppies a full license
regardless of whether they'd been in a car or not?

If the Irish government keeps adding non-motoring offences to the list of 'crimes' warranting penalty points I'll be exchanging my Irish license for
a UK one.

colm_mcm

no, you're thinking of when they upgraded black and white dog licenses to colour ones in the 80's.

Our man in Havana

Gran Hermano wrote:

If the Irish government keeps adding non-motoring offences to the list of 'crimes' warranting penalty points I'll be exchanging my Irish license for
a UK one.

Can't and won't happen. It would be clearly unconstitutional. Penalty points can only be used for traffic offences. Not a snowballs chance in hell of it being expanded to cover non traffic offences.

\m/_(>_<)_\m/

egan007 wrote:

Bad idea because Penalty points were introduces to promote road safety.

Littering, while a bad problem, is not a road safety issue.

throwing items out of a car window while moving is a road safety issue. what makes you think its not...any action in a car that may effect another road user is a road safety issue...why wouldn't it be

Wossack

slap em with driving without reasonable consideration (2 points) and the pre-existing littering fine

ballooba

\m/_(>_<)_\m/ wrote:

throwing items out of a car window while moving is a road safety issue. what makes you think its not...any action in a car that may effect another road user is a road safety issue...why wouldn't it be

When it's raised as an environmental issue by an environmental interest group with no mention of road safety. That's when.