Speed Traps

parsi

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

You would be surprised how often they are around enforcing non speed infractions but lets be honest, we spend about 2 hours on the road per day (On average, I spend about 1 hour due to my hours) so there is a lot we dont see. Then theres also unmarked cars doing the rounds.

As for dodgy lights, etc. Im not sure what you expect when these people get stopped. You cant be arrested for having a busted light, its a summery offence. They are summoned to court after the event and prosecuted. Go to Dublin district coourt 52 or 53 Monday through Friday, theres thousands of traffic prosecutions happeing all day every day.

Thank you for a straightforward, non-argumentative reply that's informative.

It's scary that such a small proportion of your working days is spent on the road and I know that that's a function of the job rather than of the person. It sort of makes a fool of our dear politicos who tout that traffic corps will be on the road for every single working minute (maybe they think they'lll go to court on their days off....)

Eru

parsi wrote: »

Thank you for a straightforward, non-argumentative reply that's informative.

It's scary that such a small proportion of your working days is spent on the road and I know that that's a function of the job rather than of the person. It sort of makes a fool of our dear politicos who tout that traffic corps will be on the road for every single working minute (maybe they think they'lll go to court on their days off....)

Think you misunderstood Parsi, when I said WE spend 2 hours on the road I meant everyone coming and going to work or school runs etc. Traffic corp spend more than that patrolling except when they are dragged away for court, escorts or parades which is not that often.

afatbollix

do you have to get a set amount of speeders a month? a set amount of mobile phone holders ect?? or is it up to you how many you have to nab?

TheNog

anto-t wrote: »

do you have to get a set amount of speeders a month? a set amount of mobile phone holders ect?? or is it up to you how many you have to nab?

The answer to that is no. We do not have to get a set amount of speeders or people on the phone. We are told by our skippers if our numbers are low though and need to increase the amount of speed checks/detections.

opti76

TheNog wrote: »

The answer to that is no. We do not have to get a set amount of speeders or people on the phone. We are told by our skippers if our numbers are low though and need to increase the amount of speed checks/detections.

im gonna have to call you on that maybe you dont but i do i have to have a set amount of summonses a month and tickets.. im not saying numbers. in fact i have a letter from noel conroy stating that my probation was being extended for not having enough summary offences.. in 6 months i had 90 summonses issued yet oul eagle eyes action man himself told me that i didnt have enough. go figure

afatbollix

now i can see why the traffic cor would want to do speed checks on a motorways now :rolleyes:

CLADA

opti76 wrote: »

im gonna have to call you on that maybe you dont but i do i have to have a set amount of summonses a month and tickets.. im not saying numbers. in fact i have a letter from noel conroy stating that my probation was being extended for not having enough summary offences.. in 6 months i had 90 summonses issued yet oul eagle eyes action man himself told me that i didnt have enough. go figure

So, the Commissioner of the day actually sent you correspondence informing you that your probation was being extended because of a lack of summary offences.

Sorry, it was more personal than that:

The Commissioner wrote a probationer a letter extending his probation etc...

Are you not telling us the full story Opti.

I have served in a number of stations in the DMR and country and have yet to come across this famous mythical QUOTA that is so often thrown around.
You have a job and you're expected to work, theres no doubt about that, but if anybody can find an official document where a Garda is required to have a specific number of offences detected per month, then I would like to see it.

It may exist in places as an unwritten requirement but if it ain't on paper they can't discipline you or EXTEND YOUR PROBATION:mad:

FGR

I'd be very surprised if it was the case that probation would be extended on the grounds of summary offences.

I would presume that local officers would have more of an influence in such decisions..

metman

CLADA wrote: »

The Commissioner wrote a probationer a letter extending his probation etc...

Eh? :eek:

I'm lucky if I can get hold of my DI.....let alone the Commish.

Eru

opti76 wrote: »

im gonna have to call you on that maybe you dont but i do i have to have a set amount of summonses a month and tickets.. im not saying numbers. in fact i have a letter from noel conroy stating that my probation was being extended for not having enough summary offences.. in 6 months i had 90 summonses issued yet oul eagle eyes action man himself told me that i didnt have enough. go figure

I have about 10 summons in my entire career and about 3 of them was in probation.

