Polish drivers

Rb

In fairness, the Polish licence tests are much, much harder than our own here, so whatever amount of them are driving here, I'd imagine the overwhelming majority would be good drivers.

The same can't be said for the Russians/Lithunians/Latvians though, who are often mistaken to be Polish.

Tha Gopher

ned78 wrote: »

Another thread on this? :rolleyes:

A minority of 'Polish' (Which seems to be the Irish term for Eastern European people these days) drivers give the majority a bad name, so let's have a knee-jerk piece of legislation run through the Dáil to stop them driving here. Brilliant. Sure that'll fix everything.

LOL Ah cmere now.....

Would you agree that in local newspapers drivers with Eastern names (not necessarily Polish) are up more often for traffic offences?

Or do the papers only report these cases and ignore the Irish cases?:rolleyes: Why defend bad foreign drivers? Without having any stats to back it up I would say it is a safe bet that in London between the 50s and early 90s Irish immigrants were disproportionately arrested for, say, drunk and disorderly, or bar brawls. Why should anyone defend them? There is no need to jump in roaring racist when its anything negative to do with foreigners. Racial sh1t stirring is if someone here stated that 90% of Poles here live off benefits, something that is clearly untrue. Stating that they are more likely to drink drive is, if you take most local newspapers as an example, a fact. If you dont like it, tell the Poles/E Europeans in general to stop drink driving at a higher rate than the Irish, then nobody will have any grounds to complain.

Id certainly agree they are probably a minority. However, they are a large minority. What is the problem in simply admitting that yes, a larger proportion of drivers from abroad are poor drivers? Its more like lying to yourself really. Spanish and Italian people are woefully dangerous cyclists, I nearly get glanced by them once or twice per week going to and from work. Is it racist to think that these people should need a licence to cycle, seeing as such a large proportion are clearly unskilled at it?

Kintarō Hattori

rb_ie wrote: »

In fairness, the Polish licence tests are much, much harder than our own here, so whatever amount of them are driving here, I'd imagine the overwhelming majority would be good drivers.

I can't believe I just read that!

hosi

Hi all,
I'm one of Polish drivers here in Ireland. I'm here a guest in your country so basically I don't complain about things I see here. They are as they are, no discussion about it.
But if you are discussing Polish drivers' recklessness, let me share with you my impressions. I hold driving licence for 12 years (no accidents). I was driving a lot in Poland and Germany. After two years spent behind a wheel in Ireland I can say:

1. The way how people become drivers here was a shock, not only for me! I would say for most of foreigners. Initially I was thinking it's a joke! How is it possible that people without any medical tests (sight test is also a joke) can just like that after sitting theory test drive on public road! This of cource is being reflected in the way how L-drivers behave on roads...

2. Irish drivers are in a deep shock when they drive 40 km/h and are being overtaken! How could I??? How I dare to drive faster than 40 km/h!!!

3. I hold polish driving licence, and no, I'm not going to apply for an irish one.

4. You complain about drunk Polish drivers but don't forget which country has the highest alcohol consumption in Europe? You know best. You think, drivers are not affected?

5. Cliche known in entire Europe: what is "the irish way of driving?" See above :rolleyes:

And so on...


Please don't get me wrong guys. Each society has its own black sheeps. So please don't generalise that bad Polish drivers are drunk. I'm the best example that they aren't

One more thing I want to clarify, in general in Poland you get insurance which is valid in entire EU by default.


ps. My English is not perfect, therefore thank you for your understanding in advance!

Tha Gopher

hosi wrote: »

4. You complain about drunk Polish drivers and don't forget which country has highest alcohol consumption in Europe? You know best. You think, drivers are not affected?

In fairness most young Irish drivers who drink will never get behind the wheel with even a pint in them. The reason being that if caught they are effectively not going to drive again for years, insurance companies are relectant enough to take on anyone under 25, they wont touch them if they have a conviction.

Some older folk still drink and drive but among the young its way down.

