ear bashing.

dubtom

On my way to tallaght tonight at about 2am via the new junction at the top of Greenhills and the tallaght bypass I went through the yellow,which turned to red as I was half way through, there was no traffic on the road, well, except the cop car sitting at the lights on the bypass.He went to the bother of doing a uturn and stopping me and then said, can you afford 2 points, no I said, well then why did you drive like that, pointing at the corner and seeming to get a little annoyed. There are two robbed cars around here tonight and they don't care if you end up on a mortury slab, driving like that could get you killed, be carefull I'm warning you. He then walked away.Myself and my passenger were a little surprised, Me because he didn't do me and both of us because the Guard seemed extremly pissed off, to the point it was as if I had personally insulted him or something.Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted I didn't get a couple of points or worse, bad habits are easily picked up when you drive at night with nothing on the roads, but I haven't come across a cop in years who would just give you an ear bashing and walk away. I prefare it to penalty points mind you, even though it's a little embarressing.:o

declanoneill

Could be he did take it personally because he's passionate about his job, and if that's the case I say fair balls to him. He used a bit of common sense and tried to give you a bit of a scare without having to give you points as well. Hopefully it makes you think twice in future.

I got caught for taking a right turn I shouldn't have about 6 months ago, the Garda that caught said there was a summons on it's way to me. It hasn't arrived, but I also haven't taken any sneaky right turns since, and I don't intend to anytime soon

LikeOhMyGawd!

His work is obviously his hobby
In some places you or your passenger could take action against him for trauma caused by his use of terminology like 'mortuary slab' and 'get yourself killed' directed at you. I would presume this kind of chit chat is not in any Garda Operations Manual (if there is one:p) so it seems like he might not be getting any from the missus, so-to-speak.

(And in my experience, few people are as adept as Garda at passing through lights at the turn of red - although taxi drivers would give them a run for their money;) ).

kluivert

Ever watch the road cops in England they take a hard line approach and it works.

Well done to the Garda, has my backing.

ToxicPaddy

Respect to the cop imo, not only did he actually come across as someone who gives a damn about their job but also other peoples safety.

He could have and thrown the book at you and you would have ended up with 2 nice little penalty points. No power trip there. Just got a good talking to which although could be embarrassing, isnt bad in the over all picture.

Rare to see and nice to hear.

mikedragon32

LikeOhMyGawd! wrote:

His work is obviously his hobby
In some places you or your passenger could take action against him for trauma caused by his use of terminology like 'mortuary slab' and 'get yourself killed' directed at you. I would presume this kind of chit chat is not in any Garda Operations Manual (if there is one:p) so it seems like he might not be getting any from the missus, so-to-speak.

(And in my experience, few people are as adept as Garda at passing through lights at the turn of red - although taxi drivers would give them a run for their money;) ).

Haha!

I think DubTom is a taxi driver!

Tom, just out of interest, when you saw the lights were amber, did you "prepare to stop" or speed up to avoid the red light?

mike65

I would presume this kind of chit chat is not in any Garda Operations Manual (if there is one ) so it seems like he might not be getting any from the missus, so-to-speak.

(And in my experience, few people are as adept as Garda at passing through lights at the turn of red - although taxi drivers would give them a run for their money;) ).

LikeOhMyGawd! stop pissing about eh? While I don't often feel the need to comment on a members level of contribution to a message board your input so far is pretty low grade. So less of the inappropriate smart-arse stuff please.

Mike.

ibanezjem

LikeOhMyGawd! wrote:

His work is obviously his hobby
In some places you or your passenger could take action against him for trauma caused by his use of terminology like 'mortuary slab' and 'get yourself killed' directed at you. I would presume this kind of chit chat is not in any Garda Operations Manual (if there is one:p) so it seems like he might not be getting any from the missus, so-to-speak.

(And in my experience, few people are as adept as Garda at passing through lights at the turn of red - although taxi drivers would give them a run for their money;) ).

