reported a drunk driver but the gardai did nothing...

vibe666

picked up the missus last night after late night shopping in blanch and on the way home we noticed a car in front of us driving very erratically and quite dangerously after we passed through DunShaughlin.

we followed at a safe distance for a while, but it became very obvious from the way he was driving that there was something very wrong with him, he was weaving left and right over the middle line in the road and then right over on the hard shoulder too, speeding up then slowing down all the time and driving dangerously close to the car in front and oncoming traffic.

as we approached the Tara roadworks it became very obvious he was off his face either on drink or drugs (or both) so I got the g/f to call the Gardai in Navan so they could stop him. we gave a description of the car and the number plate and they promised to send someone right out.

there was still no sign of them when we got to the first few houses on the way into Navan so we called again with an updated position and they promised someone was on the way.

as we came towards the patrol station on the main road opposite the river a Garda car pulled out of the garage about 6 cars in front of us (before he would have been in a position to see the car and came towards us on the other side of the road.

i flashed my lights and waved at them pointing to the golf, assuming these were the people they had sent out, but from the look of them they didn't seem to be looking for anyone at all and totally blanked me and kept driving.

we decided to keep following him through Navan and see if the Garda turned round, but they didn't so we kept going and followed him. we stopped at one of the sets of lights and he tried to cut up a lorry and almost hit it. stopped behind him I could see his face in his rear view and wing mirrors and he was totally off his face twisted drunk/drugged.

we kept following him round expecting the cops to jump out at any minute, but they didn't.

as we went past woodies on the far side of town he obviously decided he'd had enough and pulled over to the side of the road, so we went past a few hundred yards and turned round once we were out of sight (not that he would have noticed anyway) and called the station again and told them that he had stopped and that they just had to send someone out to pick him up.

we waited to see what would happen, but after 10 minutes nobody had come and yer man decided to keep on driving.

having lost faith in the ability of the law to do it's job we decided we'd just go home and leave them to it. I took a slight detour past the Garda station figuring that maybe they were just low on resources, but to my surprise there were 5 marked cars and a transit and that every single car park space in the place was full.

I'm disappointed in myself that I didn't do more (I'd contemplated dragging him out of his motor and pasting him, but then I'd have been the bad guy and probably ended up in court), but I'm even more disappointed that the Gardai who's job it is to do this kind of thing got an almost guaranteed conviction handed to them on a plate and did nothing.

PinewoodD

Hey im not sticking up for the guards ,

But just cause there was cars parked outside doesnt mean that they had the gardai to take them out to the call...

Very often there is only one patrol car covering the district , and the time you called the could've been at a call which was 20 or thirty minutes away..

At the same time yes there is the possibilty that they were all sitting inside drinking tea but doubtful..

The patrol car ya saw leaving garage could've been any patrol car not necessarily from navan and prob didnt have a clue what ya were flashing them about ...

Just sayin dont always think the worst of them

Sherifu

Reads pretty bad. Fair play for calling them anyway OP.

vibe666

I go past the station regularly, and that's the busiest I think I've ever seen it in my 2 years living in Navan.

part of me feels bad for being a grass and calling them in the first place, but I kept thinking what if my girlfriend (or anyone else's) was pulling out of a side street with this eejit coming at them or kids were crossing the road or something.

another part of me feels bad for not dragging him out of his car myself when he pulled over, but there's a good chance that one or other of us could have come out of that very badly and there's always consequences for that kind of thing. I'm a difficult person to get riled up, but once I go I really go and I could see myself either taking things far too far or opening his door and getting a knife in the guts for my trouble.

that's always been part of my problem though, half hero half coward and all indecisive with it. not a great combination.

Rowley Birkin QC

Garda Ombudsman.

Really think that this is the kind of thing the ombudsman is there for.

At least I would ring and ask to speak to a Seargent just to ask why nothing was done.

whippet

about 12 months ago I came across a similar senario ... I call the guards, and followed the car which happened to pull in to a car park across the road from the pub I was going into for a jar. The driver in question fell of his car and into the chinese takeaway.

I called the guards again and let them know the score, the station is beside the boozer were I was, so I decided to stand outside for a smoke and a few minutes later two guards walked out stood out of view of the car in question, waited for the guy to come out of the chinese and as soon as he started his engine got him to blow in the bag.

With a sense of satisfaction I went back in for my pint and got a call a few minutes later from the station to thank me and to say that the guy was under arrest.

Mena

vibe666 wrote: »

half hero half coward and all indecisive with it. not a great combination.

Like 98% of the earths population then to be fair.

biko

Fair play OP for trying to do something about it.

Fey!

Unfortunately, it may come down to the availability of drivers on the shift.

Did you ring the station direct, or 999? I'm open to correction, but I think that 999 calls are far more likely to get a response.

PinewoodD

ya exactly ,

fair play to ya for ringing in . My Bro, Sis and Mam were seriously injured a few years ago when a drunk driver driving a transit with bull bars on the front came straight across the road and into the front of them..

