Tom cracks the Whip. Double penalty points on Bank Holidays

D_murph

Stekelly wrote: »

and the old "10kmph" over the limit doesnt wash. As discussed on here many times, your speedo over reads to varying degrees so if you are doing say 130 on a motorway, theres a good chance you speedo is showing anythign up to 145-150, .

my speedo is accurate up to 100kmh and at 130 its only over the actual speed by 4-5 kmh max so i dont know who did these "experiments" with GPS units vs car speedos (checked mine with Garmin Nuvi 250 btw) but these results you quote are exaggerated to say the least :rolleyes:

still didnt answer the question i asked though.

which would you rather see being caught? the marginal speeder or the actual dangerous driver that is drunk behind the wheel?????

Guy:Incognito

D_murph wrote: »

which would you rather see being caught? the marginal speeder or the actual dangerous driver that is drunk behind the wheel?????

Both. They are 2 seperate issues. Speding can be done with little or no man power so is a relatively easy one to police. Drink drivign i pretty much the opposite and requires a checkpoint thats on a drunks way home or luck in a squad car stumbling across a driver showing visiblesigns of being drunk behind the wheel.

"marginal speeders" are generally habitual ones, purely because most people speed (to varying degrees). I'll readily admit to speeding quite often, never by much, but speeding nonetheless. I know I am doing wrong which is why I will have no problem with my punishment if/when I eventually get my first fine and points.

D_murph

Stekelly wrote: »

Both. They are 2 seperate issues. Speding can be done with little or no man power so is a relatively easy one to police. Drink drivign i pretty much the opposite and requires a checkpoint thats on a drunks way home or luck in a squad car stumbling across a driver showing visiblesigns of being drunk behind the wheel.

true but its obvious that there isnt enough guards to police both so they keep going for the easy one that yields more results in prosecutions which looks good on paper or on stats for the public. yet there are still a lot of one car crashes on the back roads in the early hours of the weekends (not just BH ones either).

evidence that they are not tackling the real issue but they can always show the general public all the speeding fines they give out and say that they are doing something, even if its not working :rolleyes:

ART6

seamus wrote: »

Another useless suggestion from a useless TD.

There was a TD on the raydeeoh this morning (may have been Tom Kitt) who was pointing to NZ as a prime example of this working. He said that Easter 1996 had 24 deaths and Easter 2006 had 6 deaths. So that's conclusive proof. :rolleyes:

They must do a course in bull**** before they enter the Dáil because they clearly have no concept of what constitutes a valid statistic.

Stick a checkpoint outside every rural pub this weekend and the road deaths will plummett. Double the points and the same amount of people will die but people will get more points.

As an aside, DD offenders should be receiving 6 points and a ban for a DD offence all year round.

I could not agree more with Seamus about this idiotic misuse of statistics. To suggest that something would have happened without...etc etc completely ignores the effects of random events. Perhaps our favourite politician has a crystal ball (or more likley a crystal brain)?

MCMLXXXIII

Stekelly wrote: »

No but as you can no doubt see with a tiny bit of research on your part that they dotn always just kill themselves. Theres a lot of passengers/people in other cars, diing over bank holiday weekends because of others stupidity.

I would have to agree...my post was sarcastic, but I just tried pointing out that if I was seriously injured, the last thing on my mind would be points. I would just be thankful I was still alive and well (or soon to be). I would eventually think about the points, but all things considered - the points wouldn't be a big deal...even if they were doubled.

_Kaiser_

Yet another stupid half-baked idea from one of our politicans. Of course it'll come to nothing but it was an opportunity for Mr Kitt to get himself in the news over the bank holiday weekend so (to him and FF) I'm sure it's all worthwhile.

[rant follows...]

People on boards whinge a lot about "well you voted FF so you get what you deserve!" but let's look at the alternatives? Are we to believe that FG/Labour would be so much better? There's not that much to seperate the big two parties anyway and ultimately the aim of politicians in this country is to get in and stay in! Serving the country/your consituents has very little to do with it, save for throwing them the occasional bone to ensure the votes will keep rolling in at the next election. Watching the Dail report is a disgrace - it's like watching a bunch of spoiled schoolkids fight at breaktime! And that wouldn't be so bad if we were one of those unbalanced 3rd world countries referred to earlier, but we're supposedly a modern, democratic first world nation!

