Reporting Dangerous Driving

Trampas

Has anyone ever reported a person for dangerous driving?

I was driving on sat afternoon slightly above the speed limit 40mph in a 60 kph zone. When i noticed a car flying up the road behind me (Doing at least 60mph). Came to an open bend in the road double solid white lines and you could see cars on coming.

Next thing i see the car going to overtake me on the bend.

I had to slam on the brakes and so did the on coming car so this car could pass in between us or there would have been a pile up.

I followed the car as was going my way and it stopped a half a mile away in a garage.

Took its reg went to the garada station and they took the reg and my name but said can't take a statement now can you coming back during the week.

Do these drivers ever get punished??

kluivert

Thats a school boy error by the gardai - they must take a statement.

You can be very critical about the Gardai - especially at the end of very month you see them outside the Regionancy Hotel watching for cars who stop in the yellow box and there at the customs house bridge.

Money well spent hey...

TJM

I reported a car for dangerous driving once by mobile phone at the time (giving reg, location, and direction of travel). I was told that a car would be sent to see if they could find him.

This was followed up soon afterwards by a garda phone call and request for a written statement. The owner of the vehicle was visited shortly afterwards. I was informed about six months later that the driver had been convicted for a number of other driving offences, so justice was done even though my particular incident wasn't prosecuted.

I certainly would continue to report these incidents - until we have a proper traffic corps (which isn't focused solely on generating revenue by speed cameras) then the only way in which dangerous driving will be dealt with is by the ordinary motorist taking the time to report it.

Big Balls

I reported a little scrote in a Focus back in March to Traffic Watch.

Guard on the phone was ok... basically this little to55er was racing his mate on the M50.

I was on inside lane, his mate went past then I went into overtaking lane. His mate comes up my hole (bearing in mind I was in a 190 bhp car - he in a 1.4/1.6 Focus) while I'm busy overtaking cars. What does he do to get past? Swerves into the hard shoulder on the M50 boots up and swerves back across the lanes and into the overtaking lane.

I came alongside him, waved the mobile at him and rang the guards. They said they'd give him a rollocking, never followed it up.

You did right in my opinion.

shabbyroad

wasted my time calling in to that trafficwatch number, wouldn't bother doing it again.
after I gave all the details the alleged garda on the phone tried to give me a hard time for using my phone while driving.
if he'd gotten his head out of his arse for a few seconds he could have checked with me if i was driving ...... i wasn't.
did they do anything about the report i sent in ? did they fvck...

Victor

kluivert wrote:

outside the Regionancy Hotel watching for cars who stop in the yellow box

So yellow box junctions shouldn't be enforced?

FX Meister

Victor wrote:

So yellow box junctions shouldn't be enforced?

I think his point was that they chose a simple money making offence to prosecute people for and not something more important. But I think you knew that already.

Victor

FX Meister wrote:

I think his point was that they chose a simple money making offence to prosecute people for and not something more important. But I think you knew that already.

Actually yellow box junctions are important, you get one guy blocking it while someone else is trying to make a right turn in the other direction, which backs up to a junction ..... soon it becoems nasty and someone does soemthing they shouldn't and ... BANG

skibum

A while ago I had a close encounter with a complete [unt in a lancer on the N11 coming into Wicklow town, all the way in he was taking reckless, stupid moves all over the place, he didn't appear to be drunk , just very agressive. anyway drove to the Garda station gave them the speil, bascially getting the usual "yeah, yeah" until one guard tapped in the reg of the car, what ever came up on his screen made him shout at the motorbike cop who was having a nice cup of tea, had a quick word with him, and then left like a bat out of hell. Never heard anything after that but they were eager to get him.

Mr Magnolia

The reason why he/she said to come back during the week was to see if you were actually that bothered about what happened.
If you do go back he/she will take a statement and ask you are you willing to prosecute.
They then compile "x" amount complaint files and send them off for review, a select few are chosen for prosecution, if your case is chosen the Garda will come back to you and ask you again are you willing to prosecute.
I'm sure what you've experienced was scary, but I've reported worse and heard nothing more about it. But don't let that put you off.
You have to be prepared to prosecute though.

fatboypee

two months ago I was travelling to work down the N7 towards Nenagh, poppin' along in my wife's 1 litre nissan micra, came up to a double white line stretch and in my mirror I can see a car leap-frogging, thought nothing of it...the carcomes up behind me while I'm on the stretch of white lines and overtakes me against an oncoming artic who has to brake violently like me.. I went nuts ! Usual gestures and flashing lights.... Car brakes hard in front of me and (I'm up for a bit of a row at this stage) puts on his blue lights !!!! Fk'n guard in an unmarked Toyota Camry !!!!!!!