Its ridiculous that people still drink and drive and in the middle of the day as well ...

vibe666

bigkev49 wrote: »

Garda Ombudsman.

Really think that this is the kind of thing the ombudsman is there for.

At least I would ring and ask to speak to a Seargent just to ask why nothing was done.

my girlfriend gave them my number when she first called, so they should have a record of it and it's a bill phone so they could easily find out who I am. I just don't want to make a complaint and find myself getting pulled over every time they see me.

shopping some feckless eejit who's not got the sense to not get in his car when he's bladdered is one thing, but shopping the gardai for not following up on it is another thing entirely and maybe I'm just being alarmist about it, but that kind of thing could possibly end very badly.

PinewoodD

nope 999 calls dont get a quicker response cause there just filtered when the caller receives them in the communications room.....

vibe666

we rang 999 and asked to be transferred to the navan garda station.

Anan1

vibe666 wrote: »

I go past the station regularly, and that's the busiest I think I've ever seen it in my 2 years living in Navan.

part of me feels bad for being a grass and calling them in the first place, but I kept thinking what if my girlfriend (or anyone else's) was pulling out of a side street with this eejit coming at them or kids were crossing the road or something.

another part of me feels bad for not dragging him out of his car myself when he pulled over, but there's a good chance that one or other of us could have come out of that very badly and there's always consequences for that kind of thing. I'm a difficult person to get riled up, but once I go I really go and I could see myself either taking things far too far or opening his door and getting a knife in the guts for my trouble.

that's always been part of my problem though, half hero half coward and all indecisive with it. not a great combination.

If it's any help, I think you did the right thing. Any of the other options open to you, from doing nothing to confronting him, would have been wrong in one way or another. It's just a shame the Guards didn't act as responsibly as you did - i'd like to think they have a good excuse.

dubman25

the guards would be quick enough to stop you for tax though wouldnt they:rolleyes:thats the only power they have anyway:cool:

WHITE_P

Stange thing about the gardai in Navan, sometimes they seem very efficient at dealing with problems, and other times they just don't seem to be bothered.

Last Friday morning at about 3:00AM two little scumbags from the neighbouring estate, tried to steal one of my neighbours cars, anyway I rang them and two cars turned up within minutes, one marked, the other unmarked, and while they didn't catch them in the act, they found them and brougth them back to the seen. I had to identify them there and then which i wasn't too happy about as one of them would know me to see and the other is his older brother who's not that long back in Navan after a spell in the joy.
Anyway I would say the guards were on the ball here.

However last year we had a bunch of lads from the local senior rugby club living accross the road from us and they made our lives miserable. Partying, anti social behaviour, and regular drink driving in the estate. With regard to this problem which went on for almost a year, the guards didn't seem to want to know, no matter how many of the neighbours complained. Part of the problem for about six months was that one of the lads involved was the son of a local garda. The final incident was just after they won the Towns cup and went on a major bender, the party started accross the road from me at 5:00Am on the monday morning with car horns and stereo's going full belt (1st call to the station), then a row broke out, in the house (2nd call), and finally one of them falls out of the house shouting about how he is driving back to Dublin, (3rd call). Immediately after this call one of them comes out and tells him the guards are on the way, this dosen't stop him trying to drive away, and eventually he drives up the road and would have crashed into the garda car if it had turned onto our road, he swerved into a garden and jumped out of the car. Anyway the guards came down and I went out to them because I was so p!ssed off about the whole thing, this is like 6:30AM. When I mention the drink driving and point your man out to them, they said they would have to have witnessed it themselves. Another neighbour even showed them video of the whole thing. Nothing happen, and the only way we got any piece was to treaten the rugby club that we would object to their bar licence if it didn't stop.

Nightwish

I was a passenger in my mothers car a few years ago and we came across a car driving dangerously on the Callan by-pass in Kilkenny. The motorist was all over the road and speeding up on short straights and taking bends at 10 mph. I rang the garda station and they said they'd get someone out. The whole way into KK, there was no sign of them. We got into KK and still no sign of them. We followed him a bit into town and still no sign. I still cannot understand how they didnt take this seriously. Its such a dangerous thing to do and its one message the cops hammer home every weekend. In this instance they were given 20 minutes notice that the guy/gal was heading in the Callan road of Kilkenny, and still didnt not do anything.

Scottie99

Had a similar situation last week with Navan station concerning a drunk driver. They are either not interested or under resourced:mad:

ninty9er

Scottie99 wrote: »

Had a similar situation last week with Navan station concerning a drunk driver. They are either not interested or under resourced:mad:

Do you guys *know* the Gardaí did nothing, or are you working on the assumption that was the case because they didn't ring back.

I reported once and they rang back saying the reg didn't match the description of the car. Cartell.ie said otherwise.

