Gardai not wearing high viz

Del2005

Driving into work this morning and on the N4 the Gadrai had a van pulled over, squad car in front with blues on. I slowed down as I anticapted a Garda getting out. Just as I was coming to the back of the van I saw a black shape appear, it was 2 Gardai. Are Gardai supposed to wear high viz when doing traffic duties? And even if they aren't it's very dangerous to be walking around on a 80km road in the rain dressed in black. I've seen this several times now where Gardai pull a car and get out dressed in full black on busy roads. They are putting themselves in danger because people will look at the lights and won't see a dark blob.

machiavellianme

Theres no law saying they must wear it. The official navy uniform will suffice. Motorists on the other hand are supposed to drive with due care and caution towards other road users. This includes slowing down in the event of a hazard (any car pulled to the side of the road is a potential hazard). Besides, a dark blob could be a loose cow/horse, would you take that risk?

Potential-Monke

They might not have been on traffic duty. They might have followed him while on normal patrol. It's not required to wear the high vis during the day, but it's recommended as it's makes them, well, more visible!

Del2005

machiavellianme wrote: »

Theres no law saying they must wear it. The official navy uniform will suffice. Motorists on the other hand are supposed to drive with due care and caution towards other road users. This includes slowing down in the event of a hazard (any car pulled to the side of the road is a potential hazard). Besides, a dark blob could be a loose cow/horse, would you take that risk?

I know you are supposed to drive with due care, which is why I slowed down. But they are putting themselves at unnecessary risk by walking at the side of a road in dark clothing. Also with the blues on most people would be like moths attracted to the lights and not paying attention to the road.

Potential-Monke wrote: »

They might not have been on traffic duty. They might have followed him while on normal patrol. It's not required to wear the high vis during the day, but it's recommended as it's makes them, well, more visible!

Is there no high viz in the cars that they could have put on. You can hardly walk past a building site now with out getting hassle for high viz, yet the Gardai are working in a dangerous enviroment and putting themselves at added risk by not wearing high viz. I've also seen them stopping on single lane roads at night and moving around without high viz, surely self preservation should come into play.

This was a 6am on a rainy morning.

culabula88

i thought that the high viz jackets were now gone from the uniform altogether. When the new ( most recent ) uniform was released I remember most of the guards changing to the blue short jacket.

- is the high vis jacket still part of the present uniform. Some of the guards who are wearing high viz could have it from the previous released uniform,

Previous to this nearly every guard had to wear or wore a high viz jacket. They wore them when they were on the beat around town or on traffice duty.

I thought that the high viz jacket was removed from the release of this uniform as the guards were aware of possiblity of impersonation by / confusion with security companies etc. and so went back to the traditional blue.

Personally , i think they should wear the high vis as they can be more easily seen and the presence provides a deterrant to most crime.

Jay112

culabula88 wrote: »

i thought that the high viz jackets were now gone from the uniform altogether. When the new ( most recent ) uniform was released I remember most of the guards changing to the blue short jacket.

- is the high vis jacket still part of the present uniform. Some of the guards who are wearing high viz could have it from the previous released uniform,

Previous to this nearly every guard had to wear or wore a high viz jacket. They wore them when they were on the beat around town or on traffice duty.

I thought that the high viz jacket was removed from the release of this uniform as the guards were aware of possiblity of impersonation by / confusion with security companies etc. and so went back to the traditional blue.

Personally , i think they should wear the high vis as they can be more easily seen and the presence provides a deterrant to most crime.

Hey there
The Hi-viz with the navy colour on the top 3rd of the jacket are the ones issued with the current garda uniforms.

Traffic corps have the Hi-viz bomber jackets with no navy (all yellow) on them.

I dont think the Gardai would remove the Hi-viz just because of the possibility of confusion with security companys, if anything the Security companys are the ones who would be worried about confusion of the Garda Hi-viz.