As for quotas, the skippers in my place look for 20 summons a roster but it can be for anything and everything just as long as you have them and like Clara said, ultimately there isnt much they can do to you for not having them.

Victor

salonfire wrote: »

I'm just a concerned citizen at some of the appalling aggression and behaviour on the road that's getting worse.

A very real problem is that nobody actually reports this.

Victor

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

There does however need to be some allowance. I mean if your in a 50 zone for example and you get done for doing 51 that would seem unfair. I mean how accurate is a cars odometer???

Speedometer are desinged to over state the speed. At 50km/h, you speedometer would be reading about 54-56km/h.

I imagine speed detectors are accurate to well under 1km/h.

anto-t wrote: »

do you have to get a set amount of speeders a month? a set amount of mobile phone holders ect?? or is it up to you how many you have to nab?

Its not like that.

It a particular unit is making X amount of detections per month and an identical unit is getting 3X detections per month, one may see resources being reallocated to the area where there is a bigger problem.

opti76 wrote: »

im gonna have to call you on that maybe you dont but i do i have to have a set amount of summonses a month and tickets.. im not saying numbers. in fact i have a letter from noel conroy stating that my probation was being extended for not having enough summary offences.. in 6 months i had 90 summonses issued yet oul eagle eyes action man himself told me that i didnt have enough. go figure

I suspect what this means is that a probationer doesn't have enough experience of a particular kind.

opti76

CLADA wrote: »

So, the Commissioner of the day actually sent you correspondence informing you that your probation was being extended because of a lack of summary offences.

Sorry, it was more personal than that:

The Commissioner wrote a probationer a letter extending his probation etc...

Are you not telling us the full story Opti.

I have served in a number of stations in the DMR and country and have yet to come across this famous mythical QUOTA that is so often thrown around.
You have a job and you're expected to work, theres no doubt about that, but if anybody can find an official document where a Garda is required to have a specific number of offences detected per month, then I would like to see it.

It may exist in places as an unwritten requirement but if it ain't on paper they can't discipline you or EXTEND YOUR PROBATION:mad:

if you want to see it il photocopy it and send it to ya...


its not on paper as a set number but trust me i have it in writing that " due to lack of summary offences the decision has been taken to extend the period of you probation by six months"
and the letter was signed by noel conroy

CLADA

opti76 wrote: »

if you want to see it il photocopy it and send it to ya...


its not on paper as a set number but trust me i have it in writing that " due to lack of summary offences the decision has been taken to extend the period of you probation by six months"
and the letter was signed by noel conroy

Nah! If you're happy it was from Noel, then that's all that matters.

I just have a strange feeling the "wind up merchants" in your station were having fun with the photocopier:p

u2gooner

I was driving to swords from town last night/this morning at 4.20am and noticed a Garda car parked at whitehall church with the speed camera sticking out the drivers window pointing north. This is a stretch of brand new, well lit, straight, wide road. The speed limit drops from 60kmph to 50 just at the flyover.

Pardon my ignorance but is this really good use of resources? Seems to me like shooting fish in a barrel. I understand that speed limits need to be enforced but that just seems silly to me. I take the point that things may be quiet at 4am on a wednesday morning but surely theres other roads in the area that could benefit more from this. Is it just a money spinner or what?

Fyr.Fytr

Yes it is needed there as the far side of the junction it drops down to one lane often heavily congested.

Hence traffic corpsare there alot (that and the fact its 30 seconds from santry station )

u2gooner

Fair enough, heavily congested, one lane etc....thats fine during the day but it was between 4am and 5am midweek. I passed about 3 or 4 cars coming that direction between there and the m50 interchange.

Preset No.3

I like this one. On the M4 heading for Dublin just as it starts past Mullingar. There is a Nissan Terrano Traffic Corps jeep parked on the mound off the motorway, the only thing is, its empty!!! This isnt the first time Ive noticed ths either. So either no men to police it, or its just a cheap way to get people to slow down. It can be seen from about 1km away.

