warning people of checkpoints???!

m@cc@

newballsplease wrote: »

just wondering how many of ye warn oncoming vehicles that there is a checkpoint ahead, by flashing lights.

dont really know if i agree to it or not. I was driving home the other day and i might have been doing a bit over the limit, somecar comeing towards me flashes. i slow down, then up the road i see unmarked car with speed gun.


lucky

what are yer views?
if this has been done already then sorry......................

It's common practice where I live for call into a pub to warn people that the there is a checkpoint. I'm against it, if some drink and drives, throw the book at them no matter who they are.

vektarman

Isn't this gone a bit off topic, it's about flashing for checkpoints, not speedtraps.
Picture this, a drunken driver seriously injures someone in a hit and run, a couple of miles ahead there's a garda checkpoint but mr. nice guy coming the other way flashes to warn other drivers including the criminal who then avoids the checkpoint, so what's the sense in flashing?

m@cc@

m@cc@ wrote: »

It's common practice where I live for call into a pub to warn people that the there is a checkpoint. I'm against it, if some drink and drives, throw the book at them no matter who they are.

I'd warn them regardless, I just wouldn't tell them where the checkpoint is, or lie and say it's just outside the pub carpark. If they have half a brain (left) they'll walk!

m@cc@

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd warn them regardless, I just wouldn't tell them where the checkpoint is or lie and say it's just outside the pub carpark. If they have half a brain (left) they'll walk!

They don't deserve a warning. The warning they should get is that one of your loved ones could be driving sober on the road and meet them head on.

I'd rather stop then driving full stop!

mehfesto2

Some gob****e in a beemer was hooring up the n4 last night, must have been going at least 120kph. I tried to flash him to tell him there's a camera under the bridge, but you can't help some people. He was definately caught.

come on people ye know the code when ye're driving flash your lights for checkpoints/speed traps and customs. Ive been been saved a speeding ticket or too and fines for no tax thanks to some friendly flashers( or lad on a push bike once waving his hands to get me to slow down).

And if the guards see you flashing sure it was my neighbour and i was saying hello!

JC 2K3

javaboy wrote: »

For those people who flash other drivers, what if the driver you warn is pissed and subsequently goes on to knock down your uncle Ben?

I don't think that's realistic, the sauces section would have to be really near the entrance to the supermarket.

DundalkDuffman

WhenI was living just over the border it was an absolute must to flash lights. On numerous occasions the police and army would be out on patrol and the army in camo gear,often in evening time. Its by the grace of Allah on several occasions that you wouldn't knock them down solely because of their attire, they were practically invisible.
Generally back in Dundalk though I would flash if there was anything up ahead be it a parked car, pedestrian, stray animals or obstruction/hazard on the road out of sight of on coming traffic. It should be compulsory IMO. It achieves the entire purpose of making people drive more carefully.

Zonda999

I always flash and then hope other people will flash me.Has saved my ass a few times, i have to say:). Nothing like gettin one over on the traffic core:cool:

DonJose

ShooterSF wrote: »

I always flash. Feel it's karma you know maybe someday I get the favour returned.

Karma could be a fukking boyracer speeding round a corner right into your car, karma works both ways!!! Don't believe me, ask Spiderman!!!

Mossy Monk

Deleted User wrote: »

There's a major difference between speeding in a built-up area with pedestrians, children parked cars etc and speeding on an open road.

A bit of common sense behind the wheel goes a long way.

Would that include following the speed limits or maybe common sense would include going 20 km/h over the speed limit on an N road. There are speed limits for a reason.

mayordenis

yea I'll usually take me knob out

TheNog

For those who flash to warn others of a checkpoint, tbh you are doing more harm than good. As has already been pointed out checkpoints is a good way of catching traveling criminals. THose criminals can be out to commit burglary or transport drugs or weapons and all you are doing is allowing them to turn away from the checkpoint. Who cares if a person is caught with no tax or speeding. The fines are only €60 and €80 with 2 points.

There is a specific offence for flashing and that is causing obstruction to a Garda with the maximim fine of €3,000. I did hear that now retired Judge John Brophy handing a few maximum fines for it and believe me there are checkpoints set up with extra resources just to catch people flashing.

Curvy Vixen

Nope, wouldn't flash anyone to warn them!

But I read somewhere else on the boards (where someone was querying people turning before they reached a checkpoint), that the poster often flashed boy racer/speeder type drivers when there wasn't a checkpoint Said he got an extra buzz when he saw them turning around too :D

So I tried it...and laughed my socks off when the pimped up speeding gobsh*te skidded to a halt and turned around the other way, driving at a normal speed and waved to thank me! Now I do it whenever I spot one!

Quazzie

I always flash. The speed limits and taxation on cars is a joke in this country so imho its always nice to see someone getting away with either. It rarely affects me though because usually I'm the guy pulled over at the checkpoint for having no tax. Saying that though there has been a few times when a flasher has gotten me out of trouble.

Honey-ec

Ponster wrote: »

I think though they generally only get put up in areas where excessive speeding has lead to several accidents. Some would say that 120Km/h is fast enough for most people anyhow.

I have never once seen a speed trap on a 120kmh stretch of road - they are always on stretches where the speed limit has just dropped to 60kmh from 80 or 100.

It's this "shooting fish in a barrel" approach (whether real or perceived) that annoys a lot of motorists and leads to them warning other drivers. If people genuinely thought that the Gardai were out catching speeders on the crappy, twisty, unlit back roads where the vast majority of fatal accidents occur, they would have a completely different attitude.