Just my 2 cents

vasch_ro

in accordance with Health and Safety Legislation they are supposed to be worn on Traffic related duties

casey212

They have also stopped wearing the high vis jackets when on the beat in Dublin. This is annoying when you are trying to keep you distance from them.

listermint

why would you be trying to keep your distance from beat guards casey?:)

casey212

listermint wrote: »

why would you be trying to keep your distance from beat guards casey?:)

Well, I like to tour around the town at night drinking a few cans of devil's bit while debating the merits of various nightclubs before making the obvious choice.

My rulers tend to take offence at this activity, and as a result one must always keep those eyes peeled.

Turner

vasch_ro wrote: »

in accordance with Health and Safety Legislation they are supposed to be worn on Traffic related duties

Plain clothes gardai and detectives on traffic duty (armed checkponts) only have to wear the blue flak jackets with garda written on it, there is no high viz available for them. The old red high viz bibs were replaced by these flak jackets.

I thought the health and safety act didnt apply to gardai as their job was way to dangerous to try and employ any safety guidelines.

Thats why their cars dont have to pass the nct.
Thats why garda stations can be in the dangerous states that they are in.
Thats why they dont have the necessary tools to carry out their duties safely (pepper spray, tasers etc) as their employer does not have to provide them with a safe work enviroment.
They dont have to have the necessary 8 hours break between shifts (arrest a joyrider at 5am in the morning towards the end of their 10pm-6am shift and they are still required to be in court the next morning at 10am with the accused)

casey212

Chief--- wrote: »

I thought the health and safety act didnt apply to gardai as their job was way to dangerous to try and employ any safety guidelines.

Thats why their cars dont have to pass the nct.
Thats why garda stations can be in the dangerous states that they are in.
Thats why they dont have the necessary tools to carry out their duties safely (pepper spray, tasers etc) as their employer does not have to provide them with a safe work enviroment.
They dont have to have the necessary 8 hours break between shifts (arrest a joyrider at 5am in the morning towards the end of their 10pm-6am shift and they are still required to be in court the next morning at 10am with the accused)

Surely all Garda know what they are getting into when they apply?
As for tasers, I assume you are joking, I'd take a bullet any day before a hit from one of those. How would a garda be provided with a safe work environment? Chip everyone?

Less of the sob stories.

Fyr.Fytr

Its no sob story its the truth he was stating in response to an above post that gardai infact are exempt from h&s legislation


On this note i came accross a road traffic accident and stopped to help, first aid wise, most of the guards on scene were wearing hi-vis bar two off duty gardai who stopped to give a dig out








BTW i was wearing my hi-vis

Random

I reckon they should always wear their high-vis where possible when dealing with traffic, stopped cars on the road etc.

Fyr.Fytr

Yea but there is also the fact that if hey wear it all the time its ineffective

Look at yellow hi-vis once apon a time it was rare to see someone with one on and you paid attention now today every tom dick and harry has one

Despite wearing a two tone one with ambulance written on it i still get asked if im security etc

cushtac

Chief--- wrote: »

Thats why their cars dont have to pass the nct.

You'd be very hard pressed to find a vehicle in the Garda fleet old enough to warrant being NCT'ed.

TheNog

cushtac wrote: »

You'd be very hard pressed to find a vehicle in the Garda fleet old enough to warrant being NCT'ed.

that's true very few in the fleet are old enough but I bet you that most of the cars even if they are fairly new would fail the NCT due to them being crashed. Our main car is a 07 model mondeo and 2 months after its first major crash the engine fell out of it. I mean literally it fell onto the road. After the second major crash the tracking and balance of the tyres has gone to crap on it. Every 2 weeks it goes into the garage to be tracked and balanced. None of the crashes were due to the drivers fault though. It was down to other drivers hitting the patrol car through driver error in both cases.