Blazer

I wouldn't go by Nationality either when classifying bad drivers.
I work in Dell where about 30% of the workforce are polish and the majority of them are good drivers. You get the odd few lunatics alright but I see way more bad Irish drivers..
eg On outside lane of Dual carriage overtaking cars...doing approx 105-110kph.
Meet woman (irish) in car ahead of me (golf) who's doing 90kph on the outside lane. Give her time to pull in as the nearest car is approx 300 yards ahead but she doesn't. By this time I now have approx 15 cars up my ass on the outside lane being held up by this stupid bitch..
I flash my headlights which I hate doing (looks like a prick) and what does she do? Looks in her rear view mirror giving me abuse and then indicates left, and then brakes rapidly down to approx 60kph. Had to swerve my car around her on the left and then overtake her, at which point she started waving her fist at me and screaming. If I hadn't swerved I would have hit the stupid bitch and the 15 cars behind me in the lane would have hit me thus resulting more likely in deaths and serious accidents. I was so close to stopping my car at the next roundabout as she was still right behind me but I decided not to..I've a pretty vicious temper when raised (extremely rare) but I've have probably slammed her head through her window if I had so I kept going.
About 2 miles further down the next dual carriageway what did I find..another dozy bitch doing 85kph in an old banger again on the outside lane.

When oh when are people going to realize that the outside lane on a dualcarriageway is for overtaking only.The amount of bad drivers I meet everyday is frightening and 99% of them are Irish.
As one polish guy said "It's true that polish sometimes drive on the wrong site of the road, however it's always true that the Irish always drive in the middle of the road". Laughed when I heard that thinking how true it is.

Lawdie

hosi wrote: »

4. You complain about drunk Polish drivers but don't forget which country has the highest alcohol consumption in Europe? You know best. You think, drivers are not affected?

http://www.finfacts.ie/Private/bestprice/alcoholdrinkconsumptionpriceseurope.htm

Is there newer stats than this? From this report Ireland is not the "highest" in consumption.

hosi

Mathew Reilly wrote: »

I wouldn't go by Nationality either when classifying bad drivers.

Me neither, but this is being discussed diligently in this thread by others :rolleyes:

Female drivers? No comment...

Lawdie wrote: »

http://www.finfacts.ie/Private/bestprice/alcoholdrinkconsumptionpriceseurope.htm

Is there newer stats than this? From this report Ireland is not the "highest" in consumption.

OK, it was last year or so. It was loud about it in newspapers... But it is not my point anyway. Let's say "very high" if you don't like "the highest" :rolleyes:

Edit: Ireland - 13,6 who gives more?

nytraveller

Mathew Reilly wrote: »

eg On outside lane of Dual carriage overtaking cars...doing approx 105-110kph.
Meet woman (irish) in car ahead of me (golf) who's doing 90kph on the outside lane. Give her time to pull in as the nearest car is approx 300 yards ahead but she doesn't. By this time I now have approx 15 cars up my ass on the outside lane being held up by this stupid bitch..
I flash my headlights which I hate doing (looks like a prick) and what does she do? Looks in her rear view mirror giving me abuse and then indicates left, and then brakes rapidly down to approx 60kph. Had to swerve my car around her on the left and then overtake her, at which point she started waving her fist at me and screaming. If I hadn't swerved I would have hit the stupid bitch and the 15 cars behind me in the lane would have hit me thus resulting more likely in deaths and serious accidents. I was so close to stopping my car at the next roundabout as she was still right behind me but I decided not to..I've a pretty vicious temper when raised (extremely rare) but I've have probably slammed her head through her window if I had so I kept going.
About 2 miles further down the next dual carriageway what did I find..another dozy bitch doing 85kph in an old banger again on the outside lane.

When oh when are people going to realize that the outside lane on a dualcarriageway is for overtaking only.The amount of bad drivers I meet everyday is frightening and 99% of them are Irish.
As one polish guy said "It's true that polish sometimes drive on the wrong site of the road, however it's always true that the Irish always drive in the middle of the road". Laughed when I heard that thinking how true it is.

Why cant we just pass them on the inside like alot of other countries allow????? Maybe we need an update to the rules of the road.

ejmaztec

nytraveller wrote: »

Why cant we just pass them on the inside like alot of other countries allow????? Maybe we need an update to the rules of the road.

