Road Accidents in Donegal

nanook

just looking through the posts, there has been the usual mention of the little boy racer, i will go back to my original thought of some of those cars are not fast enough to damage, before there is a riot here we all know that 1.0 puntos do not go fast enough.

There was a recent survery done by my local paper where the went to the local by pass and drove the lap of it a couple of times, i think the lap is 12 miles. On their first lap, they maintained 60mph, which is under the current speed limit, and within 2 minutes had been passed out by 6 cars, 2 of which was seriously speeding. After their little experiment was finished they concluded that it was not the little boy racer who was the worst offenders but the travelling rep and the housewife that were the serious speeders. White van man was also in the guilty group.

We all know our local areas, we all know the back roads, we all know the points that the guards set up speed checks. This is where the whole problem lies, we have our own limitations and we are carefull when we have to be and disregard the speed limit when we know we are safe. How many times have you arrived into your town/village/area in the 60km zone and were speeding. Remember over 60km is speeding. We have all done it. Maybe we need to readjust our own comfort zones and the Guards have really got to find some new areas.

muffler

nanook wrote:

After their little experiment was finished they concluded that it was not the little boy racer who was the worst offenders but the travelling rep and the housewife that were the serious speeders. White van man was also in the guilty group.

The majority of fatal road accidents happen late at night and into the early hours of the morning. How many sales reps, housewives and van salesmen are on the roads at those hours. Probably none.

That little experiment nanook was not the smartest one ever carried out.

We all know that speed is the biggest killer and the stats show that the majority of road deaths and traffic accidents happen at night and involve young males aged 18 - 28.

Civilian_Target

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

There is not a single bad road in Donegal that could cost a life if people drove with care.

That was what I was getting at earlier, but you've made the point a lot more eloquently

Paddy20

nanook wrote:

paddy i know your text in general is doing with driving and you opinions but what has the troubles got to do with road accidents in donegal

For what it's worth, those terrible death statistics tell me that it is more Dangerous ! to drive in Donegal, than to have lived in the 'War Zone' of Northern Ireland ?...:( , and yes I know I have not stuck entirely to Donegal, SNIP IF YOU WISH.

P. :cool:

emmemm

Rambler
Not easy to change the mindset of these young guys,especially with the absurd rally culture that seems prevalent up here.
I believe speed limiters set at 50 mph would reduce substantially deaths on our roads.
Failing this,some other hi-tech solution should be mandatory.These are already in use in certain modified vehicles.
What is the transport minister doing about this weekly carnage?
New,radical measures need to undertaken or the RTA deaths will continue to rise.

jimmycrackcorm

emmemm wrote:

Rambler
Not easy to change the mindset of these young guys,especially with the absurd rally culture that seems prevalent up here.
I believe speed limiters set at 50 mph would reduce substantially deaths on our roads.
Failing this,some other hi-tech solution should be mandatory.These are already in use in certain modified vehicles.
What is the transport minister doing about this weekly carnage?
New,radical measures need to undertaken or the RTA deaths will continue to rise.

Speed limitiers would be bypassed just as easily as tachographs in trucks. Driver education is the only answer, along with more visible enforcement albeit that would never be enough.

bettlebrox

No one seems to have mentioned that many of these accidents happen late at night, at the weekend, and that drink probably plays a factor in some (or many) of these accidents.

I think the government can put as many Gardai on the roads as they want on the roads and improve the roads, but if people are drinking and driving accidents will happen. What we really need is a shift away from the binge drinking culture we have, and we need to (unfortunately) shift the responsibility for drunk driving onto businesses that serve the drink.

I live in Boston, and the drink driving laws here are strict but they can't do random tests like they can at home. But, the way they've cut down the drink driving is that bars and clubs can be fined by the State and loose their licenses, and sued by the victims or families of victims (or the families of those drunk driving) for serving them too much drink. Plus, you don't see as much of the rowdiness, and fights and so on, on the streets. (Plus, living in a big city it's easier to get home without having to drive either by public transport or taxi). People do drive after drinking, but rarely have I seen people langered drunk trying to drive (like I've seen at home). Plus, if you have a party at home and some get's b*lloxed drunk and crashes and kills themselves you could be held responsible, and sued and/or jailed ...

To be honest, I'm more for personal responsibility in these things and do think it's unfair on businesses to be responsible for what grown adults do. But, we need more than Gardai on the streets and on the roads to stop this. Can you imagine how many fights after a disco there would be if the businesses were held responsible? Or how many less drunk drivers we'd see on the roads?

I do agree with the suggestions that we need better local roads, but on the other hand maybe we need our wee roads (off the main roads) changed so people can't drive fast?

Now if I'm totally off the mark, I apologise. But it really does seem to be that the media & the politicans haven't mentioned anything about drink being a factor. And are acting like a few more Gardai are going to change anything ...

Speaking of better roads, when the feck are we going to get a fecking dual-carriageway to Dublin? Can you imagine been able to that trip in just over 2 hours without breaking the speed limit? Can you imagine how much it would help local industry to be able to get their goods to the other end of the country in 1/2 the time? I can only imagine flying into Dublin and being home in a few hours ...

donegalman1

Most of your comments have appeared already. Pubs can be fined and closed for a period for serving people too much as it is. But how do you know who, on their second drink will have parked a car up the street and with that second drink will then be over the limit.

