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.