Although, all that said, we (the general public) are just as bad. After all, with millions of taxpayer euros squandered every year on more half-assed projects that inevitably come in late, are insufficent to the task, and hugely overbudget (T21, e-voting machines etc), seemingly never-ending scandals involving our political representatives, and a leader who can't explain his financial affairs (and who learned his trade at the knee of arguably one of the greatest con-artists of Irish history - who himself was given a hero's state funeral of course!), what do we do? We bitch and moan about it to our mates down the local, or come on here venting our outrage but why aren't we protesting in the streets, or making angry calls to those same representatives?

Why not? Because the Irish are just as bad. We're all out to get as much as we can for ourselves, look after our mates and our relatives, and if someone we know gets caught (be it speeding, welfare fraud or whatever) what do we do? We commisserate with them, tell them they were unlucky and continue on as before. In the PC-loving soceity we now live in we can work ourselves into a frenzy over someone lighting a cigarette in a pub (to the point of bringing in a smoking ban), but people killing themselves and others on the roads, or screwing the system? Sure "what can I do", right?

Sometimes I think the best thing Bertie could do is go cap in hand to Downing Street or the White House and ask them if they wouldn't terribly mind taking over as we've made a mess of it. Before all the Nationalist ranting starts, think about it.. what would really change? Our main streets look like any UK highstreet, we're addicted to UK soaps and football, and stuffing ourselves to obesity on US fast food while our children take on the worst aspects of both.

Welcome to Ireland in the 21st century eh?

[rant over]

mike65

Whats the death toll so far this weekend?

Mike.

JHMEG

mike65 wrote: »

Whats the death toll so far this weekend?

Mike.

1

TheBazman

Drove over 600kms this weekend Dublin - Roscommon - Limerick - Dublin. Didnt see one guard pulling for speed.

D_murph

TheBazman wrote: »

Drove over 600kms this weekend Dublin - Roscommon - Limerick - Dublin. Didnt see one guard pulling for speed.

that must be why they want to double the points on bank holiday weekends, so they can come out half as often :rolleyes:

ART6

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Sometimes I think the best thing Bertie could do is go cap in hand to Downing Street or the White House and ask them if they wouldn't terribly mind taking over as we've made a mess of it. Before all the Nationalist ranting starts, think about it.. what would really change? Our main streets look like any UK highstreet, we're addicted to UK soaps and football, and stuffing ourselves to obesity on US fast food while our children take on the worst aspects of both.

Welcome to Ireland in the 21st century eh?

[rant over]

Downing Street?? Have you seen the mess that New Labour has made of the UK -- horrendous taxes, immigration out of control, a national debt damned neary as large as Irelands GNP? Or the White House?? -- a crumbling economy, banks close to collapse, and a president who wants to fight everyone in the world who is not American? Bertie's doing very well near the top of the incompetence league. He doesn't need any coaching from Brown or Bush. Let's stick to the EU with Bertie as its first President, then he can go forth and screw the whole of Europe.

Rovi

TheBazman wrote: »

Drove over 600kms this weekend Dublin - Roscommon - Limerick - Dublin. Didnt see one guard pulling for speed.

I didn't do that sort of mileage, but I covered about 40Km out and about every night over the weekend (total approx 120Km) in the wee hours of the morning in and around 2 towns and on the N7/M7/N8, and I didn't even see a Garda, let alone a checkpoint/speed trap of any sort.

galwaytt

JHMEG wrote: »

Wonder if you contest points you got on a bank holiday weekend will you end up getting 8 points?

or, if you contest - and win - say, do you accumulate 'credits' that you can offset against future.............transgressions ?

ART6

prospect wrote: »

There was another accident at the junction near my house last night. This is the same junction my local Rep told me was perfectly safe, even though my neighbour had two cars written off there in the space of 15 months aswell as the almost fortnightly accidents.

Here is the newsflash I am waiting for:
"Government announce the redesigning of Irelands many dangerous junctions. And coupled with this, they are going to cut hedges blocking signs, clean road markings, cats eyes and road signs. Also, cats eyes are going to be standard on all roads. As part of the policy, dangerous verges will be kerbed and potholes properly repaired.
This policy will mirror that of most of the countries in western Europe and should see road deaths & non fatal accidents reduced by 70%"


The government need to face up to their own responsability for our road death tally. It is getting tiresome listening to them blame the motorist all the time.

** Note: I am not saying the motorist is entirely blame free.

I agree with Prospect. If, as a trader or an individual, you charge somebody money to use a facility that you own, that person has a legal right to expect the facility to be fit for purpose. You as the owner could be sued, or even fined if it is not and it causes an accident. So why is the NRA not being sued or fined? Many of our roads are downright dangerous.