Near Misses Volume 2 (So close you can feel it)

I have zero insider knowledge about GDPR, but what occurs to me is, just because you have the reg no., that doesn't mean you know who the driver was. So, if you were told that the driver of a car got points, knowing the reg no. doesn't tell you who that driver is.

Either way, I still believe it would be good policing to let someone know that something they went out of their way to report was taken seriously and actioned in some manner.

This.

As others have said the fact that it hasn't been dealt with by the court and therefore isn't in the public domain would bring it right under GDPR. My day job is writing software for European funded research projects and, since GDPR came into being, every dataset that we are given has to be first and foremost looked at from the perspective of GDPR implications.

GDPR is a bit unusual in that it's the individual handling the data and not the organisation that is considered the processor. Under it, data can only be stored on a strictly "is it necessary?" basis and should be deleted when no such cause still exists, so in the case where X gets 5 penalty points there's a perfectly valid reason to store that data so that the next time X does something stupid and accrues more points, they may lose their license. In the same vein, the record of the 5 penalty points should hypothetically be deleted altogether after they expire (is it 2 years?) - unless of course there's some other justifiable reason to hold onto it, which there may well be.

So with all that in mind, from the point of the legislation, a 3rd party - @Schorpio in this instance - has no legal right to know how many points X has as they have no legitimate reason to process that data and the individual guard would breach GDPR by giving it. It sucks, but I think as others have pointed out, this is the nub of it.

As regard reg numbers, they are considered as data that can identify an individual under GDPR and there have been test cases around it. I personally think it's a bit of a stretch as you need access to the vehicle reg database to link it to somebody, and that should be pretty well restricted. There's also an explicit exclusion from GDPR regarding breaches of the law - which this undoubtedly is, but it's probably only the guards who are exempt from the point of view of investigation.

GDPR is without doubt widely used as a smokescreen - the new "Helt 'n' Sayftee' as it were - and because it's so complex and the penalties so onerous, it can be hard to argue with.

OP, it'd be no harm following up with whoever you did report it to - the worst they can say is no, but on the other hand you might get somebody willing to give you an update - even unofficially

Somebody better tell them and traffic wardens not to leave tickets on the windscreens of cars so, on the entirely reasonable chance that someone might know the owner of the car and find out they were fined 😮, seeing as the existence of penalties given to strangers is personal data now.

I used to be on that quite regularly and it's a bit of a mess in places. Lack of signposting of entrances to the cycle lane and people thinking they can go as fast as possible on it. I went onto it quite slowly before and a guy screamed at me (probably more my fault but he was barrelling along) but nothing to signpost that people may be entering the lane there.

Don't get me started on the bushes they have concealing the view of the entrance to the car park outside the bus terminal too.

I had what felt like a close pass last month from a Dublin Bus. I've had worse, but I figured I might try out the GDPR FOI system to get the footage. It was not too difficult and I got it within 3 weeks which was pretty good. Now when I reviewed the footage I felt sort of foolish. It seems the bus was not really that close to me at all. I had quoted a distance of about a foot. Now there is probably a degree of fisheye lens to the camera which makes things seem further apart, but then why did I feel like the bus had just come just over a foot close to me as it passed me by and yet the images make it look like the bus gave me a comfortable metre.

I had a look at the footage and I think I've gotten a sense of why, if you'll indulge me, or tell me I'm completely wrong.

Here the bus is behind me about to pass me out. Judging by the wing mirror shadow, I'm about 3 metres ahead. The bus on its current path will crash into me. The bus wing mirror shadow is lined up with my shadow. If you follow it forward, they would connect.

The bus now starts to move out to pass me out. Look at the shadows again. I'm about 2 metres ahead and the shadows are about 6 inches apart now if you track them forward.

The bus is now starting to pass me out. And even though the bus and I look reasonably far apart, the shadows on the ground are maybe 12-18 inches.

The bus is now beside me, and this is where the shadows are. Maybe a foot apart. That's why it felt like the bus speeding up to pass me out was about a foot away from me.

Is my reading of this completely wrong? Are the shadows a reliable indicator of where everyone is, rather than looking at the images that have been fisheyed. The bus then pulled in in front of me to the bus stop outside the workman's club. Do I have a grievance here? Or should I just stop now before I embarass myself anymore?

I've cycled in the city for years so I'm used to a close pass. I'm not sure what was so bad about this as the images and video are not exactly terrifying. I think maybe it was that he moved out at the last moment so even though there's enough space as he passes, as I heard him approach he was much closer.

Red & Black livery? They, locally had a dreadful name for a while. Wealthy middle aged management types used to bullying people around. I believe they got a few good dressing downs from organisations and individuals and have had to clean up their act.

Sounds like a driver who's not confident turning into a side road without taking the HGV line so he probably wanted the other driver to pull out so he'd have a nice wide space to turn into.

More fool you for expecting to see correct use of indicator on an Irish roundabout!

^^Dripping with sarcasm.

Certain people won't ever heed speed limits until there's a consequence such as penalty points or fines*. Without enforcement any change in limits won't make a blind bit of difference.

*An even smaller subset won't care about points or fines.

100% this. Not confident turning into a side road so pretends like a favour is being dispensed.

Dangerous driving masked as courtesy - the worst kind!

Couple of near misses today, one down to error the other to aggression.

The first, I was heading north on Cardiff Lane towards the river. A left-hand-drive truck turned right coming from Beckett Bridge into my lane by mistake. Luckily the driver copped his error (my wild gesturing might've helped) and moved back into the correct lane in time. No harm no foul, plenty of time for evasive manoeuvres.

The second incident, I was turning right at the Ward Cross roundabout (from St. Margaret's towards Ashbourne). A car coming from my left yields to me as I'm already on the roundabout, but the car behind that car takes it as a personal insult and blasts them, moving to overtake. More horns and high revs as the two of them battle it out behind me on the roundabout as I try and take my exit as quick as I can. The second driver took the racing line and was off up the road ahead of the first.

I know the road rage aggression wasn't directed at me, but I still could've ended up another statistic over some needless impatience. I spotted the aggressively driven car a few minutes later in a petrol station, whatever the rush was.