Road Safety: Gardai Kill first road victim of 2008

Mike...

From rte.ie/news

A 19-year-old man who was struck by a garda patrol car in Tallaght this morning has died.

The victim has been named locally as Phillip Hogarty, who was from Tallaght.

It is understood that the patrol car was not involved in a pursuit at the time.

The crash happened near the junction of the N81 and the Cheeverstown Roundabout in Tallaght at 2.30am.

The man was taken to Tallaght Hospital and had been on a life-support machine all day.

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission is investigating the incident because of the garda involvement.

Not a good start for Road Safety in 2008

Yakuza

*mono* wrote: »

From rte.ie/news

Not a good start for Road Safety in 2008

Bloody hell, the year not even a few hours old and someone dead already

Mike...

I know hope that this year is one of the best for road safety....about time people start to cop on

Turner

I wonder if he was wearing high visibility clothing and carrying a torch ??

Somehow i doubt it.

Mike...

Chief--- wrote: »

I wonder if he was wearing high visibility clothing and carrying a torch ??

Somehow i doubt it.

Loads of people walk out in front of me everyday with no viz jacket or torch and I manage not to run them over...anyway thats a terrible attitude to have, it's just a very unfortunate event

Blush_01

I doubt it either. I worked with the guy in the past, he was one of the most genuinely nice, funny and friendly people I have ever met. He was so intelligent and entertaining, hated our job as much as the rest of us, ripped the p!ss to make the time pass quicker and made the whole thing far more bearable. That part of Tallaght is lit with sodium lighting, so high vis vest and torch aside, he wasn't invisible. My heart goes out to his family.

FlutterinBantam

Is there some reason why the title to your thread is so provocative?

The unfortunate victim was knocked down by a garda car,and until we get the facts I would assume it was an unfortunate accident.

If I was a mod on this forum I would remove/re-phrase that title.

Dodge

*mono* wrote: »

about time people start to cop on

Road deaths down 30% in 2007 from the 1997 figures (despite an increase of 40% in the number of drivers, and 70% increase in vehicles)

According to Noel Brett of the RSA

patrickolee

He was supposed to be coming to dinner with us the following day. We just found out. Does anyone know the arrangements?

patrickolee

Chief--- wrote: »

I wonder if he was wearing high visibility clothing and carrying a torch ??

Somehow i doubt it.

I wasn't going to post back on this... but that really bothers me. How could you be so quick to judge and find fault? Why didn't you ask "I wonder was the garda car obeying the speed limit when they were over taking a taxi in a stretch of road undergoing road works"?

Stop tut tut tuting from on top your high horse and don't be so quick to judge.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/garda-car-kills-teen-reveller-1255708.html

We'll be hearing a lot more about this. Truth is both parties were probably at fault, the main difference of course is the gardai aren't dead, Phil is.

RIP.

parsi

Thread title makes it almost appear as if squad cars drive around looking to run down young lads who've just hopped off a Nitelink after a night out.

patrickolee

parsi wrote: »

Thread title makes it almost appear as if squad cars drive around looking to run down young lads who've just hopped off a Nitelink after a night out.

Well it wouldn't be the first time the have been proven to have mown down innocent pedestrians while speeding for no other reason than because they can! I've personally had a couple of narrow escapes from reckless gardai cars. Do you remember the old lady waiting at bus stop that was killed by speeding cops, they lied about that. Took a long time for the real truth to come out.

And there was another case more recently, which I think is still pending, of a young fella been knocked down and killed by an off duty copper. Fair enough if they are in pursuit, but speeding just for the heck of it, or when they are off duty has to be clamped down on.

Halfdog

Why dont they make manditory to wear Hi Viz vests while walking along / across any road at night particularly in rural areas. Cars, Bicycles have to have lighting by law. These are now dirt cheap to buy and can be seen thrown about any building site or factory complex in the country.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

parsi

patrickolee wrote: »

Well it wouldn't be the first time the have been proven to have mown down innocent pedestrians while speeding for no other reason than because they can! I've personally had a couple of narrow escapes from reckless gardai cars. Do you remember the old lady waiting at bus stop that was killed by speeding cops, they lied about that. Took a long time for the real truth to come out.