Bit harsh innit! In fairness to the garda he was right to tackle this situation with a sense of reality. Its the same principle as the scare tactics of the adverts on tv. So are you gonna write to the National Safety Council and claim stress and trauma there too? I think not. Dont be an idiot. He was acting as a helpful policeman and not a powertripper. I bet the OP will think twice now about changing the attitude of drving at night and the risks involved if "slacking off" behind the wheel.

Saruman

Its not quite as straight forward as the law makes out.. for instance if you are going through the Kylemore road in either driection and cross the junction with the Naas road where you have to go over the Luas tracks and so have to go pretty slow, if the light goes amber AFTER you have crossed the line it WILL turn red before you get through unless you are exceeding the speed limit. In my oppinion the amber on all lights should be extended a few seconds. They are very short.. In the US they are far longer and i think they are longer in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK too.

Wing Walker

LikeOhMyGawd! wrote:

In some places you or your passenger could take action against him for trauma caused by his use of terminology like 'mortuary slab' and 'get yourself killed' directed at you. I would presume this kind of chit chat is not in any Garda Operations Manual (if there is one:p).

Are you for real? The guy has said that as he was passing through the junction the light turned red, which probably means that he had enough time to stop when the light initially went amber. The copper probably saw that he had enough time to stop the car but decided to keep motoring anyway. Hence why he whipped the patrol car around and pulled dubtom over.

IMHO, after 12 years of driving on Irish roads, the cop's actions (on that night/morning) are much more effective than the penalty points. He was right in my opinion. Imagine if you ran through the end of an amber into a red and the guy coming the other way jumps the green, what happens then? That's right, crash crash, bang bang and possibly ending up dead and laid out on a mortuary slab.

Really, cop yourself on. Instead of looking for ways to "take action against him for trauma" why not simply obey the rules of the road and if you do do something wrong, have the good grace to accept the "ear bashing".

More cops like that guy and more power to him!

LikeOhMyGawd!

Wing Walker wrote:

Really, cop yourself on. Instead of looking for ways to "take action against him for trauma" why not simply obey the rules of the road and if you do do something wrong, have the good grace to accept the "ear bashing"

Dude read the post, I didn't at any point suggest that he should take action. I was simply stating that it in some places it would not be unheard of that someone might. There is a difference you know.

When a cop makes comments about morturary slabs they are risking making huge offence or being grossly insensitive. I personally think the reference was uncalled for. It is certainly within the realms of possibility that a driver or indeed passenger could be recently bereaved, could be on the way to/from a hospital where one of their family is in ICU or may even have been earlier identifying a body in a mortuary. In our lifetime we are likely to experience at least one of these situations and having cop at the time making some smart-arse and orotund remark might not go down so well.

gyppo

Full marks to the guard - he sounds like someone who does care about road safety. Maybe he has seen his more than his fair share of accident aftermaths lying on mortuary slabs.

So what if he gave offence? I think it was called for. If it shocks the driver into thinking what might have been, and makes him drive a bit more carefully, then sod the offensiveness. Better to be offended than deceased, or be the cause of someone else being dead.

mmenarry

To be honest, we need more cops like that doing the rounds.

Scenario A:
Get an earbashing, and learn from it, no points/fine/prosecution. Made very clear to you that you *could* have been done for it.

Scenario B:
Get stopped by a jobsworthy, no attitude, just goes around the car for every last tiny thing, fines left right and centre, and a few points to boot.

Which one is more likely to make you think about your driving (even a only little bit more), and which is going to have you b*tching about the gardai instead?

M.

Fey!

LikeOhMyGawd! wrote:

It is certainly within the realms of possibility that a driver or indeed passenger could be recently bereaved, could be on the way to/from a hospital where one of their family is in ICU or may even have been earlier identifying a body in a mortuary.

I don't know about you, but in any one of those situations I'd tend to be going slower - in my (limited) experience, most people upset in those manners tend not to be in a mental state of "I'll jump the lights" or "I'll pick a fight"; they tend to exercise more caution.