TheNog

opti76 wrote: »

im gonna have to call you on that maybe you dont but i do i have to have a set amount of summonses a month and tickets.. im not saying numbers. in fact i have a letter from noel conroy stating that my probation was being extended for not having enough summary offences.. in 6 months i had 90 summonses issued yet oul eagle eyes action man himself told me that i didnt have enough. go figure

I haven't been told to have a certain amount of summons or speeders a month. In my station there is no quotas at all

bryanmurr

u2gooner wrote: »

I was driving to swords from town last night/this morning at 4.20am and noticed a Garda car parked at whitehall church with the speed camera sticking out the drivers window pointing north. This is a stretch of brand new, well lit, straight, wide road. The speed limit drops from 60kmph to 50 just at the flyover.

Pardon my ignorance but is this really good use of resources? Seems to me like shooting fish in a barrel. I understand that speed limits need to be enforced but that just seems silly to me. I take the point that things may be quiet at 4am on a wednesday morning but surely theres other roads in the area that could benefit more from this. Is it just a money spinner or what?

Well chances are that it was the regular unit car, they dont get a chance to do speed checks that often, and trust me if u hung around there long enough you'd see plenty cars coming through there in excess of 100kmph.

my view is that if you speed in a 50 or 60 then you'll do it in a 80 or 100 zone so your fair game.

CharlieCroker

anto-t wrote: »

o here we go... speed kills.. bla bla bla... you were doing 55mph you now should be a vegtable!!!!!

speed doesent kill... stupid driving does.. on a stright road you can easly do 60mph 70mph but if that same person takes a hair pin at 60mph thats fooking stupid driveing.... (but gardai dont check these areas for speeding and would rather do it on a stright road)

and as the person said above that if you crashed while over the speed limit :rolleyes: last month i was in a car that went off the road at 110mph and i walked out of the car with in 20 seconds...

Are you proud of that?? that is one of the dumbest posts i've seen in a long time!!!!!!! Speed itself doesn't kill, inappropriate speed kills. A speed limit is just that, A LIMIT and its there for a reason. I know a lot of GS who'll use a certain amount of discretion in relation to speeding but not always. Other factors need to be taken into account with speed checks, i.e. Location (in town on the Headford Rd, one of the busiest in Galway), Time (11.30pm, Possibility of Drunk Pedestrians on paths spilling onto road), Conditions (Was it wet or dry which effects braking distances).
Its not just a matter of sticking a safety pin on the map to decide where to set up.
Sorry for the rant but it needs to be said

tintin

Seen this a few times. Apparently in Israel they use the same thing except its a life sized cardboard cut out of a patrol car from the side!! I dont know how they can justify leaving a vehicle parked up like that...

Eru

u2gooner wrote: »

I was driving to swords from town last night/this morning at 4.20am and noticed a Garda car parked at whitehall church with the speed camera sticking out the drivers window pointing north. This is a stretch of brand new, well lit, straight, wide road. The speed limit drops from 60kmph to 50 just at the flyover.

Pardon my ignorance but is this really good use of resources? Seems to me like shooting fish in a barrel. I understand that speed limits need to be enforced but that just seems silly to me. I take the point that things may be quiet at 4am on a wednesday morning but surely theres other roads in the area that could benefit more from this. Is it just a money spinner or what?

Have to say, doesnt it strike you that a quiet nice shiny new road would be exactly where people would let loose with the accelerator?

Another thing, people seem to think that a Garda on a speed check only do speed checks. You know the guy doing the check will go to a call should one come in or take action if he sees another offence being commited so its really as good a spot as any during a quiet night shift.

Finally, never in my life have I even given a **** about making money for the states coffers nor have I ever even heard of a Garda being sent out to get traffic offences because the government is a bit skint. In fact you will find some Gardai have an issue with giving tickets for certain offences, I know one guy who simple refuses to give a ticket for an out of date tax disk or not paying for a parking space. Besides which, whens the last time someone got a ticket for being 1 month out with their car tax?

