20 car pileup on M7

layke

Folks, I just heard off sinor Ray Darcy that there's a 20 car pileup on the M7 and surrounding areas. Some insurance underwriter is now crying.

http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/traffic/story.asp?id=83920

One serious crash at Ballymanny between Kildare and Newbridge and another at the M7/M9 intersection are the main problems. Divert off the M7 at Monasterevin, Kildare or Newbridge to avoid the long tailbacks from Monasterevin to past the Newbridge exit. Slow down to at least 30kmph and to turn on hazard lights. FOG is extremely dense throughout the area from Portlaoise through to Naas. DO NOT USE THE HARD SHOULDER, this needs to be kept open for emergency services. A number of minor crashes in both directions are also adding to delays.

endplate

It's good to see that you care about the people involved in the accidents:(

HelterSkelter

I'm not surprised, the amount of muppets driving in fog this morning with no lights on.

gyppo

HelterSkelter wrote:

I'm not surprised, the amount of muppets driving in fog this morning with no lights on.

Totally agree. Also, the amount of twits driving at well above 100kmh on the Athlone Bypass this morning was astounding, given that visibility was at most 50 metres. "It'll never happen to me" - yeah, right.

Blitzkrieger

layke wrote:

Some insurance underwriter is now crying.

Nah - they'll just hike everybody's premiums and go buy another ivory back-scratcher.

BrianD3

Not really a surprise is it? As we build new M-ways and dual carriageways expect to see more of these crashes in the fog.

Anyway this morning I saw some crazy driving. Worst example was a moron in a Discovery overtaking about 5 cars on a single carriageway road in dense fog. There was not a hope of him seeing well enough to overtake even if all oncoming drivers had their dipped headlights on (which of course many idiots didn't have)

ZiabR

Blitzkrieger wrote:

Nah - they'll just hike everybody's premiums and go buy another ivory back-scratcher.

Was anyone badly hurt?

Bluetonic

It's multiple crashed along the motorway involving up to 20 cars, not one single pile up.

*KILDARE* The M7 northbound remains blocked due a number of major crashes involving up to 20 cars. The first serious crash is at Ballymanny between Kildare and Newbridge and the second major crash is at the M7/M9 intersection, while there have been a number of other minor collisions in both north and south lanes.

HelterSkelter

BrianD3 wrote:

Not really a surprise is it? As we build new M-ways and dual carriageways expect to see more of these crashes in the fog.

Anyway this morning I saw some crazy driving. Worst example was a moron in a Discovery overtaking about 5 cars on a single carriageway road in dense fog. There was not a hope of him seeing well enough to overtake even if all oncoming drivers had their dipped headlights on (which of course many idiots didn't have)

If I saw that I would be straight on the phone to the Guards and report him, and go to court to give evidence if necessary to have him convicted. It is idiots like that who are killing people on our roads.

OldmanMondeo

I drive from Kinnegad to the Red Cow every day. The last 2 days the fog has been very bad. I am surprised that there wasn't a bad accident at the M4 toll booths, people reversing out of the toll tunnel, because the payment was closed. Meet loads of cars with no lights on, and have to say it most of these were in Dublin were the fog was very thick. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any silly buggers, like the Disco driver mentioned above.

OldmanMondeo

Edit: Fecking double posting.

layke

Bluetonic wrote:

It's multiple crashed along the motorway involving up to 20 cars, not one single pile up.

Curse you Darcy!!!

Anyway there's no report of any road deaths or injuries (that I can find).

NeMiSiS

34 people so far have been hospitalised. Tail gating, going too fast for the conditions, not turning on lights, I'd imagine contrubuted fairly highly.
TK

Seth Brundle

NeMiSiS wrote:

34 people so far have been hospitalised. Tail gating, going too fast for the conditions, not turning on lights, I'd imagine contrubuted fairly highly.
TK

But surely common sense would dictate that you turn on sufficient lighting to be seen and that you only drive as fast as your visible braking distance will allow. :eek:
Oh wait this is Ireland! :rolleyes:

run_Forrest_run

exactly. fools speeding in thick fog..what do you expect? When will people learn that speed kills and even with adverse weather conditions people do not adjust their driving and continue to happily speed along. How many more people need to end up in coffins before this lesson is learned? Obviously more deaths required to get this message to hit home.

Mitch Connor

run_Forrest_run wrote:

exactly. fools speeding in thick fog..what do you expect? When will people learn that speed kills and even with adverse weather conditions people do not adjust their driving and continue to happily speed along. How many more people need to end up in coffins before this lesson is learned? Obviously more deaths required to get this message to hit home.

the message will only hit home to the unfortunate families. I'll continue to drive my way, cause it will never happen to me, y'know.