I find that if they think you're going to get past them on the inside, they tend to pull into the slow lane because these people seem to be barking mad, the same as those psychos who put their foot down when you try to overtake, despite the fact an oncoming vehicle is approaching fast.

Attempted murder, I think would be an adequate description.

teetotaller

I just read all posts and some of u are racists.....

(racists - this chapter below is for your attention)

Just try to think what would happen here in Ireland if all eastern european, british ( u can't say that u love british right ? ) , german etc decide to go back to their countries. So many jobs were created for immigrants that it could be a problem for Ireland if plenty of managers and bosses would became jobless. R.I.P > Celtic Tiger ??

I want to answer few of your questions

- U don't need to change EU DL for Irish.
- U can't get penalty points right now if u have polish or eastern european DL, but it is going to be changed soon - some smart heads from EU are working on this. Now penalty points are stored only in database, but when new system will be launched - all penalty point will be added to DL's and some of people will loose it.

- if u are sent by gards to court for dangerous driving - u can't loose DL, - it wasn't given by Irish goverment it can't be taken by Irish goverment ( the same rule is in every country) but u can get ban from sitting behind steering wheel, u can go to prison etc.

- u can drive polish reg plate car here with Polish insurance for a short period of time only - nobody knows how long is this time cos there is no clear instruction from irish goverment. Polish insurance works in Ireland.. both are EU countries



there are few hundred thousands Eastern European's here - it can't work like this that there won't be any accidents with EE involved.

Somebody asked "why he can see in papers more information about accidents with EE than with Irish "

I can ask why in polish papers and online polish papers I can read more information about polish victims of Irish scumba** than vice versa ???

It is natural in every country that u say louder about what foreigners did than what your street mate did.

Some of u say that we can't drive

yes u are right - we can't drive well in Ireland - why ?

becouse we think that u have the same skills as everyone else in europe.
and not all of us know that there are more L and non L drivers on irish roads who completely can't drive than us foreigners.

- cos we need to spend 30 hours in car with instructor, then 20 hours with instructor (theory) then we can pass theory and practical exam) If we pass we can drive on our own on the streets - If u don't have full DL u can't drive a car without instructor.

(of course 50 hours is not enough to be perfect driver - but if u learn basics - u know how to improve your skils)

- we learn how to drive with high speed, how to overtake, how to use indicators how to think while driving, how to use emergency lights if there is a sudden trafiic on the road.
- we learn how to drive dynamicly and how to use high speed lane and slow lane speed

- you - my irish friends don't learn at all.
you can sit in a car for first time in your life and u can drive.

and u are driving ............

40km/h on 80km /h speed limit road - then u are shocked that somebody overtook u. - it is dangerous - cos roads are narrow and u can't always overtake safely. it is dangerous, becouse in the dark some of irish from incoming traffic are not using proper lights
( In Poland there are no day lights - u use these lights only when u stop on the side of road, and when your car is not visible for others. - It is regulated by law that u must use your night lights 24h/ day !!)

and everyone of you can confirm that u get mad when it is dark and u see fecker driving towards you with switched off or day lights.....


On the motorway some of you driving 90km/h while 120 km/h speed limit on the right lane of motorway are shocked that somebody else is trying to overtake from left or right "snail". U are flashing lights beeping, but no Snail - KING OF The Road must use higher speed lane !!!

On the national roads with one wide lane each direction it is natural for us foreigners that if u are overtaking snail and there is incoming traffic , slow drivers and income drivers are moving to hard shoulder to help you to keep your speed. In Ireland it is natural only for trucks drivers ( maybe they are all foreigners? ) all other drivers loves to drive as close as possible to the middle of road.

some of u are not using indicators , have u ever meet situation when somebody driving thru 2 lanes roundabout was using both of them ?

that are basic differences - and maybe that is why some of us foreigners cause dangerous situations.




Somebody wrote that we should pass theory test before driving on irish roads ................

I think that all of you who are smart knows that these theory tests are for stupids......... they are so easy that u can easily pass it using your intuition and brain...

- no any junction's situations
- no any situations with trams - who can go first who second
- no any junctions with 6 or 8 roads crossing in one place etc.....


and questions like

u see an emergency vehicle behind u - what u do

a) nothing
b) stop suddenly in place where u are
c) move to the side of the road , ensure that emergency V has clear way to go ............