In all my years travelling the N81, I have never seen an accident - minor, major, fatal or otherwise - on the approach to Baltinglass from Tullow, yet the police have a speed trap here at least once a month.

javaboy

Honey-ec wrote: »

In all my years travelling the N81, I have never seen an accident - minor, major, fatal or otherwise - on the approach to Baltinglass from Tullow, yet the police have a speed trap here at least once a month.

So the speed traps are working obviously! :pac:

Honey-ec

javaboy wrote: »

So the speed traps are working obviously! :pac:

Touché!

My point is, though, that it's a perfectly straight stretch of road, great visibility,is not a known accident black-spot, but the speed limit changes from 100kmh to 60 halfway down it, and the cops know that they can make some easy catches there. And that's the problem that a lot of motorists have with speed checks in general - they're seen as a revenue generating exercise, not a life-saving one. Until the Gardai do something to change that perception, people will continue to warn other drivers of checkpoints.

And as I write this, there is a taxi outside reversing the wrong way up a one-way road because he missed his turn. Genius!

mehfesto2

What comedian was it that sat by the edge of a road in a Mondeo pointing a hairdrier at cars on a motorway?

javaboy

javaboy wrote: »

So the speed traps are working obviously! :pac:

I'd still warn people though, if a particular section of road has a proven high "speed related" accident rate, then warning them to slow down reduces their risk of crashing (& getting a ticket).

belltinker

I know a guy who flashed cars oncoming to warn them! Unfortunatley for him, there was unmarked car coming in opposite direction, they proceeded to pull him over- breathalise him, check his tax, insurance, tread dept in his tyre's, all lights working properly and gave him a bollocking for what he did!

I used to flash becuase thought twas an act of kindness, but alas not anymore!!

Schism

Schism wrote: »

I wasn't going overly fast but I would have been over the limit by about 10mph so he saved me some points. It's a random act of kindness.

It's that attitude that has the road deaths as high as they are: "Ah sure it's only 10mph over the limit...." It's akin to saying "ah sure it's only an extra pint or two..."

Forky wrote: »

Everyone should flash. End of.

Great point, well made. :rolleyes:

Now.......Why?

newballsplease wrote: »

some of the speed limts are a joke tho, if i was to stick to some speed limits in certain areas(i mean tractor slow), it would cause more accicdents because more people would be attempting dangerous overtaking manovers.

But if everybody stuck to the limit, there wouldn't be any dangerous overtaking procedures. Your argument is flawed. Regarding the "... speed limts are a joke tho..." comment, see below.

Quazzie2002 wrote:

The speed limits and taxation on cars is a joke in this country.

In both your and newballs' opinions they are a joke. But that's all they are, opinions. I think the drug laws in this country are antiquated at best and downright draconian at worst, but if i came on here saying that i always tipped off drug dealers etc. there'd be, rightly, uproar.

DundalkDuffman wrote: »

It achieves the entire purpose of making people drive more carefully.

Bullsh1t it does. If it did there'd be no need for checkpoints at all. The whole point is to stop people speeding/drunk driving. Not to stop them speeding for 200 yards/evading the checkpoints when drunk.

My brother got a €500 (i think) fine for flashing oncoming traffic after a checkpoint. When he was stopped the guard made a point that has already been made on here. What if he flashed someone, they slowed down, and other driver then sped up and ploughed into a granny or a bus full of kids and was all over the news. How'd he (i.e. you) feel then?

ergonomics

I will never ever warn anyone of a checkpoint or a speedtrap.

Like someone said, what if the car has drugs or guns in it?

What if the driver is drunk?

What if someone/thing has been robbed in the area, or someone murdered, and you warn the person who did it and they don't get caught?

What if you warn someone speeding so they don't get caught and carry on speeding after the checkpoint and knock someone down or crash?

Yeah, karma is really gonna come back to all of ye, but not in the way you're hoping.

mozil

ergonomics wrote: »

What if you warn someone speeding so they don't get caught and carry on speeding after the checkpoint and knock someone down or crash?

What if they dont see you flashing them carry on speeding and still hit someone?

dub_skav

I don't flash drivers to warn them of speed-traps or chrckpoints. I don't speed and I don't think anybody else should either.

I do of course flash to warn of an obstacle/flooding etc

keane2097

Kiera wrote: »

Yeah i flash. I also pretend there's a checkpoint sometimes if a car is going too fast.

Good idea imo.

Quazzie

mozil wrote: »

What if they dont see you flashing them carry on speeding and still hit someone?

What if my aunt had balls would she/he be my uncle?

growler

wouldn't flash to warn of a checkpoint but would do so if I passed a speed trap on a relatively quite / straight stretch of road and saw another (non boy racer) vehicle travelling over the limit.

If garda speed traps were designed to make the roads safer then why do they set them up on roads / at times when travelling at 80mph would not be particularly dangerous? because they do it to make money and have no altruistic reason.

No doubt someone will say you can'f drive safely at over 60mph, but i've driven in the uk and in germany on motorways at much higher speeds and have seen plenty stupid and dangerous driving from idiots crawling along in the outside lane at 40 mph.

So i'll warn fellow drivers when I think I probably be doing the same thing in their position.

keane2097

javaboy wrote: »

On my car's speedo, I have to travel at about 54km/h to be actually breaking a 50km/h speed limit and 127km/h to break a 120km/h limit. Most cars will have a similar margin of error.

How do you figure this out?