Traffic Blues

mistermouse

Donegal featured quite a bit on Traffic Blues tonight and I thought some of the commentary was poor at best.

Yes we all know the statistics and I thought the Garda Inspector was worth listening to and committed to his job, but I did think the narrator was a bit ott in some of his voice over, considering that the worst cases appeared to be people heading over the border or being unable to be caught in two of the main cases.

As for the other two, I think its amazing that someone was caught twice for Drink Driving and only got the standard ban and fine. 3 years applies to all new Drink driving cases.

The second of these was at the Roundabout at the Port Road and I think there was a lot more to that than either the programme showed or perhaps knew if it was put together some time ago. There is cctv footage of that event in Letterkenny, they did not show but the Gardai must have accessed, it did not look like an accident as such

Surely it makes great TV, but....

In my opinion the show did not reflect so much the problem we have geographically, though it was obvious, but the narrator, probably scripted made quite a deal about Donegal statistics, and did not make any real issue of the cross border problem.

I would not expect them to comment on the light ban/fine, but the piece also talked about the good working relationship with the psni. I note they did not state this didn't catch the high speed chase guy, nor came to any conclusions about the car that may have went North beforehand, nor whether the crash was anyone from Northern Ireland on their way to Derry for example

In my book, reading between the lines, its not just a problem with Donegal Drivers, we have but showed a Northern element or Border problem either way.

My problem is that the narrator spent most of the time wheeling out Donegal stats but there was not as much emphasis on the Cross Border element that definately was there.

This is not a critic of the Gardai, nor a defence of some Donegal Drivers, but Media seem to love hammering the problems of Donegal with statistics, simply because they can, leaving aside even their own evidence that it may not be all Donegal people involved.

5, young (sober and law abiding) people were innocently killed in a collision with a Northern Driver in Inishowen a few years ago, the cross border issue was a factor in that case for lots of reasons, some not well known, but they too are now a young driver statistic and very unfairly so.

Its about time RTE came up and did an objective piece on it or stay down the country as they always did, and ignore Donegal like the semi states always do.

They are only up here on this occassion as it makes good tv especially when you can roll out statistics without delving into them.

Unfortunately not only do we have to pay road tax, but also a tax on TVs to that goes to fund RTE

Pique

I'm sorry, but it has to be recognised that Donegal roads are a dangerous place to be given the population.
Bleating on about the fact that there might be a 'northern element' involved and "may not be all Donegal people involved " makes you sound at best paranoid and at worst catastrophically naive.

No-one says that all crashes in Dublin, for example, are the result of Dublin drivers.
Why the knee-jerk reaction because the Donegal Traffic Corps are included in Traffic Blues ?

Donegal has the reputation for drivers that it does because of years upon years of history.
There is a history up here of proportionally high number of deaths on the roads, and ther large geography of the county, coupled with the low number of Gardai means (rightly or wrongly) it also has a perception of being a bit lawless

Don't take it so personally.

Cat82

I think your over emphasising the Northern element. The programme was not dealing with Northern Ireland drivers, the psni or their statistics. It was dealing with Donegal roads, the traffic corps and our statistics. Donegal roads and drivers have a bad reputation but this reputation is backed up by statistics unfortunately.

NIMAN

As a Northerner who now lives in Donegal I do have to say the standard of driving is particularly bad in Donegal.

There are a larger than normal amount of speeders imho, and the general public seem to have a poor standard of driving ability. Maybe I'm just comparing it to NI, where I think overall the standard would be higher.

But I think there is also a fundamental difference in attitude to driving between NI and Donegal.

salonfire

The programme painted Donegal as a real wild west county.
And they gathered all that footage (incl that fatality) over just two weekends - as the narator repeatedly mentioned.

In fairness, the attitude to driving among some young men in Donegal is appalling. Can't blame Northern drivers for that.

Ever notice those lads doing laps of Letterkenny? If someone 'tags' them, then off they go to the Dual Carriageway to race. Total strangers and at random.

Very little evidence of the gardai on the road too. I guess that with such a large area to cover, it seems unlikely that you'd see them in your area much.

They do try their best though, and that Inspector seems like a geniune fella.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

There seems to be an underlying element of paranoia in Donegal about the way people outside the county perceive drivers up here.

The statistics don't lie, Donegal has the worst record in the country. There is a high proportion of careless young drivers here imo, don't get me wrong - every county has them - but a higher concentration definately exists here.

I think a lot of it has to do with the relative isolation of Donegal to the rest of the Republic and the consequential rubbish transport links with the rest of the country, as well as within the county. The car is king, and any young man/woman who wants his or her independence needs a car. There also appears to be, traditionally, a big interest in cars and motorsports in the county, which contributes to the boy racer culture.

I'm not saying that every young driver is a careless eejit, god knows there are plenty of eejit drivers in all age categories.

Pique

deccurley wrote: »

There seems to be an underlying element of paranoia in Donegal about the way people outside the county perceive drivers up here.

That, and those dastardly folks in the Dublin meedja !

Cee-Jay-Cee

The vast majority of fatal accidents in the county involve donegal drivers unfortunately. Yes there are a few involving people from outside the county but theyre not all from the north.

I cant see it changing to be honest...all the graphic tv ads or news campaigns wont make any difference as the ones theyre aimed at arent watching.