HashSlinging

heres me thinking "I" was the muppet doing 70 k/ph.

prospect

I travel some country roads, and the fog was crap this morning.
One road has a single lane bridge, and after meeting two cars with no lights (whatsoever), I was so nervouse driving over the bridge, as I could barely see the other side, and all it took was another muppet with no lights to cause an accident.

scargill

I'm working in Newbridge - there has been ambulances and fire brigades on the go here all morning. According to breakingnews.ie there have been fatalities.

I walked to work this morning - very few had their fog lights on. 1 in 10 had their full dipped lights on, rest just had their 'parking' lights on. not worth a damn. And nobody was adjusting their speed. When a car passed me I was counting the seconds until they were invisible in the fog - it took no more than 3 seconds. That doesn't give you much stopping distance. I'm not at all surprised that these accidents have happened.

bo-bo

Tauren wrote:

the message will only hit home to the unfortunate families. I'll continue to drive my way, cause it will never happen to me, y'know.

you have just, in two sentences, summed up why we have such issues on our roads

Drax

Fog lights when there's no fog, no fog lights switched on when there is fog. Maybe car manufactures should start crosswiring cars coming into this country.

Hopefully no-one was seriously injured. I can just imagine it. Coming up the M1 this morning there wasnt too much fog but people just dont seem to adapt or change their driving style to suit the conditions. Just stick it to 130kmh, 5 metres from the car in front... you'll be grand.

LostinBlanch

Prospect, then that's what your horn is for, to let other cars now you're crossing. But with the fog, it might distort the sound. Still better than nothing though.

BrianD3

HelterSkelter wrote:

If I saw that I would be straight on the phone to the Guards and report him, and go to court to give evidence if necessary to have him convicted. It is idiots like that who are killing people on our roads.

I agree but with the fog and him being a couple of cars ahead of me I didn't get his reg.

What an absolute pr1ck though. If there was a head on crash with a smaller vehicle chances are he'd survive in his ~2.5 tonne SUV while the other driver gets wiped out.

prospect

LostinBlanch wrote:

Prospect, then that's what your horn is for, to let other cars now you're crossing. But with the fog, it might distort the sound. Still better than nothing though.

Never thought of that .

However, the mentality of driving with NO LIGHTS in fog just escapes me. An I am afraid that the drivers of three cars I met on single lane roads this morning were all female.

I really and truely believe that the main promlem in this scountry is that everyone feels they have a right to own and operate a car. I think we need to change that, and make people work hard to EARN the right to drive on public roads. I know too many people who concentrate more on the conversation they are having with their passangers, or on shaving their face, or straightening their hair, rather than concentrate on their driving and the conditions around them.

HelterSkelter

Drax wrote:

Hopefully no-one was seriously injured.

People are dead according to breakingnews.ie

Savman

I drove back from Kilkenny to Dublin last niught around 1am, that fog was absolutely crazy. You could not see 10 yards in front of you, I just followed a coupla trucks that were sticking together.
I'm not surprised there were so many crashes this morning with eejits rushing to work or whatever but at the very least, 20 more motorist just learned a costly lesson on how not to drive in fog.

Zwartsj

run_Forrest_run wrote:

exactly. fools speeding in thick fog..what do you expect? When will people learn that speed kills and even with adverse weather conditions people do not adjust their driving and continue to happily speed along. How many more people need to end up in coffins before this lesson is learned? Obviously more deaths required to get this message to hit home.

Its not speed that kills its morons behind the wheel that kills.
Second off it’s the dumb ass driver in front doing 30mph that causes the accident because he is to scared to drive a bit faster because its foggy. So don’t always blame the guy who is doing the overtaking.

Just because you have no where to go does not give you the right to keep the rest of the world behind you. If you are not comfortable driving at a respectable speed pull over and let the traffic get buy safely and then only continue on your marry way.

when will people learn this


o and im not asking people to drive at 60mph in dence fog such as this morning all im saying there is no need for doing 25 - 30mph

HelterSkelter

Zwartsj wrote:

o and im not asking people to drive at 60mph in dence fog such as this morning all im saying there is no need for doing 25 - 30mph

Erm, in all seriousness, there was a need to be doing 30mph in places this morning. The fog was very thick in parts. And believe me, I am not an over cautious driver.

Savman

HelterSkelter wrote:

Erm, in all seriousness, there was a need to be doing 30mph in places this morning. The fog was very thick in parts. And believe me, I am not an over cautious driver.