Shocked the life out me that. Should have taken it up but unlikely to be believed !!

Found out later that Bertie was visiting Nenagh. This guy wasnt on an emergency, no lights, not sirens, nothing.

What hope we got if a$$oles like this are supposed to be policing us ?

Fatboy.

528i

An absolute waste of time reporting it, Gardaí just arent interested.

The amount of times ive phoned in about idiots in a vegetable like state delaying hoards of motorists in a rush is ridiculous.

The only way they learn is to cut them up while overtaking and leaning on the horn (and i implore everyone to do likewise) as suddenly they've been reawakened to the world around them and aren't transfixed at inanimate dashboard instruments any more and will endeavour to speed up (relatively speaking) while affording you a quick wave and customary flash of the headlights in acknowledgement of their folly.

More often than not I won't wave back as they'll assume themselves to be off the hook then.

IrishRover

Haha, good one 528i!

Fatboy, in an effort to top yours, here's a story of mine:

About 10 years ago or more now, I was in the passenger seat of my father's car with him driving. We were travelling along a narrow suburban street in Dublin where cars park all along one side and make it so that there is only room enough for one car (or line of cars) to pass at a time.

Our lane was the free one so anyone coming from the other direction has to give way. We were half way along a section of this road that had cars parked on the other side. The obvious convention is for any cars coming the other way to slow down or stop and wait if necessary for cars coming from our direction to pass and then they may move into our lane to pass.

A white mondeo (usual undercover cop car of choice) was coming the other way at quite a speed so I was wondering how he was going to stop in time seeing as we were already closing quite quickly. Sure enough, he didn't stop and kept coming towards us. I was getting quite panicky and told my father he'd better get up on the footpath as it looked like this guy was not going to stop. My father (quite beligerently I suppose) refused to mount the footpath and stood his ground. This guy in the mondeo came to a halt just before hitting us. There was a mexican stand off for a while until the mondeo reversed back to where he should have waited (there were now a line of other cars behind us) and we continued on.

The next thing I notice is main beam lights flashing in my passenger door mirror. I look around and it is this guy who has turned around and is racing back to catch us. I told my father to put the foot to the floor to get out of there because naturally I suspected road rage and judging from the way he nearly deliberately had a head on crash with us by playing chicken I knew he was capable of deciding to shunt us from behind. However, my father for some reason refused to speed up. Sure enough this guy came up behind us and started revving up behind us as if he were about to shunt us. Next he started making sideways swerves into the driver's side (like you see in the movies). I screamed at my father that enough was enough and to get the fook out of here. I don't know whether he had time to decide that regardless of speed limits, that was now the sensible thing to do, but before he had a chance to anyway, this guy made a lunge from the side that cut across the front of our car and forced us off the road. His ugly fat bird was hanging out the passenger window shaking her fist and roaring at us.

My father just stayed in his seat with his belt on. I don't think he knew what to do. I knew that we were about to be on the receiving end of some road rage, so I decided it was best to get out of a sitting position otherwise we were defenceless as we were blocked in and as I didn't know what was going though my father's mind I couldn't count on him being able to reverse quickly and manouever the car out of there sharpish. I walked up to their car staying behind the passenger A pillar for protection.

The woman was in civvies, but you guessed it - the driver was wearing a civilian leather jacket with a blue garda "wooly jumper" type vest underneath. I got the clear impression that he was distinctly off duty. I tried talking to them both calmly and rationally without raising my voice or using inflammatory language, through her open passenger window. I was just trying to ascertain what their perception of the situation was and why they (obviously) thought the way they were behaving was warranted. The woman claimed to be an off duty garda also but that was the only sense I got out of her. She was beyond hysterical and couldn't be reasoned with.

He was not much better, but calmed slightly after he got out of the car to the point where I began to think it was less likely that he wanted to get violent (however I still had to bear in mind what he was capable of from the way he was driving). I called back to my father to tell him not to turn the engine off and to pop the boot (I wanted to be able to run back to get the wheel brace should this guy get violent as he seemed as stable as a powder keg).

He flashed his badge at me so quickly that I couldn't get a chance to read it properly. He took off his jacket and put it on his driver's seat, but he was much taller than me so I couldn't read the badge number off his shoulder easily. He refused to give me his badge number.

I asked him why he didn't stop at the beginning of the bank of cars that were parked on his side. I asked him had he seen us coming before he decided to drive on the opposite side of the road, on our lane, towards us. I asked him where he expected us to go. He didn't have an answer for that. and decided to slink off back to his car. I walked after him asking him for his name and badge number. He slammed his door and peeled off out of there.

