20 car pileup on M7

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.

scargill

Why does RTE news keep saying 'multiple accidents on M7 caused by fog'.

Caused by idiots more like.

Stephen

Holy crap. I was driving home from the airport this morning, so was going southbound. I hadn't heard about this, until I saw a cement truck sitting sideways on top of what looks like it used to be a Ford Mondeo on the M9 in the opposite carriageway :eek:
I then turned on the radio to catch some news and heard about the full extent of the carnage.

run_Forrest_run

ah right, clever. my Octavia doesn't do that (no Skoda jokes please!).

Ice_Box

Stephen wrote:

Holy crap. I was driving home from the airport this morning, so was going southbound. I hadn't heard about this, until I saw a cement truck sitting sideways on top of what looks like it used to be a Ford Mondeo on the M9 in the opposite carriageway :eek:
I then turned on the radio to catch some news and heard about the full extent of the carnage.

They said on Newstalk that the guy in the car under the cement truck actually walked away uninjured. The same cement truck also clipped a petrol tanker.

Jip

run_Forrest_run wrote:

ah right, clever. my Octavia doesn't do that (no Skoda jokes please!).

But once you turn off your lights your fogs go off and then you can't switch your lights back on again with your fogs coming on without you purposely doing so so it's the same thing really.

prospect

Jip wrote:

But once you turn off your lights your fogs go off and then you can't switch your lights back on again with your fogs coming on without you purposely doing so so it's the same thing really.

Not really, I leave my dipped beams on, permanently, which I would encourage all other road users to do aswell.

run_Forrest_run

doesn't matter to me because I make a conscious effort to check my lights on the dash to see which are on/off before every journey.

craichoe

I drive with my dips on most of the time, even during the day. Its recommended in most other countries as it increases your visibility to other drivers.

Fog lights in fog is a no brainer

My Motorbike was setup do you COULDN'T turn off the lights, their always on and its better that way.

Simple things too, like cyclists should position themselves more toward the middle of the road so muppets in cars don't run them off the road when overtaking them.

If in doubt, don't over take !!!
I have seen IDIOTS overtaking 2 - 3 cars because their impatient... this is just plain stupid!

craichoe

run_Forrest_run wrote:

ah right, clever. my Octavia doesn't do that (no Skoda jokes please!).

My Octavia does ???? You have to pull out the knob to turn on the fogs and you can't turn the lights off without pushing in the knob first....

You must have the MK2 or something ?

Bluetonic

scargill wrote:

Why does RTE news keep saying 'multiple accidents on M7 caused by fog'.

Caused by idiots more like.

Bit of sense spoken

Motorists blame speeding and driver error for Kildare pile-ups
27/03/2007 - 15:40:23

Shaken motorists left stranded for hours by the side of motorways in Kildare tonight described miles of road carnage like a Hollywood movie.

And they were quick to blame high speeds and driver error for 20 car crashes which left dozens injured.

Tony Hennessey, who runs Hennessy’s Towing & Breakdown Service in Naas, removed many of the wrecked vehicles from the M7 and was adamant bad driving was to blame.

“It’s absolutely crazy – There’s about 50 cars, and they’re all written off, every last one of them. Never in my life have I seen such a thing and it’s purely bad drivers in fog not slowing down,” Mr Hennessey said.

“They were driving along with no lights on – I met loads of them. They were driving too fast, flying along in thick fog and they couldn’t see their hands in front of them.”

Witnesses spoke of red brake lights suddenly appearing out of the thick fog, drivers slamming on brakes forcing others to swerve into the central median, hard shoulders and roadside grass verges to avoid collisions.

Motorists in the middle lanes though were worst affected, having nowhere to go.

Many people, were motoring along in rush hour traffic on their way to work with no lights on, in poor visibility.

Superintendent Ken Brennan, the regional traffic chief based in Mullingar, also pointed the finger at careless drivers.

“At the time of the collisions this morning conditions were extremely hazardous, down to low visibility,” he said.

“Our opinion would be that they [drivers] had ample visibility if they would adjust their driving. Unfortunately most motorists didn’t adjust their driving to match the road and weather conditions and that contributed to the mayhem.”

Ger Cunningham, freelance journalist, who was left stranded for more than three hours said driving conditions were extremely difficult.

“It was very foggy, there was a dense fog over the Curragh and given the conditions a lot of people where probably going too fast. The rush-hour and getting to work was probably more important in most people’s minds,” he said.

A woman on her way to work told RTÉ Radio: “Traffic was really heavy and there were motorists with no lights on and doing big speed. I was behind a car that crashed into another car. I was lucky enough in that I had ABS in the car, so I think that really helped me a bit,” she said.

“But it was like carnage, it was like road carnage.

“It was just bizarre there were cars driving into the grass margin, just driving everywhere.

“They were definitely too fast for the conditions this morning. I suppose cars were doing 120 in the fast lane, but they weren’t allowing for the weather conditions and there was a lot of motorists with no lights on.”