Lack of lights in poor visability

LFCFan

After a lot of media attention to motorists not lighting up in poor visability since the N7 crash, it is frightening the amount of people who still don't turn their lights on. I was on the M7 yesterday during some pretty heavy rain (heaviest I've experienced while driving in Ireland). Visability was shocking. 50 metres at best on a couple of occassions yet there were still loads of cars with no lights on at all, or some with only their parking lights on. It beggers belief that people are so stupid and oblivious to the dangers. And not wanting to drag up the whole Men v Women debate again, but the vast majority of offenders were women. In one case it was a woman in a People carrier with 2 kids in the back and unbelted. What was really annoying though was the Garda car up on one of the Garda banks on the side of the road witnessing all these idiots. There should be signs up all over the place telling people to light up in poor visability. It's only blind luck that there aren't more pile ups in these situations.

Also, why are some surfaces used on the roads that throw up a lot more spray then other surfaces. On the new Ashbourne bypass for example there's 1 section that results in very poor visabilty in wet conditions because of the spray yet on another section there's practically no spray and visibility is fine, even in bad rain. Why isn't this surface used on the entire road?

Alun

LFCFan wrote:

Also, why are some surfaces used on the roads that throw up a lot more spray then other surfaces. On the new Ashbourne bypass for example there's 1 section that results in very poor visabilty in wet conditions because of the spray yet on another section there's practically no spray and visibility is fine, even in bad rain. Why isn't this surface used on the entire road?

I remember from when I lived in Holland where they used a lot of that stuff (called ZOAB there, no idea what it's called here, sorry!) on the newer motorways. From what I recall it was a lot more expensive than the normal asphalt, and surprisingly in the dry the braking distance was longer than for the normal stuff. I also believe they had some problems in the beginning with it degrading quite quickly too.

Agree with you on the lights thing though, drivers here appear to not have the faintest clue when it comes to lighting up at appropriate times and in certain weather conditions.

afatbollix

i told 3 drivers to turn on there lights at 10 pm last night when i walked the 100 meters to my car... the 3 of them were women.. 2 with L plates.. idiots...


( they had no lights on, not even there side lights)

RobAMerc

it should be the law here to have lights on ALL of the time or at the very least - Wipers on Lights on. My neighbour was very badly injured as she tried to overtake a truck in the rain only to have an oncoming car appear out of the mist and hit her head on - ( of course it was her fault ), and I recently avoided the same fate when an oncoming car didn't think it necessary to light up at 10.30 at night on the main Cork Dublin route !

As I have said multiple times before the lawmakers here don't give a fiddlers fu*k about your safety unless theres a revenue generation angle to it so don't hold your breath.

LFCFan

RobAMerc wrote:

As I have said multiple times before the lawmakers here don't give a fiddlers fu*k about your safety unless theres a revenue generation angle to it so don't hold your breath.

Well, if everyone had their lights on all the time, they would use slighly more fuel which would mean an increase in fuel tax Maybe someone should highlight this to the useless shower of muppets in The Dail and they might do something about it!!