Online reporting of dangerus driving.

There won't be proof.

Specific prosecutions won't come from this, but I presume a database of reports will be kept, and a bigger picture built up.

I wouldn't like to be the guy challenging a speeding or dangerous driving charge, where the prosecution produces a report that says I have 17 different reports about my driving in their database.

Yes, but you can't upload the footage when you make the report, as far as Im aware you can't even tick a box saying you have dashcam footage, so you would wonder how many people do they get back to?

It's the pattern that will count against you.

The judge will make a judgement.

The judge has to make a judgement based on law, not unverified reports.

Sadly not, I don't know why there's not a Dash-cam portal seeing as they ask for it a lot after incidents you see in the news, though if they contact you about an online report you can give any evidence you have in support of your claims..

How long do people keep their dashcam footage for?

I can see it happening that they ring you up after 6 weeks asking for your dashcam footage but its already been written over.

It could be a good thing - biggest challenge is wading through the reports to find an incident that will hold up in court - a lot of time wasting for little return - I don’t think it should be used to prosecute minor infringements though - it’s moving too much towards a big brother society and also it’s absolving Gardai from their responsibility to effectively police the roads.

I can see “hero’s” in their droves driving around looking for the slightest traffic law infringement and uploading reports daily - I don’t believe that’s a good thing at all but we are where we are- this technology isn’t going to go away but I can see that we’re moving towards a much more monitored society .

Id prefer to see a push and a priority on neighbourhood watch especially in rural areas- encouraging the reporting the suspicious movement of vans and such like - and more importantly then the Gardai actioning such reports -it’s very easy to slap a fine on someone who drove over a continuous white line when you have dash cam footage - what about capturing burglary gangs? Priorities are wrong here.

But how long would you keep it?

Knowing the speed of reporting things like this to the Gardai I would say 6 months+ would be more realistic before they'd contact you.

Well exactly! Do you keep it indefinitely?

Gardai/Police can't be everywhere and it's not an "either or thing" ignoring casual law breaking such as speeding/dangerous driving will only normalise it and make it socially acceptable, drink driving was the norm and now it's totally abhorrent to everyone, the same way mobile phone use should be now and if reporting it using online portals is the way to address these issues then I'd say most people are all for it..

This is going to be fantastic, given I have had someone dawdling below the speed limit, flash their lights and honk their horn when I overtook them with oncomming traffic about 1km away, in dry bright weather on a dead straight section of road where overtaking was permissable.

I'm in the process of backing up my home directory to transfer to a new laptop. Some stuff I'm taking, some stuff I don't care about. The hypothetical Dashcam footage from 6 months ago that no-one ever got back to me about? Meh, I'm not bothered keeping it. I'd imagine I'd not be in the minority on this one.

I have pictures I care about that are older than 20 years.

Can't currently.

There has been talk about a facility to upload footage when making a report.

Plenty of insurance companies already have this facility when dealing with claims. And it's trivial from a technical point of view to set it up, I could do it in an hour. I assume it's something to do with relevant legislation/data protection/f- all will from the Gardai, as to why it's not set up yet.

Those reports wouldn't be admissible in evidence. The main thing would be to allow Gardai to intercept badly driven vehicles.

So you agree with me, perhaps you should have responded to them.

I disagree with your statement that a judge does not consider “unverified reports”. Read what you wrote. Much eye witness evidence is necessarily “unverified”. We don’t live in a world where everything it recorded for audio and video. Most rape cases, for example, rely on “unverified reports” of what occurred, not of the act but of whether there was consent. Suggesting that everything needs to be verified is erroneous on your part. I don’t care what you were replying to - I concerned myself solely with what you stated.

I'm confused……..What has AI got to do with the new portal? The advent of AI has nothing to do with the discussion, if the new portal wasn't introduced then the impact on drivers would be the same, the evidence is still being submitted. The only difference with my suggestion is that the evidence is submitted much, much sooner.

For the record, I think your concerns are ridiculous, we are a long, long way away from being able to spoof footage of someone holding a phone or whatever. I'd say we're closer to dashcams coming as standard piece of equipment with all cars than we are to your scenario.

