The WhiteVan Speed Camera

Dundhoone

jasonh wrote:

My first enquiry was about these GATSO vans - they are parking up in place that they know they will catch people speeding - not accident prone areas.
For example the GATSO van was hidden on that dual carriage way from tuam rd roadabout to the headford road roundabout. Now that is blatant revenue generation for the garda. The speed limit, which I think is 50kph, is absolutely stupid. I presume its that speed limit coz it could be classed as a built up area. but come on.

Wow I missed all this arguing.... shame!
First off there were at least two fatal accidents that I can remember on that road, both involving "speeding" (though since the limit is 50kph we can assume "speeding" in those cases = >50kph) one involved a car going out of control and into a lamp post , driver killed and another involved a car going onto the path an killing a pedestrian (this also happened a student about 6 years ago on the quincintenial bridge, another 50kph people dont like)

I hate going 50kph on that road. Its very frustrating. But if doing that speed decreases the chances of having an accident then so be it.

Dundhoone

edmund_f wrote:

habitual excessive speeders, by this i mean you would get your 12 points by speeding in excess of 40-50kph of the limit, or less depending on cirumstances, would be punished.

I doubt anyone caught by the white van would fall into that category?, well by the law of numbers maybe a few percent perhaps.

Err?? what? logically, the people who speed most often should be more likely to be caught by a gatso van and therefore yes by the laws of numbers .....

Jaysus. I agree with your points about training drivers better, improving the road conditions and the point that a lot of other factors come into accidents etc but do you really believe this ?

"Personally i prefer to drive to the conditions, as safe as possible and to the best of my ability, not to an arbitary limit"

you know that sounds like the old "sure i'm a brilliant driver" thingy? you may be a very cautious careful driver, but if everyone lived by the quote above, we'd have people racing all over the place - to the best of their ability.

Basically no, if everyone drove at 50kph everything would not be perfect, but it would be safer, theres no denying that.

edmund_f

it seems to be very easy to be mis quoted here. When i say drive to a suitable speed, not the limit, usually that means that i drive slower than the limit. Specifically i am thinking of built up areas etc. In fact i very very rarely drive faster than the limit, primarily due to the covert detection techniques used by the cops. (but this is just my personal choice)

slowing everyone down to 50Kph will have the same number of accidents, but there will, maybe, be less deaths?. I do not know, i am not an expert. One thing i am sure of though is that if you train people to avoid the accident in the first place then the roads will get safer.

funny, i never at any point said or implied that 'i am a brilliant driver' or ever would. Interesting that what i am saying made you think of a 'brilliant' driver.

Point here is that gatso parked at a high volume, low speed road will generally do more harm than good.

Dundhoone

okay point taken that a suitable speed can be less than the speed limit - its fair to say that in bad conditions ie heavy rain or ice/snow that you have to choose your safe speed (at less than the limit obviuosly) so maybe your "brilliance" is due to your law abiding nature and consideration for other people.

Of course if everyone drove at 50kph everywhere there would be alot less accidents. Less speed = less cars going out of control + less braking time/distance required to stop +

Also if you do have an accident less damage done if you hit another vehicle/wall therefore less fatalities

whats your logic behind saying there would be the same number of accidents? bearing in mind that I know there are many other factors which lead to accidents but speed is defo one of em

Gatso vans in high volume, low speed areas catch speeders in low speed areas which is just as valid as catching speeders anywhere else. How is catching people breaking the law a bad thing? Isnt that what its for? What harm are you talking about?

edmund_f

i am talking about the effectivness of the way the cops are enforcing our road traffic laws, the only time I personally see them is on high volume roads. I have never personally seen on on a minor road. Accidents do happen on minor roads?

as far as driving at 50kph all the time, bit of a silly argument really, but if someone pulls out of a junction right in front of you, overtakes on a blind junction or whatever, speed will not be a factor in the accident, it will be a factor in the severity of the accident.(note here, pulls out into the reaction distance in front of your car, yes this distance will decrease with speed and thus the liklehood of someone managing to drive into it) A minor, but important distinction. It is possible to drive safely at 100kph on most of our roads, but that requires a certain standard of driving from everyone.

You make the point that at 50kph you have time to stop or aviod the accident. Would it not be better to try to teach people how to drive in such a way that would mean that people would not have to be driving around this country waiting for the next bad driver to cause them to have to slam on the brakes.

speed is a cause in some accidents, but if proper training was given to avoid all the stupid accidents (sorry officer, i did just not look), you would probably find that such training would also cover the use of suitable speed, and you would kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Focusing on speed is not really going to change anything, except the cops look they are doing something. Training would be something that would take years to implement.

the cops are apperantly trained to a high standard of driving. They should know what is dangrous, and should be placing their checks accordingly?. Where are the dangrous driving checks?