Exactly, I was following 2 trucks doing 80km/hr and still felt too fast. But at least if anything happened the first guy would hit it
30-40mph sounds plenty for the conditions and I'm no slow coach either, but having witnessed that fog it honestly was the worst I've seen in a while.
Scary s***!

run_Forrest_run

hmm, how many were boy racers or drink drivers?? People need to realise this is a speed problem which falls on the laps of all drivers, young and old. The likes of Ray D'Arcy trying to be some fupping hero is a waste of time...his show got enough publicity from his pathetic ad campaign now he should just go back to doing his silly radio programme.

scargill

Zwartsj wrote:

o and im not asking people to drive at 60mph in dence fog such as this morning all im saying there is no need for doing 25 - 30mph

eehhhh......60kph = 16m per second. could anyone see more than 16 metres this morning ??? use your head fool.

Ambulances have been wizzing up and down Naas all this morning and they are still going.
A few people here in work witnessed it first hand and one was in a near miss. There were a few horrific smashes.

peasant

The AA is advising motorists in the area to divert off the M7 at Monasterevin, Kildare or Newbridge and to use their hazard lights at all times.

How about the AA advising people to stick on their dipped beams and rear foglights? And to drive no faster than they can see? And to keep their distance to the car in front?

No ...it has to be hazzard lights ...
Hazzard lights ...yes, surely, that'll make it better :rolleyes:


Sometimes I really dispair

gucci

this craic of drivers driving with they're corner parking lights on in fog or dusk time. WHERE IS THE SENSE IN THAT?? for christ sake why spare the light?? its not like it adds to your freaking esb bill. maybe people dont realise how to turn on they're dims.

bbability

I wonder how many people under 25 caused the accident? I'm sure Gaybo's waiting on the call to abuse people 50 years younger than him yet again. The sooner they stop this bull**** about younger drivers and get down to some real hard facts about driving in general in this country the sooner this type of topic won't be a comon as it is today!

I hope no one was badly injured.

Marcus.Aurelius

bbability is right, its not just the young drivers, its a mentality that breaks the age gaps. Driving with no lights in the evenings and though fog, driving with front fogs and dipped headlamps in the evening, it's all completely wrong. Says a lot about driver training doesn't it?

Wishbone Ash

HelterSkelter wrote:

People are dead according to breakingnews.ie

No mention of fatalities on RTE's Radio One news.

_Kaiser_

There IS no driver training (really) in this country...

You've a theory and practical test that is totally insufficent to driving today (no motorway testing, driving in bad conditions, parallel parking, night testing etc)

You've 400,000 provisional drivers, many of whom haven't sat the test (such as it is) at all.

You've many thousands more who got their licenses in the Amnesty.

You've inconsistent and rare enforcement by the Gardai to where the attitude is you were "unlucky" to get caught and "the Garda must've been in a bad mood".

You've an apparent lack of even basic cop on in many drivers (eg: if it's dark/foggy/raining and you can't see, TURN ON YOUR LIGHTS and remember that they're there to make you VISIBLE TO OTHER DRIVERS too - even typing this sounds patronising, but we all know how true it is).

You've a government that is only making half-hearted efforts at addressing some of these issues.

If anything we're lucky things aren't WORSE on the roads! :rolleyes:

Wishbone Ash

Information Telephone Numbers established for worried relatives: 045 849514 & 045 849521

dodgey69

totally agree with last post. driver training is a joke

but peoples attitudes is worse, i was driving up the N4 last night after midnight with terrible fog on the road and there was still clowns doing 120+ when u could see no more than 5-10 foot in front of car.

Ice_Box

About what time did the accident happen?

Wishbone Ash

Ice_Box wrote:

About what time did the accident happen?

First one was around 9am. (It was a series of accidents - not just one).

testicle

HelterSkelter wrote:

People are dead according to breakingnews.ie

They have retracted that.

run_Forrest_run

Zwartsj wrote:

Its not speed that kills its morons behind the wheel that kills.
Second off it’s the dumb ass driver in front doing 30mph that causes the accident because he is to scared to drive a bit faster because its foggy. So don’t always blame the guy who is doing the overtaking.