If u didn't understand me with any sentence I wrote before u start saying that I'm idiot who can't speak english - ask me and I'll try to rewrite it using different words.


and just to let u know - I have many irish friends who can drive very well and says that I'm right with that what I wrote.



2 words about me

I live in Dublin 3,5 years, I drive my car here 2,5 years
I know how to drive on your narrow roads and motorways
I have small 1L polo so I don't have leg made from stone or steel
I never drive drunk ( see my nickname)
I never drive more than 5-10 km over the speed limit and on every motorway or national road I always overtake more than 90% cars on the road.

hosi

teetotaller, I couldn't put it better myself!!!

Traumadoc

Most crashes I see are caused by Irish people, they should be banned frm driving!
Seriously everyone for years has been saying when they visit Ireland how bad the driving is here.
You also have to remember the populaton of immigrants to Ireland tends to be 20-50 years, this will statistically skew the number involvd in Fatal RTAs as this is the age group that are killed in RTAs.

but I suppose its a chance for the" some of my friends are polish" brgade to have a racist rant.

MrJoeSoap

hosi wrote: »

teetotaller, I couldn't put it better myself!!!

Having spent that long writing a post you think they might have used the word "you" every now and then.

Traumadoc

Go on have a go.

Traumadoc

Gran Hermano wrote: »

I'm pretty sure I heard in the latest figures that the National Safety Council
released this week detailing the breakdown of penalty points allocated
show that 20% of all penalty point offenders are driving on non-Irish
licenses. Now unless 20% of all motorists in Ireland are driving on foreign
licenses this would indicate to me that those driving on foreign licenses
are more likely to commit break traffic laws.

I am also aware that many Irish people drive on foreign licenses, often as
a means to avoid penalty points. The only way to circumvent this loophole
is to ensure that points earned in Ireland are applied to all foreign licenses.

Many of these people caught on non-irish licenses are Irish ( Northern Ireland)- do we need to re-educate them as to the rules of the road?

We need popultion matched statistics here, not xenophobic anecdotes

keefg

Traumadoc wrote: »

Seriously everyone for years has been saying when they visit Ireland how bad the driving is here.

Not only is this very true but Irish drivers are also considered to be a hazard when driving abroad.

I drove professionaly for years (haulage) all over Northern Europe and when you are on ferries or in truck stops etc. I would hear loads of other drivers (English, French, German & Dutch mainly) complain about how reckless Irish truckers are on "their" roads (so it's not just the provisional license holders).

Coming from a country that obviously has a high standard of driver tuition I can understand why Teetotaller & hosi would object to this criticism when our own drivers can pay twenty euro (or whatever a provisional licence costs now) and jump into a car and think that they can drive. That's just crazy and our own government needs to drasticaly overhaul our own system before pointing any fingers at "Those Foreigners".

ejmaztec

Unfortunately, anyone can "teach" someone to drive in Ireland, without any training qualifications whatsoever.

teetotaller

I'm happy that some of u agree with me.
But don't understand me wrongly
I don't say that all Irish are bad drivers as same as I don't say that all EE are good drivers ( I spend some time as well reading polish forums for people in Ireland and i read - " I was doing 170km/h when Gards stopped me - what can happen in court ? " .......... I always answer that I hope that judge will send him to prison for a long years.) etc, etc, etc


I want to put your attention on fact that if we are not profesionally trained at the begining of our adventure with car - we can't see our mistakes and we can't correct them we don't know that we are causing danger on the road while driving 40 on 80 km/h road or 80 on 120km/h motorway. We think then that we are good drivers cos we were never involved in any accident. But true is different.

anyway who knows how to use correctly indicators while driving on roundabout???? Cos I see as many answers as cars on the roads.


MrJoeSoap - sorry that u had to read so long post, but sometimes when I miss exact words I need to prepare a long speech to inform english speaking people about that what I want to say

juuge

ned78 wrote: »

Another thread on this? :rolleyes:

A minority of 'Polish' (Which seems to be the Irish term for Eastern European people these days) drivers give the majority a bad name, so let's have a knee-jerk piece of legislation run through the Dáil to stop them driving here. Brilliant. Sure that'll fix everything.

