LHD/Foreign Vehicles

Victor_M

Anan1 wrote: »

The half who weren't driving at the time presumably are.

Yes but percentage you quoted from earlier was a mixture of total fatalaties (driver & non drivers) vs foreign drivers only so you are picking and choosing figures to support your arguement.

Anyway, getting back on topic. It is far more dangerous overtaking with a LHD car in an RHD country, I don't care what anyone says, by the time you can see the far side of the road ahead from behind a HGV you are already on the other side of the road.

And Tetroness, no, all of the other vehicles on the road should not perform evasive manouvres to facilitate ****e driving. Tourist from Warsaw or not.

missmatty

I'm only driving daily for a month, on my second provisional. I was nearly mashed yesterday by a Latvian reg car driving erratically. This was twice in the space of the ten minutes or so he was ahead of me. And I was keeping well back from him. Switching lanes horizontally without indicating or checking mirrors. I have no beef with foreign drivers but my experience isn't exactly positive so far

Marcus.Aurelius

Anan1 wrote: »

9+11 makes 20, not 40, ie in 14.2% of fatal accidents the driver was a non-national.

I said it because it's true. Is that ok with you?;)

I was quoting the chairman who said 40 out of 140, perhaps he was mistaken.

Ah tis grand Anan1, I don't mind at all!

Anan1

Victor_M wrote: »

Yes but percentage you quoted from earlier was a mixture of total fatalaties (driver & non drivers) vs foreign drivers only so you are picking and choosing figures to support your arguement.

I think if you look back you'll find that wasn't me.;)

Victor_M wrote: »

Anyway, getting back on topic. It is far more dangerous overtaking with a LHD car in an RHD country, I don't care what anyone says, by the time you can see the far side of the road ahead from behind a HGV you are already on the other side of the road.

No, it's not. There are perhaps fewer opportunities to overtake in a LHD car, but that's not the same thing. If you can't see you can't go, regardless of where the wheel is.

Victor_M wrote: »

And Tetroness, no, all of the other vehicles on the road should not perform evasive manouvres to facilitate ****e driving. Tourist from Warsaw or not.

I think a little common-sense should apply here.

lafors

Terrontress wrote: »

Let me tell you about some people. They don't like Eastern Europeans but they fancy the women. They don't like the way the Easterners take all those jobs they have no intention of doing themselves. They go on about certain sections of society who can't drive, even though the standard amongst the Irish is woeful. There is a word for this sort of behaviour which begins with R.

Unfortuately I'm only getting to reply now as I'm on nights this month.....
Terrontress are you trying to insinuate I'm a Racist??
Don't like easterners? Fancy their Women? Take the jobs? What are you on about, you don't even know me?
Are you trying to troll?

Terrontress wrote: »

There is nothing to suggest that this person you encountered was not over on a driving holiday from Warsaw for a week yet you would have him stripped of his license and car.

He probably thought to himself "ridiculous Irish roads, littered with trucks and no passing places and then when I find one; someone on the other side of the road accelerates towards me."

I'm not even going to respond to your argument seeing as you don't seem to have properly read my post.

Hagar thanks for answering the "many" questions I put forward.

After calming down a bit today, and reading what most have posted, I do see I'm not the only one thinking the same thing. I'm not saying that the Irish are great drivers, far from it, but if deaths are to be reduced on the roads the govt need to target all areas, which is not only Irish drivers but the increasing number of drivers living here from the EU.

I do remember hearing before the election last year, that there were going to start to do driving safety adverts in Polish (not picking on any nationality!!), I still haven't seen one.

mackerski

lafors wrote: »

Terrontress are you trying to insinuate I'm a Racist??

I won't speak for Terrontress, but it's a possible conclusion of anybody reading your rant. Or maybe I've misunderstood what you meant by "these drivers".

Victor_M

mackerski wrote: »

I won't speak for Terrontress, but it's a possible conclusion of anybody reading your rant. Or maybe I've misunderstood what you meant by "these drivers".

"These drivers" = Non nationals driving LHD cars in Ireland, not even a hint of Rascism!

It's a comment regarding unsafe driving, made unsafer by the side of the car he was sitting on and his reckless disregard for other road users, I still can't get over the fact that it's not safe to mention anything non national without hyper sensitive PC'ers throwing the R word about.

craichoe

Victor_M wrote: »

"These drivers" = Non nationals driving LHD cars in Ireland, not even a hint of Rascism!

It's a comment regarding unsafe driving, made unsafer by the side of the car he was sitting on and his reckless disregard for other road users, I still can't get over the fact that it's not safe to mention anything non national without hyper sensitive PC'ers throwing the R word about.