And there was another case more recently, which I think is still pending, of a young fella been knocked down and killed by an off duty copper. Fair enough if they are in pursuit, but speeding just for the heck of it, or when they are off duty has to be clamped down on.

Indeed. And it wouldn't be the first time a drunk has gone under the wheels of a passing car either. Yet we don't see headlines - "Teen too drunk to walk falls under car".

Sensationalist headlines don't help either party.

And yes we need to clamp down on speeding. We need to clamp down on pedestrians not walking with greater caution and thinking that because they can see the car the driver can see them. We need to get the whole message of road safety across to everyone.

patrickolee

Halfdog wrote: »

Why dont they make manditory to wear Hi Viz vests while walking along / across any road at night particularly in rural areas. Cars, Bicycles have to have lighting by law. These are now dirt cheap to buy and can be seen thrown about any building site or factory complex in the country.

Tallaght is hardly rural...and where this accident happened is lit, as pointed out by previous poster ... do you really think people will bring hiviz vests to the pub with them? Let alone remember to wear them!

More logical might be, people (including gaurds, ambulance crew and fire fighters) should not speed unless absolutely necessary.

patrickolee

daveirl wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Yes, the case where the driver wasn't _proven_ to be over the limit and wasn't _proven_ to be over the speed limit. There were quite a few irregularities in that case...which I'm not going to go into,

http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.php?t=28127&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=24&sid=abe11660f5e7a7078f49c67c5f18f183

Ask Frank McBrearty if he'd believe the facts as presented. BTW did they ever find out exactly who performed the hit and run which caused Richie Barron's death? Lucky for Phil's family there were witnesses.

I used to believe everything the gaurds said.... I grew up! (in Donegal as it happens!)

But hopefully with the new ombundsman investigations will be more plausible.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

definitely would suggest changing the headline. It's sensationalist for no good reason. Just let a tragedy be a tragedy. Very unfair on the garda in question without further information.

jdivision

daveirl wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

wasn't there a question as to whether that station even had a breathalyser?

parsi

Lets have a look at suitable headlines from the Indo (bearing in mind that they perpetrate the culture that someone else is always to blame) :

- Pedestrian (with immense promise and much loved) mown down by Garda car. This is the Xth incident involving a squad car in X months (Note to Ed: don't include statistics on number of garda car journeys per annum ; if possible use phrases such as "darling son" OR " beloved daughter" - please remember to insert word "grieving" where possible)

- Pedestrian killed by Luas. Remind folk that meanwhile Luas Bosses (note to ed: don't use Company Name) are seeking a fare rise (note: this was in the Indo before Christmas). Possible suggestion that Luas jumped off tracks and chased victim.

- Pesdestrian on way to visit sick granny mowed down by heartless Polish driver. This is the xxxth offence involving Eastern-European drivers. (Note to Ed: Mention numbers of EE drivers, moan about insurance and whatever suits yourself ; Don't worry about veracity of Granny part) ;

- Pedestrian killed by moving car driven by a refugee. (Note to Ed: insert stats about numbers of refugees, mention costs of insurance, drag up benefit rates etc etc).

- Pedestrian killed by drunken journalist (Note to Ed: Spike this one)

- Drunken pedestrian killed when s/he falls in path of innocent driver (Note to Ed: use this when none-of-the-above applies)

lostexpectation

Chief--- wrote: »

I wonder if he was wearing high visibility clothing and carrying a torch ??

Somehow i doubt it.

I presume he's a cop and its part of their innate respone that usualy goes along the line of 'I witnessed the individual strike the my gardai colleagues fist with his face severals time m'lord'

DmanDmythDledge

patrickolee wrote: »

He was supposed to be coming to dinner with us the following day. We just found out. Does anyone know the arrangements?

Funeral service Saturday morning 11am in St Thomas' Church, Jobstown.

Phil was one of the nicest people I've ever met, RIP.