Your black box would be able to tell if a driver was speeding, alright. But what else would it be able to tell? How would it curb red light breakers? or Dangerous overtakes? Or pulling out in front of learner drivers etc? The obsession with speed in this country is outrageous, to the detriment of society IMO. Someone doing 4 or 5 km/h over the speed limit but obeys all other traffic laws is a much safer and better driver than someone who's under the limit but taking the piss with phone use or lane-hopping or overtaking on the hard-shoulder etc.

Are we a long way away from videos being spoofed??? I'm not so sure…….

The obsession with speed is probably due to the fact that over 40% of fatal accidents are as a result of speed? Speeding is a major problem particularly on back roads.

I agree 4/5kph over the speed limit is not much but many road users do way more with no punishment - particularly on back roads where there is no enforcement yet statistically they are much more dangerous than motorways.

My suggestion re black box puts the bulk of the onus on behaviour rather than enforcements.

For the record, I fully support this portal. No system can enforce everything but if it is initiated it has to have actual teeth and not just be a waste of time for Gardai. For example if you record me running a red light and submit it to the portal then provided the footage is verified I should be getting a fine and penalty points, but lets face it its useless without video evidence.

You said you're sure AI can easily add your car into a video. It cannot. It can't even get fingers correct, never mind replicating your face behind the wheel of your car with your reg plate visible. We're miles away from that type of scenario.

40% of fatal accidents aren't 'caused by speed'. 40% of fatal accidents have speeding as one of, if not the largest, contributing factors. If someone pulls out in front of you suddenly, without warning, while you're under the limit and you plough into the side of them and kill them…..that's not caused by your speed. If you were going slower, they might have survived. Therefore, the speed of your car is a mitigating factor in their death. Doesn't mean you caused it, just that speed was a factor. So it goes into your 40% statistic, even though the only way to ensure speed WASN'T a factor would be to force everyone to drive at 15km/h.

Speed is also one of the only factors that can be determined with any degree of certainty after the event. You can't tell if the dead guy who crashed his car into the pole was tired, or distracted, or a shite driver, or fell asleep, or swerved to avoid something etc. You can tell he would have survived the crash if he was going slower but you can't tell why he crashed half the time. So, into the 40% stats he goes. What if he fell asleep and leaned on the accelerator? Suddenly he's doing 70 in a 50 zone, but, in reality, he was obeying the speed limit up until he started spitting zeds. The accident wasn't caused by speed, but you bet your ass that's how it'll be recorded.

It's low hanging fruit and easily enforceable and, coincidentally, a money-spinner. That's why we focus on speed in this country and pretty much nothing else when it comes to road enforcement.

And what about non-fatal accidents? Where's the stats on them? It's been 18 years since we've had more than 1 road death per day, on average. Last year we had one every two days, which was the lowest in a decade. How many non-fatal accidents occur each day? Hundreds? Thousands? Why isn't there any effort to reduce them? Surely if you can get everyone to be better at the small stuff, the major stuff will reduce also?

You said you're sure AI can easily add your car into a video. It cannot. It can't even get fingers correct, never mind replicating your face behind the wheel of your car with your reg plate visible. We're miles away from that type of scenario.

I could do it with a few hours work. We are not miles away. Anyone reasonably competent could do it. I'm not going to do it because I'd be getting into this sort of territory:

They had this before about 10 years ago, could be 20 years now.

I reported an articulated truck doing a U-turn on O'Connell Bridge, causing mayhem. Got a phone call from a Garda about 6 months later about it. At that point I could no longer find the photos I took.

Would you also be prepared to hand over a fake video to the Gardai, knowing that you're liable for prosecution if you're proven wrong by the other party producing their own dashcam video, for example?

It would be a fairly high risk action.

Are you asking would someone be willing to forge evidence? Are you suggesting no-one has ever forged evidence before?

I don't really get what point you are making.

Would that stand up though?

I can't see that happening unless the person reporting is willing to give their name and stand up in court.

Otherwise reports could be made maliciously, even over a course of months or years.

I was just replying to the poster who said that technically it was not possible, when it is possible.