Basically, this guy was an off duty copper who thought he was Dirty Harry or something and was so used to flouting the rules of the road (Road traffic acts still apply to the police whether on or off duty) that he obviously felt he can do whatever he likes, and the ordinary pleb in the street has to just do whatever they say whether they like it or not and just get out of their way if they want to drive like a maniac.

This experience didn't give me a good feeling about the gardaí in general. I'm sure there must be some good ones out there, but it made me suspect that some of them also must have certain chips on their shoulders.

I wouldn't mind the "nothing they can do attitude" if they'd apply this as a blanket behaviour and quit with the targeting of motorists who happen to exceed the posted speed limit where it is safe to do so.

sgthighway

I know one of my mates sisters got approached by the Gardaí after they were reported by the public for dangerous driving. She got a warning.
I hate seeing people overtaking dangerously, etc. and I normally blow them out of it but never when its a D reg car in case its the cops.
Its only in the last two months traffic has got un-bearable in Galway. In the last two weeks a Green Micra has drove up the Hard Shoulder on a Dual Carriageway while we are at a stand still. It won't happen a third time. I will calmly pull out in front of it if I see it happen again, then get out of my car and @%$# them out of it in front of everybody.

fatboypee

Well IrishRover, ya beat mine anyway !!

I do have a different ending to the poor wife's micra tho.
I imported a car from the UK and thus the micra was redundant, before it's demise (due for NCT, needed lots doing to it to pass), we lent it to a friend as her car was in the garage. She got hit from behind while making a right turn. As the car that hit her was moving off the road to do the usual details thing another car hit it at high speed shunting both cars forward.

The 3rd car was being driven by an off duty garda. Turned out the car was his girlfriends and he wasn't insured to drive it !!!!

Instills me with so much confidence that..

One other thing that enrages me, why do I see so many Garda on duty NOT wearing seatbelts ?????? I know they don't have to but ??????....

Fatboy.

PlayaFlow

ooohh moan moan moan , i report everything to the guards coz im a liltlle sissy. <sarcasm>

have u people got nothing better to do?

how would u like it if the guards were called on you every time u display a bit of creative driving.

guards were called on me once for apparently driving like a lunatic through the phoenix park! - although i did nothing lunatic-ish . all i did was accellerate hard in first gear (up to 35mph) and then put it in 2nd and i eased up reaching a max speed of 45ish mph, hence not breaking the speed limit!! ...since when is it illegeal to accelerate hard or Rev ur engine past 4000rpm??!!!! - but obviously the roar of my engine upset some auld do-gooder lady and caused her to reach for her mobile phone resulting in guards calling to my door next day, my parents were not too pleased to say the least.

Plankmonkey

What can the gardai do about it? They might have it on traffic camera if they look but if not then how can they prove anything? The dangerous driver could turn around and say it was YOU who was driving dangerous. What we need is cops out on the streets to witness it for themselves.

LFCFan

PlayaFlow wrote:

all i did was accellerate hard in first gear (up to 35mph) and then put it in 2nd and i eased up reaching a max speed of 45ish mph, hence not breaking the speed limit!!

Eh, the speed limit in the Park was 30MPH.

I was reported once for nothing. Coming home from Limerick about 4 years ago and I overtook a Micra that was doing 30MPH in the 50MPH zone near the Annacotty turn. Did nothing dangerous, broken white lines etc and got on with it. Next thing I see is the Micra up my arse with it's full lights on tailgating for about a mile. Then it dropped back and turned off the road. Went through Birdhill and I'm pulled over by some fat old ignorant fcuk of a Garda who had no interest in listening to my side of the story. I also tried to tell him about a Car up ahead pulling a Horse Cart that had no rear lights and was all over the road. He wasn't interested in that either. Just got back in his car and went back the way he came. It's incidents like that which make us lose respect for the Gardaí.

fatboypee

PlayaFlow wrote:

ooohh moan moan moan , i report everything to the guards coz im a liltlle sissy. <sarcasm>

have u people got nothing better to do?

how would u like it if the guards were called on you every time u display a bit of creative driving.

guards were called on me once for apparently driving like a lunatic through the phoenix park! - although i did nothing lunatic-ish . all i did was accellerate hard in first gear (up to 35mph) and then put it in 2nd and i eased up reaching a max speed of 45ish mph, hence not breaking the speed limit!! ...since when is it illegeal to accelerate hard or Rev ur engine past 4000rpm??!!!! - but obviously the roar of my engine upset some auld do-gooder lady and caused her to reach for her mobile phone resulting in guards calling to my door next day, my parents were not too pleased to say the least.