Just because you have no where to go does not give you the right to keep the rest of the world behind you. If you are not comfortable driving at a respectable speed pull over and let the traffic get buy safely and then only continue on your marry way.

when will people learn this


o and im not asking people to drive at 60mph in dence fog such as this morning all im saying there is no need for doing 25 - 30mph

I am not a driver who holds up the whole show. If the speed limit is 100kmph then I drive at 100kmph where it is safe to do so. I know how annoying it can be to be stuck behind a slow coach and yes, this can be dangerous also. However if I see a speed demon behind me I happily let him/her pass when safe to do so because I understand they must be in a fierce rush to something important...grow up.

..oh yeah, your first comment is like saying guns kill people, not the person pulling the trigger.

tabatha

what i hate about all this now is for how many days will people be driving with there fog lights turned on as they dont remember to switch them off. not very nice when your stuck behind someone at night with this and no fog!

daymobrew

HelterSkelter wrote:

If I saw that I would be straight on the phone to the Guards and report him, and go to court to give evidence if necessary to have him convicted. It is idiots like that who are killing people on our roads.

BrianD3 wrote:

I agree but with the fog and him being a couple of cars ahead of me I didn't get his reg.

I'm glad to read that others have the same thoughts as me!
I've made a ton of TrafficWatch reports in the last 7 months. Mostly red light breaking in Dublin. Unfortunately followup from the Gardai has been extremely poor.

prospect wrote:

I really and truely believe that the main promlem in this scountry is that everyone feels they have a right to own and operate a car. I think we need to change that, and make people work hard to EARN the right to drive on public roads.

I'll second that. The fact that a driving license is a privilege is not stressed enough.

Calina

daymobrew wrote:

The fact that a driving license is a privilege is not stressed enough.

Agreed. But this country is seriously hung up on rights, and don't always [often?] recognise the responsibilities that come with some/all of those rights.

Calina

Zwartsj wrote:

Its not speed that kills its morons behind the wheel that kills.
Second off it’s the dumb ass driver in front doing 30mph that causes the accident because he is to scared to drive a bit faster because its foggy. So don’t always blame the guy who is doing the overtaking.

Just because you have no where to go does not give you the right to keep the rest of the world behind you. If you are not comfortable driving at a respectable speed pull over and let the traffic get buy safely and then only continue on your marry way.

when will people learn this


o and im not asking people to drive at 60mph in dence fog such as this morning all im saying there is no need for doing 25 - 30mph

I think this is quite ignorant. I have driven in fog where I could not actually see the nose of the car . Given that sort of visibility, fifteen kilometres an hour is probably too fast. You cannot make a generalised call on what speeds people should or should not be doing.

I find that many people in this country have an overelevated opinion of what constitutes a safe speed for whatever conditions. When I hear someone whinging about being slowed down I get just a little annoyed because more accidents are caused by people driving without due care and attention to the conditions.

Blaming someone for driving too slowly and causing you to get impatient is a cop out and a total abdication of your responsibility as a driver. The driver overtaking is responsible; it doesn't matter how impatient he or she is, he shouldn't have overtaken in those circumstances because it was not safe to do so. You cannot blame other drivers for your actions. Other drivers may take a different call on how to drive in given conditions and I would prefer over cautious than overconfident, to be honest with you, particularly where fog is concerned. It's all too obvious what happens when people drive too fast in fog.

BrianD3

Calina wrote:

I think this is quite ignorant. I have driven in fog where I could not actually see the nose of the car . Given that sort of visibility, fifteen kilometres an hour is probably too fast. You cannot make a generalised call on what speeds people should or should not be doing.

As well as that, cars behind the "slow" driver will often percieve the visibility as being better than it is because they are using the car in front as a guide. If they then become the lead car they realise just how bad the visibility is.

Many drivers cannot drive properly in clear dry conditions so is it any wonder that their driving becomes worse still when another variable (fog) is thrown in. I still can't get over the number of drivers driving in the fog with no lights, parking lights or in some cases, one parking light :rolleyes:

run_Forrest_run

totally agree. it is very annoying to be stuck behind a vehicle with their fogs on unnecessarily. maybe the vehicles should be designed to have a flashing light on the dash to represent when the fogs are on or even emit a beeping noise every few minutes..maybe a bit annoying for the driver but could reduce driver frustration overall.

prospect

run_Forrest_run wrote:

totally agree. it is very annoying to be stuck behind a vehicle with their fogs on unnecessarily. maybe the vehicles should be designed to have a flashing light on the dash to represent when the fogs are on or even emit a beeping noise every few minutes..maybe a bit annoying for the driver but could reduce driver frustration overall.

Much simpler than that,

My car (Alfa Romeo) and I am sure many others, turn off the Fogs when the ignition is turned off. So you need to activate the fogs when required, and no fear of leaving them on for days afterwards.