"Accident" Car with 7 teenagers foxford

alex73

I was driving into Ballina yesterday and it really shocked me to see the skid marks in the road from Mount Falcon to Ballina. I never saw the road that bad. I said to myself somebody is going to be killed one day.

Then this morning I heard of the accident in foxford with 7 teenagers in the car.

I am not judging the accident in anyway, thank God they all survived. But there is a culture of dangerous driving among the youth.

Who is paying for the cars they are driving.. I was 25 before I could get my 1st car and I paid 3000 pounds insurance. How are 18/19 yo lads paying for it? What are the Gards doing to stop the joy riding?

mayo_lad

car insurance is around 1000 euro for a 21 year old now

also most of my mates have a car to get to college and the like

i personally cant wate till i'll be able to afford one because it will cut my journey from limerick by 2 hours compared to the bus that's 4 more hours at home over the weekend

I know your point is true about young drivers being more likely to crash but i feel that this could be handled better if we took the Norwegian approach to driving instruction and control when they have much worse road conditions.

the problem with most young Irish drivers is that they can't control a car at speed but still have a desire to drive extremely fast on bad roads that were never designed for such speeds if there were 4 or 5 race tracks where they could learn the control and gain a understanding of what roads are designed for they wouldn't be driving like they are now

PogMoThoin

The driver theory test should be a compulsory part of the leaving cert, drop religion its not providing something most people will ever use or need, driver safety is

steph1

I am on the road most weekend nights as I drive a taxi and it is unreal some of the carry on with young drivers and these boy racers. The roads around Ballina were certainly not meant for this kind of speed.
I hope all those people are ok following the accident. This could have turned into a terrible tragedy.
And what the hell were 7 people doing inside the car. That meant there had to be at least two of these with no seat belts. Crazy.

yop

met the ambulances when I was heading to Dublin at 6am, when I met the 2nd ambulance I copped that someone was in big trouble.
But again what the hell were 7 doing in a car?
What were teenagers doing out at 5am? Thought the schools were back?

What can they do, well they can't stop people driving as there is not infrastructure for us down here, but for the love of God why is there 7 people in a car!!!
Limiters could tame things but what do you limit them to? 50mph will still get you killed and will on our kak roads hold up the whole place!

Thankfully no one killed!

oscarBravo

yop wrote: »

What can they do, well they can't stop people driving as there is not infrastructure for us down here...

I disagree. I hear talk of speed limiters on cars and other such nonsense, which is completely missing a fundamental point: you don't have a god-given right to drive a car, especially if you have demonstrated that you can't be trusted with one.

If someone on a learner's permit is found to be driving dangerously (I'd even be tempted to say carelessly) they should have the permit withdrawn for a year. Sure, that's going to make their lives more difficult - but that's something they should be considering when deciding whether or not to do donuts outside Mount Falcon.

yop

oscarBravo wrote: »

I disagree. I hear talk of speed limiters on cars and other such nonsense, which is completely missing a fundamental point: you don't have a god-given right to drive a car, especially if you have demonstrated that you can't be trusted with one.

If someone on a learner's permit is found to be driving dangerously (I'd even be tempted to say carelessly) they should have the permit withdrawn for a year. Sure, that's going to make their lives more difficult - but that's something they should be considering when deciding whether or not to do donuts outside Mount Falcon.

I know what you are saying about the permit, but night and EVERY night at the top of my road there are guys doing donuts, tearing up and down the road, rang the cops on numerous occassions but they haven't come out.
So in order to police the permits and remove them you need the guards to do their job, personally from what I can see they plant themselves on the roads around 6/7 pm and nail people when its easy, when it comes to 11pm they head off to where ever, on a Tues/Wed/Thurs night they certainly aren't doing their job on the roads.

Samhain

There are a few points which i believe would make a difference to the clusterf**k of a situation we have on our roads-

• I think the introduction of a curfew for inexperienced drivers would be beneficial as it always seems to be late night/early morning when these crashes happen. The only trouble is it would be impossible to police it.

• I also think that there should be a restriction on the engine size an L plate driver is licenced to drive, you see 17 year olds driving around in daddys 2.2 litre barely able to keep it under control. When i started driving i had a 1.2L for the first 2 years which in my opinion is enough power for someone learning. Once i got my experience and passed the test, then i graduated up to a decent sized car.

• Learner drivers are taught by instructors how to pass the test, not how to drive in the real world. There should be a section of the test where the driver is tested driving outside of towns. Its not often you hear of anyone getting killed on the road in a town (obviously speed is a factor there). Some people really dont know how to behave on a narrow, bendy regional road. It is these sort of roads that are the most dangerous in my opinion. People coming round corners with one wheel over the white line, overtaking on solid white lines coming into corners or on the brow of a hill, speeding up when being overtaken, driving out from side roads into oncoming traffic are things we have all witnessed. Theres no point testing someone on an "N" route with wide lanes and hard shoulders as there isnt the opportunity to show learners what the pitfalls are. I also think a section on driving at night would be beneficial but it would be an administrative nightmare as there would have to be 2 sections of the test.