With regard to Gardai, there is no shortage of them operating speed traps during the day but none to be seen at night in vunerable areas... is this an overtime, rostering or garda Union thing.

Far too many are stuck at desks also, through no fault of their own. Its not necessarily a case of too few Guards, maybe proper use of the resources would be of help.

I agree about the Dublin Road and at this stage the Northern part of it whie good surface is no where near the standard in Monaghan and Meath.

emmemm

A dual carriageway to Dublin could happen if the voters here would get together and elect someone to get the job done.The usual suspects have failed miserably in this regard.Tom Gildea are you there.....

foggy

bettlebrox wrote:

I live in Boston, and the drink driving laws here are strict but they can't do random tests like they can at home. But, the way they've cut down the drink driving is that bars and clubs can be fined by the State and loose their licenses, and sued by the victims or families of victims (or the families of those drunk driving) for serving them too much drink. Plus, you don't see as much of the rowdiness, and fights and so on, on the streets. (Plus, living in a big city it's easier to get home without having to drive either by public transport or taxi). People do drive after drinking, but rarely have I seen people langered drunk trying to drive (like I've seen at home). Plus, if you have a party at home and some get's b*lloxed drunk and crashes and kills themselves you could be held responsible, and sued and/or jailed ...

I spent two summers on Cape Cod and the amount of drink driving I witnessed there far exceeded the amount I see here. Men I worked with used to have a few drinks, buy a couple of cans in the liqour store and drink them when driving home....on the motorway over the speed limit.
I thought it was disgraceful much much worse than here.

I also think that the problem is not just young drivers but middle aged men who will drive to and from the pubs in my area without concern for other drivers.

AND also there was a navagiation rally on with stages in the soccar and trentagh area a few weeks ago. Noone who lives in the area was informed of the rally and they are very lucky there wasn't a serious accident.

Dun

The weeks on either side of the Donegal rally every year are terrible in our area. And as for boy racers in 1.0l Puntos, I can't say I've seen any. They all seem to drive mid-1990s cars that are at least 1.4l.

That stretch of road at Lisfannon is not bad unless you're coming along recklessly disregarding the speed limit, which is 80kmh there, and not 100, as someone mentioned. The only stretches of 100kmh road in Inishowen is the N13, which skirts along the bottom of Inishowen from the border through to Newtowncunningham. I don't think that there were any accidents that couldn't be put down to careless driving. The four Latvians that hit a bridge last year, wouldn't have done so if they had been driving at a speed that fit their knowledge of the area and the type of road they were on. The same goes for the teenagers that hit the side of a bridge on a road that was not in a bad condition. And then out at Quigley's Point where four more teenagers died. The road is well marked, and for the most part is wide with a large hard shoulder. And as bad as each of those were, they're only part of what's been going on up here. It's obvious what kind of mindset so many young Inishowen people have, when you can't drive at 80kph any evening without some gob****e tailgating you for two miles with their dips, fog lights on and neon lights all over, while s/he knows rightly that s/he can't overtake you until the road straightens again two miles up the road.

Civilian_Target

emmemm wrote:

A dual carriageway to Dublin could happen if the voters here would get together and elect someone to get the job done.The usual suspects have failed miserably in this regard.Tom Gildea are you there.....

I dunno - they're doing pretty well, the road north is excellent as far as Castleblaney and with the new Monaghan and Castleblaney bypasses and the new Monaghan-Emyvale road that should extend the good road as far as the border. After that, well the Lifford-Letterkenny part could use fixed, but most of your efforts will have to go into telling Tony to build the road...

bettlebrox

Story in the Indo about boy racers being the cause of many of the accidents:

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1575968&issue_id=13772&eid=191718

A DANGEROUS sub-culture of thrill-seeking boy racers in border counties may explain why the region has more fatal crashes than anywhere else.

They hold high-speed races along unsuitable country lanes, frequently performing reckless stunts, Ireland‘s leading road safety psychologist revealed yesterday. It is officially being called a culture of "high-risk driving" with young males trying to show off to their mates.

Many of them have left the education system earlier than normal.

A major new unpublished investigation has uncovered pockets of this new sub-culture of "high-risk driving" in Donegal, Cavan and other border areas but also in Meath ...

And here was me thinking it was drink alone ... when I home over Xmas was in a friends car drinving up past the SuperValu in Donegal Town and he pointed out a souped up (POS) car parked outside where Johnson's Motors used to be (on the right at the top of the bray) and mumbled something about "fecking racers". Now I know what he talking about!

byte

That'd be McGinleys Peugeot/Rover dealership.

It seems to be a popular place for young fellas to line up and chat to each other.

In Letterkenny, it's Pearse Road, in front of Garys Petworld, that the "boy racers" line up.

I would say that it's probably a sweeping statement to call all young male drivers "boy racers"

Iascaire

Should the Government bring in laws against souping up cars, it might lessen the burning desire to show off in the first place.
Or maybe not allow seventeen year olds hold a provisional driving license,
Maybe people under twenty something should only be allowed to drive with full licences.
The testing system could give them preference in certain circunstances.
Would these small measures and maybe some more not help?

byte

Maybe driving lessons and examinations should be made part of secondary school curriculum. I think this is the case in USA?