I drive a RHD on the Continent, theres ZERO difference in safety with LHD vs RHD. As i said before the only difference is at toll gates, multistory car parks and Mc Donalds.

i.e. for the overtaking argument, if you can't see ahead of you then don't overtake, common sense really.

Again though, this really is more about the non-irish/non-uk not giving a toss because theres very little the gardai can do.

IT HAPPENS ALL OVER FRIKKING EUROPE PEOPLE .. why do people think Ireland is special in some way ?

peasant

lafors wrote: »

I'd love to know the stats for LHD or foreign vehicles involved in accidents in the past few years. Its about time the govt. actually went about doing something about it. Can any licence be transferred to an Irish one? Do these drivers even transfer their licences? I assume they have to register their cars here after being here for a certain amount of time, do they? If they are don't does that mean their insurance is valid? Do they pay tax on their vehicle here? If they don't do most of these things then why would anyone expect them to obey the rules of the road?

Time for a few grand sweeping statements, methinks:

1) Ye Irish can't drive for sh*t
2) Your so called licence isn't worth the paper it's printed on, judging by the standards you need to "achieve" to pass the test
3) Your driver education is a laugh
4) Most of your so called driving instructors can't drive properly themselves
5) Half of you on the road haven't even got a "full licence" or "instructions"
6) Your police force doesn't give a toss about road safety (other than speed) or enforcing existing legislation.
7) ...neither does your governement.


and yet you worry about a few people in LHD cars driving like idiots?

Sure, they're only trying to blend in :D:D

Victor_M

craichoe wrote: »

I drive a RHD on the Continent, theres ZERO difference in safety with LHD vs RHD. As i said before the only difference is at toll gates, multistory car parks and Mc Donalds.

i.e. for the overtaking argument, if you can't see ahead of you then don't overtake, common sense really.

Again though, this really is more about the non-irish/non-uk not giving a toss because theres very little the gardai can do.

IT HAPPENS ALL OVER FRIKKING EUROPE PEOPLE .. why do people think Ireland is special in some way ?

Infairness I agree with you, it's only topical on here because it's quite evident on the roads with the LHD difference, in the rest of Europe the steering wheel is on the same side from country to country. It's only the regplate that shows any country of registration difference.

As for the no difference what side the steering wheel is, in theory there is very little difference, in practise you have to concentrate a lot more to stop your self tending towards the side of the road you normally drive on.

A lot of the fatal accidents involving non national cars have been head on collisions brought on by the drivers being on the correct side of the road in the wrong country.

mackerski

Victor_M wrote: »

"These drivers" = Non nationals driving LHD cars in Ireland, not even a hint of Rascism!

If you can't see the racism inherent in the text above, then I'm amazed. Complain about behaviour if you like (reckless driving). Complain about inappropriate equipment if you particularly want an uphill argument (the LHD car).

But once you extrapolate the daft behaviour of one single (assumed) foreign driver to draw conclusions about other foreigners the R word will never be far away. Not that you're the OP, obviously, he needs to speak for himself on this one. To me it has echoes of the kind of discussion that usually involves the words "they come over here...".

And can we please ditch the term "Non national"? C'mon, folks, everybody's from somewhere.

Hagar

It think the assumption that people drive LHD cars are foreigners / non-Irish nationals whatever you want to call them is fair and 99% accurate. Not many Irish people drive LHD cars with foreign regs in Ireland.
People see me in a RHD drive car in France and say "Look a foeigner". Am I upset? Is it inaccurate? Is it racist? Not at all, just the simple truth. This topic has nothing to do with racism. It's a fact that foreigners often drive foreign regged cars.

craichoe

Victor_M wrote: »

Infairness I agree with you, it's only topical on here because it's quite evident on the roads with the LHD difference, in the rest of Europe the steering wheel is on the same side from country to country. It's only the regplate that shows any country of registration difference.

A lot of the fatal accidents involving non national cars have been head on collisions brought on by the drivers being on the correct side of the road in the wrong country.

Its quite evident here from the plate, the Belgians drive like total a$$holes on Dutch roads, dangerous overtaking, speeding, bombing the wrong way down a street.

As for the no difference what side the steering wheel is, in theory there is very little difference, in practise you have to concentrate a lot more to stop your self tending towards the side of the road you normally drive on.

I've been driving with a RHD on the continent for some time now ... so its not in Theory, its in Practise.

You could say the same about driving in Germany, they drive on the same side of the road as the dutch and belgians, but the rules are not the same, they have junctions that don't exist in Belgium or Holland and they have Autobahn without speed limits.

lafors

mackerski wrote: »

If you can't see the racism inherent in the text above, then I'm amazed. Complain about behaviour if you like (reckless driving). Complain about inappropriate equipment if you particularly want an uphill argument (the LHD car).