• Also, i think continuous assessment for full licence drivers should be introduced. There are many drivers on the road who never sat a test and barely know the rules of the road. Maybe a theory test every 10 years? This may prove to be very controversial but tough luck, if you dont want to do it, you dont get to drive.

Bob the Builder

Sure, go ahead and point out that young people do have a high percentage of accidents and drive too fast, but don't tar us all with the same brush. I started off as a fast driver last August (in 2009), and I've had to slow down since. A combination of education, experience and watching other people nearly die has caused me to slow down.

Something which all young people have to learn. You do not appreciate the dangers of the road until you experience nearly crashing, until you are taught the dangers and until you see a drink driver crawling out of an overturned ford Mondeo with his bloodstained hands trying to pull his own body out through a little cavity where his passengers side window used to be.

And introduce some common sense back into the law again. We need decision makers who are fit to make good solid laws that give the Gardaí the tools to make our roads safer and not to make our gardaí look like tools.

We didn't ban sex back in the 20th century just because there was the possibility of aids. Instead, people were taught how to have safe sex and through open discussion and good education, STD's were decreased throughout Ireland. This whole concept of "introducing a law" and "banning people" isn't doing any favours for anybody.

And I refuse to take any direction off a minister passing new laws, when s/he don't even drive their own car. It's our road tax thats paying for it.

oscarBravo

yop wrote: »

So in order to police the permits and remove them you need the guards to do their job...

Absolutely.

Samhain wrote: »

• Also, i think continuous assessment for full licence drivers should be introduced. There are many drivers on the road who never sat a test and barely know the rules of the road. Maybe a theory test every 10 years? This may prove to be very controversial but tough luck, if you dont want to do it, you dont get to drive.

I wouldn't have an objection to that in principle, but a first step might be to introduce mandatory re-testing for people convicted of road traffic offences.

Samhain

Sure, go ahead and point out that young people do have a high percentage of accidents and drive too fast, but don't tar us all with the same brush.

I said inexperienced drivers, you dont have to be young to be an inexperienced driver

I wouldn't have an objection to that in principle, but a first step might be to introduce mandatory re-testing for people convicted of road traffic offences.

I was under the impression that this was the case already? If not, it definitely should be.

nuac

I wish all a speedy recovery. Relieved that nobody killed.

Parents should take tighter control of where their children are going, and how.

Seven in a car indicates a cavalier attitude to road safety.

alex73

nuac wrote: »

I wish all a speedy recovery. Relieved that nobody killed.

Parents should take tighter control of where their children are going, and how.

Seven in a car indicates a cavalier attitude to road safety.

The thing is after the Donegal accident you would think people would take heed. Obviously not.

I heard there is an 18 yo lad in Castlebar in a coma for the last couple of weeks after an accident.

Lads will be lads... but the roads in mayo are no playground.

If something does not change we will be facing the deaths of several of these lads because nothing seems to stop them.

PogMoThoin

Its not just the young, I see people on the N5 to Castlebar with absolutely no idea how to drive, build a big fast road and everyone thinks they can drive on it. These people wouldn't attempt to drive in Dublin or any other city, they'd be eaten alive as they can't keep up with the pace of the traffic. Everyone over 40 should be made re-sit the driving test and every 5-10 years after that, that'd sort out who's competent

.........course this will never be implemented, there's too many voters in the over 40's age bracket, target the youth, the vast majority of them don't vote, we're only in power for 4 years, thats all we're interested in

steph1

I was just looking at the picture this evening in the Western People of that car and really and truly these 7 young people should count their blessings that they are all still alive. Somebody up above must have been watching over them.
I was out on the roads this afternoon and I had to drive from Ballina to Castlerea in Roscommon. Well I never saw such driving. Now I was keeping up to the speed limit or slowing down as necessary and I cannot count the number of times that I was overtaken on dangerous bends, on continuous white lines (which are there for a reason) and people driving up right behind me.
What the hell is wrong with people on the roads these days.
Slow down for God's sake or we will have another tragedy.
And might I say these were not all young drivers. :mad:

Vurnon San Benito

Just a few minutes down the road from me.
Very very lucky lads, an ear lost and a broken arm is what I've heard so far.
Lucky isn't the word.

kippy

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Its not just the young, I see people on the N5 to Castlebar with absolutely no idea how to drive, build a big fast road and everyone thinks they can drive on it. These people wouldn't attempt to drive in Dublin or any other city, they'd be eaten alive as they can't keep up with the pace of the traffic. Everyone over 40 should be made re-sit the driving test and every 5-10 years after that, that'd sort out who's competent

.........course this will never be implemented, there's too many voters in the over 40's age bracket, target the youth, the vast majority of them don't vote, we're only in power for 4 years, thats all we're interested in

Indeed, its not just the youth, however the statistics for fatalities on the road suggest that is prominently the youth that are the cause of these fatalities. Good driving starts with good education and good education starts with the youth (in general) we need to tackle bad driving habits from this early age before we'll see the benefits in older drivers in the next few generations. I would have thought that was pretty obvious. Also, we have a problem right now with some young drivers which needs to be tackled especially if they are gonna be taking 7 in a car with them......