Fair play to the Garda for the way he dealt with it. It obviously had an impact, otherwise DubTom wouldn't have posted it; had he done a by-the-book, then this would be yet another mindnumbing "f^*king Gardai" thread, getting peoples backs up.

:rolleyes: I think this is the first thread where people have unanimously come out in favour of the Garda involved.

insane drummer

its gardas like that i think should be on the roads, fiar play to him, i mean that was the best way, imho to deal with it rather than give him the points and send him on his way. he gave him something to think about and thought him a lesson, and as FEY! said, in the situation where u are coming home from the hospital or recently had a family member pass, i know i would be driving alot slower and stop at the amber if i was driving at all tbh. tumbs up to the garda!:D

ninty9er

Was he Traffic Corps, if so they've probably had special training for such situations and are perhaps better than some of the pig ignorant ones you hear so much about

Anan1

ninty9er wrote:

Was he Traffic Corps, if so they've probably had special training for such situations and are perhaps better than some of the pig ignorant ones you hear so much about

At a guess, I'd say that all Gardai, and particularly the Traffic Corps, are trained to charge people who run red lights. My feeling from what I've heard is that the Guard was genuinely concerned for the welfare of the OP.

ninty9er

What I meant was that they'd probably be trained in degree of offence not just in knowing something is an offence that he can do someone for and a suitable reaction

Anan1

I can't imagine they could teach that kind of thing in training. At the end of the day, the Guards are paid to uphold the law. They can't very well recieve formal training in what is technically a failure to uphold the law.

ninty9er

The training I received and the practice of doing my job have very little resemblance in a few small places

dubtom

I agree with most that has been said, believe me I've met my fair share of jobsworthy/power tripping cops and He didn't seem like one to me.What was shocking was the anger/passion ( call it what you will) that He used when given me my talking to.I wouldn't dream of complaining to anyone about his behaviour, if anything I should send him a bottle in thanks:D It has taught me a lesson, I have been very lax where amber lights have been concernd and last night was my wake up call. It actually reminded me what the Guards used to be like not so long ago before all this pc bull came about.When I was young the guards were to be feared and respected, they didn't take any sh*t from anyone which is why I didn't turn into a yob.I think today they are being trained to be polite and mannerly and just give the ticket, where in the past a smack across the ear was all that was needed, well to me anyway. I think the comment about making a complaint (even if it was in jest)is the way we have become and the Guards have to watch their p+q's rather than just doing the job. That may seem very pro Guard,belive me I have moaned as much as anyone else about them and probably will again, but i always found when a Guard walked up to me when I was young and hanging around corners up to no good, and stood on my foot and told me to move on, I did. Can you imagine a guard doing that now.

Fey!

I think it's political correctness gone rife.

Going a bit OT here (sorry, dubtom), but I remember when I was a kid, I got a clip around the ear if I misbehaved. Didn't do me any harm, and I'd never term it as "abuse". Last week I saw a report in the paper where a man chastised his child for being bold and a woman physically attacked him for it. IIRC, she got either a fine or a custodial sentence for it! (Galway Advertiser, In The Courts).

I remember seeing a situation last year in a carpark where a child ran out in front of a downramp and nearly got crushed. What saved him was his fathers reaction pulling him out of the way. Now, I had heard the father tell the child a couple of times to stand still and not to run about. The child got a (IMO) well deserved smack on the arse (not hard, but enough to make him remember not to do it again). I think it was due to the bad scare the father got. Anyway, this woman comes up and starts roaring at the father for being abusive, takes his reg number, and threathened to report him to the ISPCC!!!

mike65

Anyway, this woman comes up and starts roaring at the father for being abusive, takes his reg number, and threathened to report him to the ISPCC!!!

Proberly a lesbian reading Guardian.

Mike.

Anan1

mike65 wrote:

Proberly a lesbian reading Guardian.

Mike.

A dyslexic one, I take it?

mike65

Think you?

Mike.