TheNog

u2gooner wrote: »

Pardon my ignorance but is this really good use of resources? Seems to me like shooting fish in a barrel. I understand that speed limits need to be enforced but that just seems silly to me. I take the point that things may be quiet at 4am on a wednesday morning but surely theres other roads in the area that could benefit more from this. Is it just a money spinner or what?

u2gooner wrote: »

Fair enough, heavily congested, one lane etc....thats fine during the day but it was between 4am and 5am midweek. I passed about 3 or 4 cars coming that direction between there and the m50 interchange.

A guard can catch a speeder on any road at any time such is poor driving behaviour of some people. Even at 4/5am you will find people who blatantly speed way above the limit. Up until recently we carried out most of our speed checks during daylight hours but we have begun doing them between 4am and 6am and believe me we have caught more people than during the day where congestion can be heavy. You have to remember that accidents happen on all types of roads, lit and unlit.

Also parking up the car and watching traffic go by is a good way to spot potential customers such as drunk drivers and travelling criminals.

This phrase "shooting fish in a barrell" really is a stupid one tbh. No one is forcing a person to speed but when they are caught they cry with bleeding hearts. I am not a government revenue generating machine but I see myself as making some inroads to prevent fatalities and serious injuries on our roads.

AntiRip

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

Besides which, whens the last time someone got a ticket for being 1 month out with their car tax?

Can I ask what is the limit so?
I used to tax my car for 3 months and leave it for a month, then tax for 3 months again and so on. It was a 2 litre so it saved a little (Actually advice from a garda friend).

Also with the speeding, I do agree with catching speeders but to be honest it is really hard to obbey it in some stretches of road but only because some of the limits are really silly!

Gileadi

Do you not have to pay a months back tax when you get it renewed in that case? And afaik that means that you cant renew online which is an added sting in the tail

Eru

Gileadi wrote: »

Do you not have to pay a months back tax when you get it renewed in that case? And afaik that means that you cant renew online which is an added sting in the tail

Old days that didnt apply or you could say it was off the road. People nowadays arent saving money really but usually theres some leeway and about a month is usually given before tickets get issued.

ojewriej

In December, I got two tickets within 45 minutes, for a tax disc expired just 2 days earlier, I was waiting for a new one to be sent to me..

In all fairness, I wrote to the superintendent, and he cancelled both of them, but the fact remains that they were issued.

sickpuppy32

I got caught by by a fish-in-barrel shooter on the dunboyne -maynooth road, the long stretch just outside dunboyne ( that has never seen a car accident) , anyway i was giving this old deaf fart a lift but he wouldn't put on his seat belt and i was trying to get him to do that and not watching my speed or for the cops obviously and of course i got pulled. 2 points for been over the limit and then the garda went over to my passenger and told him to put his belt on only to be met with the reply of "**** off!", garda didn't say a thing just walked off and told me to get him home. laughed my arse off!

on the good side i think i've learned my leason, put a sticker over my speedo saying "4 points" ( i've been naughty before), and this is a visual reminder for me to slow down. Since then, i;ve doubled my car milage and i'm a lot more relaxed behind the wheel..... so thanks gardai!

Eru

sickpuppy32 wrote: »

I got caught by by a fish-in-barrel shooter on the dunboyne -maynooth road, the long stretch just outside dunboyne ( that has never seen a car accident) , anyway i was giving this old deaf fart a lift but he wouldn't put on his seat belt and i was trying to get him to do that and not watching my speed or for the cops obviously and of course i got pulled. 2 points for been over the limit and then the garda went over to my passenger and told him to put his belt on only to be met with the reply of "**** off!", garda didn't say a thing just walked off and told me to get him home. laughed my arse off!

on the good side i think i've learned my leason, put a sticker over my speedo saying "4 points" ( i've been naughty before), and this is a visual reminder for me to slow down. Since then, i;ve doubled my car milage and i'm a lot more relaxed behind the wheel..... so thanks gardai!

A, Bad policing. No balls evidently.

B, Not a bad idea

C, never understood people speeding personally. You end up driving like a lunatic, getting stuck behind people and getting stressed out.