So it's a minority that gives them a bad name, like a minority of dicky priests, a minority of crooked politicians, solicitors, doctors etc..... The same excuse always seems to be...it's only a minority ! What a load of rubbish !

hellboy99

ned78 wrote: »

Most of the lads are excellently disciplined drivers with observational skills that would put any Irish driver to shame.

You should be on the roads out my way then, you'll soon change your opinion. The amount of PL reg cars, especially BMW's, I meet on a weekly basis on my side of the road coming round a bend or over taking on the brow of a hill is a joke. And before you say it could be an Irish person that has the car no sane Irish man or woman would go near them as the majority of them would never go through an NCT.
And why is it they can go round with blue bulbs in the side lights and not be done for it :mad:

Stark

purplengold wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/aertel/110-01.html

What are the rules and regulations for foreign drivers in Ireland?
Are they allowed to drive on licences issued in their own countries?
Are insurance policies issued in their home countries valid here?

Any EU license is as good as an Irish license. As for the insurance, it depends on the terms of their particular policy. It is possible to get insured by an insurer in another country for driving in Ireland if the insurance company will take you.

Oh and Irish teenagers never kill themselves in car crashes, no siree.

valdigre

The truth is as always somewhere in the middle...

Statistics show clearly, that Poland has one of the highest amounts of road accidents in EU, those non fatal and fatal ones. There are many reasons for this: bad quality of roads, drinking and driving, crazy youngsters racing in their tuned up crap, foolish pedestrians etc.
Statistics show, that Polish drivers are not the best in Europe but statistics are not objective, there is 37-38 million of us there.
As with most of the cases, it is a certain amount of people that make a bad opinion for others, in each country you will find those good and the bad guys.

Being a Polish immigrant and a driver I must say, that I like driving in Ireland. I think that people drive here slowly, without any rush, safely, no pressure but...

They sometimes drive too slowly and for example on wrong lanes.
Third, fastest lane is always blocked by someone that is using it for normal cruising instead of overtaking. What I see often is a ridiculous driving style from "L" drivers, who often don't know how to move the car from stop, not to mention how efficiently join in the traffic, without blocking others waiting behind him...
teetotaller mentioned most of the sins Irish drivers make, and I fully agree with him.

Should I generalize and say, that Irish drivers are bad?
No, because examples teetotaller and I gave are not about all Irish drivers, but just some.

You have no idea how many Polish drivers nowadays drive cars on Irish plates and if each and every of us was a bad driver, then there would be a massacre on those roads.

Generalization is never fair and true

Stark

valdigre wrote:

Polish statistics show clearly, that this country has one of the highest amounts of road accidents in EU, those non fatal and fatal ones.

Ireland or Poland?

teetotaller

Poland

MadsL

Actually it is very difficult to compare accurately;

4.2.2 Impediments Facing Countries That Do Not Provide Data
The main factors that have impeded national reporting institutes from providing hospitalised victim data to IRTAD are incomplete reporting of hospitalised data (Czech Republic, Iceland, Ireland and Switzerland); the use of definitions that are inconsistent with the IRTAD definition (Austria and Hungary); traffic collision or hospital medical records report forms that do not contain data elements specifying the cause of injury (Korea and Poland); and responsibility for the collection of data resting with state or local
governments rather than national agencies (the United States).

International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD)
http://www.oecd.org/document/53/0,2340,en_2649_34351_2002165_1_1_1_1,00.html

craichoe

I live in Holland and to be honest i don't think its a specific thing with a specific country being worse than the other.

Generally speaking

The Belgians drive like nutjobs in Holland and vice versa
The Dutch and the Belgians drive like nutjobs in Germany
I find myself constantly slightly over the speed limit on a motorway because of the difference between the three, 120 in Holland, 130 in Belgium and none in Germany.

I think the mentality just changes when you get to a another country.

I was driving out toward blackpool one day and a Polish reg nearly t-boned my car with my 6 month old nephew in the back seat. I think he just go confused and didnt know which set of lights applied to him.

On the other hand, i find myself here sometimes sitting at lights wondering:

Can i go ??? ..

Or worse... find that your sitting in a tram/bus lane..