Far be it from me to cause issue here but I think I need to make one simple point. Nobody driving is totally without sin and we've all done some nutty stuff at some point or other either but lacking in attention or pure stupidity. Buuut (and here's the point). I am personally sick to f'ing death, everytime I venture onto the roads of:

1. People who give no distance and I cannot see their lights
2. People dangeroulsy overtaking me on blind cormers or double white lines when I'm going even in\excess of the speed limit.

3. People overtaking others on double white lines forcing me over.
4. Little fkkers in go-faster 1.4 honda-y type cars with stupid paraphenallia who make everyone's life a misery by driving stupidly.

Lots of other stuff too but thats just a flavour...

I'm no fuddy duddy or speed limit merchant but I do have kids to keep safe. Something that becomes a challenge everytime I take to the roads !!

I have taken and passed the advanced driving test and the defensive driving course. But look at the road deaths here. Look at the facts guys. You don't need to go far to see carnage and stupid driving. The roads are not a fkking race track and driving is no fkking game !!

Perhaps we should start by actually training drivers properly in the use of a car ????

Fatboy.

Jumpy

Get a webcam and laptop mounted in your car and start your own 'Irelands Worst Drivers' tv show.
At the very least you can forward your 'research' to the gardai.
Hehe I should Patent the 'Driver Cam' (be your own american squad car!)

RicardoSmith

Waste of time reporting things to the guards they do nothing.

PlayaFlow

what annoys me is not the guards , its just those typical wannabe do gooders. like the guy said about the micra goin 30mph . just calling the guards coz they have nothin better to do.
theyre just the type of dic*heads that beep at u for no reason for example when goin in to a busy reoundabout and youre miles away and they beep excessively. those people do my head in . little pussy farts. one of these days im gonna get out of my car and just smash their head against my door repeatedly , stupid feckers.

the reason it gets me so much is because whenever i see anybody doing something stupid or pulls out right in front of me i never beep or call the gurads or anything like that, just brake-avoid-and get on wit ur life

Jumpy

PlayaFlow wrote:

what annoys me is not the guards , its just those typical wannabe do gooders. like the guy said about the micra goin 30mph . just calling the guards coz they have nothin better to do.
theyre just the type of dic*heads that beep at u for no reason for example when goin in to a busy reoundabout and youre miles away and they beep excessively. those people do my head in . little pussy farts. one of these days im gonna get out of my car and just smash their head against my door repeatedly , stupid feckers.

the reason it gets me so much is because whenever i see anybody doing something stupid or pulls out right in front of me i never beep or call the gurads or anything like that, just brake-avoid-and get on wit ur life

My Brain Hurts.

SouperComputer

one of these days im gonna get out of my car and just smash their head against my door repeatedly

putting the hazards on, getting out of the car, walking towards them and asking if they have a problem is a more legal way of doing this. usually they cower

dont let the ba$tards drag you down, spend your time laughing at them!

PlayaFlow

SouperComputer wrote:

putting the hazards on, getting out of the car, walking towards them and asking if they have a problem is a more legal way of doing this. usually they cower

dont let the ba$tards drag you down, spend your time laughing at them!

yeah, ill try that too heheh, thanks

fatboypee

PlayaFlow wrote:

what annoys me is not the guards , its just those typical wannabe do gooders. like the guy said about the micra goin 30mph . just calling the guards coz they have nothin better to do.
theyre just the type of dic*heads that beep at u for no reason for example when goin in to a busy reoundabout and youre miles away and they beep excessively. those people do my head in . little pussy farts. one of these days im gonna get out of my car and just smash their head against my door repeatedly , stupid feckers.

the reason it gets me so much is because whenever i see anybody doing something stupid or pulls out right in front of me i never beep or call the gurads or anything like that, just brake-avoid-and get on wit ur life

And thus their behaviour perpetuates until they manage to cause an accident. :rolleyes:

magpie

I'm sure there must be some good ones out there

The Morris Tribunal and Ferns Report don't add much credence to this view.

t5pwr

PlayaFlow wrote:

...one of these days im gonna get out of my car and just smash their head against my door repeatedly , stupid feckers...

Don't smash it against your door, you will only damage it. Use their door instead

ambro25

SouperComputer wrote:

putting the hazards on, getting out of the car, walking towards them and asking if they have a problem is a more legal way of doing this. usually they cower

Works every time. Don't forget to do that where they can't boot it past your stopped car, tho'

Have done this myself a number of times, always only after fools commit a very foolish act upon me, note, as I usually just "forgive-and-forget", to reprise 528i - drivers concerned instantly assume road rage and shrink in their cars for all they're worth

Last time was a 50-something in a Beemer (what else!?!) who thaught nothing of booting it from a tootling 40 mph to over 85 mph on a single carriage way, to stop me overtaking him - he lost... 'twice' (when I did make it past him and then blocked him and got out )