But once you extrapolate the daft behaviour of one single (assumed) foreign driver to draw conclusions about other foreigners the R word will never be far away. Not that you're the OP, obviously, he needs to speak for himself on this one. To me it has echoes of the kind of discussion that usually involves the words "they come over here...".

And can we please ditch the term "Non national"? C'mon, folks, everybody's from somewhere.

"Do these drivers even transfer their licences?"
This is where you are picking the "these drivers" quote from, now tell me where you get any hint of racism in that quote?
As Victor has pointed out "these drivers" in the context I used it refers to the drivers of LHD/foreign reg'd cars in Ireland.
I think maybe you and anyone else who is reading too far into this needs to step off the PC bandwagon.

The original point of the thread was to tell what happened to me and from that "possibly" get some opinions/debate on the issue of accidents/road deaths on our roads with the increasing number of vehicles (LHD included) from other EU countries on our roads........obviously though on boards some people like to jump in with big brushes and tar, and accuse you of something, even though they actually don't know one single thing about you, Shame really, boards use to be a nice place to post.

PS...Peasant, I do agree that we Irish may not have the best nation of drivers, but we most certainly don't have the worst

mick.fr

maoleary wrote: »

Commissioner Conroy: Yes. The total number of fatal collisions is 126 so it is a high percentage.

126 victims is too high for sure, but less than the previous years.

mick.fr

And in fairness lots of Irish drivers have non-Irish licenses.
And surprisingly I have seen quiet a lot of Irish drivers driving a LHD, cause they were back from the US and brought their car over.
All of them told me they prefer automatic and LHD and will never switch back.

Even if passed their DL in Ireland and drove here for many years before going to the US.
They also have no problem driving on the left and bypassing, like most of the LDH drivers.

mackerski

lafors wrote: »

"Do these drivers even transfer their licences?"
This is where you are picking the "these drivers" quote from, now tell me where you get any hint of racism in that quote?

Nope. But plenty in the rest of the post, which is where we discover who the "these drivers" actually are. if I've picked you up right, the ones you're concerned about are those in LHD cars. But not the Irish ones, only the foreigners. Oh, and re-reading the quote you've focused on, it seems like foreigners that trade in their licences might be spared your wrath, even though the law doesn't actually require them to do so.

Victor_M

mackerski wrote: »

Nope. But plenty in the rest of the post, which is where we discover who the "these drivers" actually are. if I've picked you up right, the ones you're concerned about are those in LHD cars. But not the Irish ones, only the foreigners. Oh, and re-reading the quote you've focused on, it seems like foreigners that trade in their licences might be spared your wrath, even though the law doesn't actually require them to do so.

Amazingly the PC brigade are still commenting on anything but the OP's original comment about terrible driving.

Lets not forget that the law does require them to register their car in Ireland if they are working and living here more for more than 30 days, "they" might have a little more respect for the rules of the road if "they" were fully registered and tracable.

If "they" respected our laws and registered as "they" should there would be tens of thousands less foreign registered cars to pass comment on, we could refer to them as LHD Irish cars, thus offending no one.

mackerski

Victor_M wrote: »

Amazingly the PC brigade are still commenting on anything but the OP's original comment about terrible driving.

Name calling is a poor substitute for a reasoned argument. Is the liberal agenda not somehow to blame as well?

Victor_M wrote: »

Lets not forget that the law does require them to register their car in Ireland if they are working and living here more for more than 30 days,

No it doesn't. It requires those staying long enough to be deemed resident to re-register. And I certainly won't deny that a lot of drivers don't fulfil that obligation.

Victor_M wrote: »

"they" might have a little more respect for the rules of the road if "they" were fully registered and tracable.

You see, this is brilliant - we've slowly begun to identify something the OP could usefully have complained about. So far we've had irrelevant distractions like:

LHD cars: No problem if the driver doesn't overtake blind
Licence exchange: No obligation
"They": Trying to spread blame from one person to several.

But you've hit upon a valid point among all the dross. Yes, there is an obligation for foreign drivers staying here for an extended period to re-register and yes, by doing so they make themselves more accountable.

craichoe

Victor_M wrote: »

Amazingly the PC brigade are still commenting on anything but the OP's original comment about terrible driving.

Lets not forget that the law does require them to register their car in Ireland if they are working and living here more for more than 30 days, "they" might have a little more respect for the rules of the road if "they" were fully registered and tracable.

If "they" respected our laws and registered as "they" should there would be tens of thousands less foreign registered cars to pass comment on, we could refer to them as LHD Irish cars, thus offending no one.

30 days, yeah right ..
Try 156 days for residency.

Technically up to two years for a foreign registered car if you still have ties at home, i.e. an address and insurance.

I MAY register my irish car here if i feel like it, but there is no obligation for me to do so.

Until then i'll enjoy the lack of speed camera fines and such.