As has already been mentioned on this thread lots of us were inexperienced at one stage and lots of us were "lucky" enough to either have a near miss or see a near miss and learn from it. A lot of times these guys in accidents havent had that luxury.
Most of the "solutions" to the problems are already there however as also insinuated on this thread, the laws that are there arent adequately enforced. They need to be enforced and a few more tweaked.

shoes34

I heard yesterday that this accident happened after the 7 were returning from a night out in Westport - if the accident occured in Foxford how did they manage to get from Westport to Foxford without being stopped by the Gardai, are they not suppose to be patrolling the roads at night???

kevog3

Hello all,
I was a passanger in this crash, i was sitting in the right back on one of my friends knees when we crashed. Before I start we have all learned that it was a stupid idea to put 7 people into a car, its a miracle we're not dead, live and learn. We did not drive from westport to foxford, we were at a party in westport, got a bus from westport to foxford and drove from there. The reason we crashed was because the speed/weight ratio in the car, we were bascially pulled into the pole. We firstly hit a pole and then hit the wall. I wasnt really hurt after the crash, just a bit of ligament damage and the odd cut, but the lad who i was sitting on nearly died because his spleen nearly exploded due to the seatbelt. Now how can a man survive a car crash being not fastened into the car while the lad who was fastened into the car nearly died of the thing that was supposed to save him (seat belt). Another piece of advice is not to read any tabloids (The star, the sun etc.) they blow the story so far out of proportion. For example they said i was dead, and i was the least injured in the crash. The papers search for ya, they took a load of info and pictures from our facebook pages, so PUT ALL YOUR INFORMATION ON PRIVATE!! they're only doing it for money and stories. I wouldnt say the same for broadsheets (the western, independent etc.) they were very fair. I do believe we were unbelievably and i count my blessings everyday, but ya'll never beat the war on stupid ***** on the road .. there'll always be some **** ****ing around on the road that thinks he/she is great but when it comes it he/she is gonna hurt himself if he/she is lucky, if he/she iss unlucky he/she is gonna hurt someone else too. People would want to cop the **** on and realize how dangerous the roads are .. if they dont in time i dont wanna say what could happen. Anyway thanks to everyone who wished us well, very nice of ye ... Lesson Learned

MonTheBiffy

kevog3 wrote: »

Now how can a man survive a car crash being not fastened into the car while the lad who was fastened into the car nearly died of the thing that was supposed to save him (seat belt)

Don't know how to put this, eh, glad you're ok and all that but this is a bit stupid I think. Obviously a seatbelt is not designed to work effectively when the wearer has another human being sitting on them. I would say the spleen "explosion" was mainly down to your weight already putting pressure on the spleen and then when it was suddenly compressed more by the force of the impact and the seatbelt. But thats doesn't really matter, you and you're friends are incredibly lucky. Just look at the crash in Donegal as an example of what could have happened.

liloldeme

I notice a lot of younger people get a car of their parents or use their parents car. I started driving 13 years ago, I learned on my parents car when they were with me, I had to save up and buy my own car and pay for the insurance, it took me one year of working full time and saving to do so (no loan taken out)

I think if people had to work for the car they would have more respect for it. I know older people I work with who buy cars for the kids or help towards it. If someone can't buy a car and insurance without help from the parents how the hell will they survive when they move out? Will they run to mammy and daddy to help with a mortgage, kids etc too?

Not saying all but many get from their parents. And from 2 posts above - all people should keep stuff on facebook private and not read the sun/star!
Thank god you are all ok

globalwarrior

I just got back from ireland and could not belive how 'crazy and fast' eveyone is on those narrow winding roads - young and old alike!!!

Ironically, it was on that same wet and winding road around mount falcon one evening (when I was almost killed a couple of times)that I found myself thinking what in the world are these people thinking???

West of irelands (often main) roads are not designed for speed!

So, please take better care folks

daenerysstormborn3

On the topic of "how can kids afford these cars". My boyfriend's nephew has a little tin can on wheels and the insurance is €3000 which his parents paid, they also bought the car for him and pay all related expenses as the nephew is between leaving cert and college and refused to work for the summer and going into college for 4 years during which he has no intention of working.

That's what's wrong with teens, they don't have to earn anything.