TheNog

The Hi-viz for the rank and file gardai is not very good in the dark. One night we were operating a checkpoint involving two cars with four of us. We are were approx 100 metres apart. Two lads were wearing the Traffic jackets, they were quite visible to us and myself and my mate were wearing the regular hi-viz but we couldn't be seen.

Del2005

Fyr.Fytr wrote: »

Yea but there is also the fact that if hey wear it all the time its ineffective

Look at yellow hi-vis once apon a time it was rare to see someone with one on and you paid attention now today every tom dick and harry has one

Despite wearing a two tone one with ambulance written on it i still get asked if im security etc

Would you not rather be though of security then hit by a car when on the side of the road? They are forcing everyone to wear it for safety.

TheNog wrote: »

The Hi-viz for the rank and file gardai is not very good in the dark. One night we were operating a checkpoint involving two cars with four of us. We are were approx 100 metres apart. Two lads were wearing the Traffic jackets, they were quite visible to us and myself and my mate were wearing the regular hi-viz but we couldn't be seen.

Where there cars with lights on around? Only asking cause this may be the issue, sh!t gear again. Can't believe they issue non high-viz high-viz

TheNog

Del2005 wrote: »

Where there cars with lights on around? Only asking cause this may be the issue, sh!t gear again. Can't believe they issue non high-viz high-viz

Yeah we had both our cars which were facing away from each other obviously and we had the Mepro lights on the road too. The lads could only know we were there cos we had our torches on.

Random

I was driving into the Phoenix Park last night and I had to swerve madly to the right. There were 4 guards standing chatting at the driver side of a car that was pulled in with 2 lads they'd taken out of it. Cars behind me had to do the same ! Madness.

There was no flashing blue lights, no high viz jackets.

Very dangerous if you ask me! But anyway ..

source

here's the thing about hi viz jackets, On traffic duty ie checkpoints and point duty they're all well and good, but the general work of the gardai is made a lot easier by the fact that the uniform is so dark......for instance, you have some little scrote trying to break into a house or shop in a town, he's much less likely to see two navy figures walking towards him than two lads in high viz with torches.

so you see the high viz has it's place, but generally not worn while on patrol, and if the gardai in the op's post were just on a general patrol, they may have pulled this guy in and didn't have time to put on their jackets, maybe the blue lights on the car would have warned that the gardai would be out around the vehicle they'd pulled over.....they certainly didn't pull it over to look at it through the rear view mirror.:rolleyes:

Eru

TheNog wrote: »

that's true very few in the fleet are old enough but I bet you that most of the cars even if they are fairly new would fail the NCT due to them being crashed. Our main car is a 07 model mondeo and 2 months after its first major crash the engine fell out of it. I mean literally it fell onto the road. After the second major crash the tracking and balance of the tyres has gone to crap on it. Every 2 weeks it goes into the garage to be tracked and balanced. None of the crashes were due to the drivers fault though. It was down to other drivers hitting the patrol car through driver error in both cases.

Ours has been in 5 crashes and still being used!

You know Labour laws dont apply to us either???? Or civil such as defamation of character?

TheNog

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

Ours has been in 5 crashes and still being used!

You know Labour laws dont apply to us either???? Or civil such as defamation of character?

I know!!!!:cool:

Our cars should be rigourisly (how do you spell it?) tested after fixing it up. A test that is more comprehensive than the NCT. The car should be made safe for the members in it and for the public too.

msg11

TheNog wrote: »

I know!!!!:cool:

Our cars should be rigourisly (how do you spell it?) tested after fixing it up. A test that is more comprehensive than the NCT. The car should be made safe for the members in it and for the public too.

Rigorously (firefox spell check, just after noticing it can't spell fire fox)

Well I shall be keeping my distance from the patrol car in future, do not want no engines falling out onto my car .

I say you must have got an awful fright?

Also, is it not an automatic rite off ?

willyjoe

I always see them around cork standing with the speed cameras without their high viz jackets.A couple of places when they stand in their dark uniforms you dont see them until its too late.probably why they do it