Some Gardaí are workshy and some are just working off old info (i.e may have already been on the way towards the original sighting)

vibe666

the whole episode probably took 25-30 minutes and we called the gardai 4 times to update them to where he was, at one point he was about 200 yards away from the garda station (which was still chock full of cars) and then he stopped for 10 minutes about 1/4 of a mile from the garda station (again with a call to them to inform them of his exact location) and we watched him the whole time to see if they were going to do anything and they did nothing.

they had the car description and reg no. but as has already been said, if they didn't witness him doing it, it never happened and they can do nothing. they needed to catch him in the act, but it seems despite all the publicity in the media about all the priorities of reducing road deaths they really don't give two sh1ts about it.

nmacc

ninty9er wrote: »

Do you guys *know* the Gardaí did nothing, or are you working on the assumption that was the case because they didn't ring back

Unfortunately some times it's possible to be certain that they've done nothing about it. Some years ago we had bouts of antisocial behaviour in our area and repeated calls were made to the Gardat without apparent effect. One of the neighbours was a security guard and posessed a scanner and was acquainted with the details of the area and district frequencies. After repeated no-shows he got so frustrated that he started to monitor the Garda channels and was able to note how many times the calls were actually passed to the cars. I regret to say it was a rare ocurrance.

mcmc

I have lost all faith in the garda.
About a year ago there was at least 25 scummers outside my back gate. I live in poppintree btw. These f**kers were trying to kick in my back gate and fighting with each other. I rang the garda about 5 times and the final responce was "its a Saturday night, we are busy".

Fair enough, but i have a young child and i know if i had of went out to them i would be a dead man walking.

Sorry for the off topic but IMO garda= good for nothing!!

Marcus.Aurelius

I haven't read anywhere of any proof that the Gardaí did not attend because they didn't care.

Armies of drunks pouring out of the pubs and causing trouble, hundreds of members on checkpoints to detect drunk drivers, hundreds of cars stuck on calls and public order duty, it doesn't leave much free for other problems.

Take it up with the TDs and officers, not the rank and file by whinging to the Ombudsman, who has authority to strip ordinary members of pensions, irrespective of years served. That's cowardly.

Whine to the people who give the resources, the higher officers and the TDs.

mcmc

Marcus.Aurelius wrote: »

Whine to the people who give the resources, the higher officers and the TDs.

Yeah and you might get something happening in a year or 2. What about right now?

vibe666

sorry Marcus but that's just plain bullsh!t.

I drove past the garda station at around 8pm, 5 minutes after giving up on them coming to arrest the guy and the place was jammed to the gills with cars, both private and police.

i called them repeatedly and none of them could even bother their asses to drive a few hundred yards down the road for an easy arrest and potentially save some lives.

surely if they even gave a little bit of a damn a couple of them could have jumped into one of the several dozen cars in the car park and came and arrested the guy and put him off the road?

IanCurtis

what a snitch

peasant

IanCurtis wrote: »

what a snitch

care to elaborate as to the "snitching" element?

Del2005

I was driving to Enniskillen a while back and going through a town. I see 2 Gardai doing a speed check, didn't bother me I wasn't speeding. Car coming the other way with no lights on and the two Gardai just stood laughing. Only issue was this was late at night and the street lights stopped right after the Gardai.

They could at least have stopped the car and told them to turn their lights on(and maybe get a DUI) but they appeared to be more worried about getting speeding cars, there wheren't any other cars on the road, then getting someone to be seen on dark country roads.

Having said that when a scumbag tried to steal my car they where on the ball and caught him in the act.

Capri

Coming down the Swords Rd behind a 'drunk' driver, Garda Traffic jeep in the traffic going the other way. Told him about the 'drunk' in the car in front of me. " I'll radio it in" he says, and continues on ( to his lunch ? ).
The ordinary 'Plod' doesn't want to get their hands dirty dealing with 'real' criminals, when they gan get a 'clean' collar booking the motorist for an 'easy' crime !

bwardrop

vibe666 wrote: »

i called them repeatedly and none of them could even bother their asses to drive a few hundred yards down the road for an easy arrest and potentially save some lives.

I think the whole story does sound terrible, but I don't think you can really argue the above statement. How do you know they were being lazy? Could it be that they were all busy with something else - perhaps some drunk kicking off in the station, processing people that they just arrested, breaking bad news to a family, getting ready for a raid etc etc. There are plenty of reasons that might explain why they didn't respond. It is likely that none of them will wash with some people on here as there seems to be a little bit of Gardai bashing going on, but nonetheless, unless you walked in and saw them all sitting on their arses twiddling their thumbs then you can't really make the above assumption.

bwardrop

Marcus.Aurelius wrote: »

I haven't read anywhere of any proof that the Gardaí did not attend because they didn't care.

Armies of drunks pouring out of the pubs and causing trouble, hundreds of members on checkpoints to detect drunk drivers, hundreds of cars stuck on calls and public order duty, it doesn't leave much free for other problems.

Meant to multi-quote that into previous post - I agree with this.

vibe666

bwardrop wrote: »

It is likely that none of them will wash with some people on here as there seems to be a little bit of Gardai bashing going on

sounds a lot like gardai sympathiserism (I'm sure there's a proper word for it) if you ask me.

anyway in all seriousness you weren't there.

it's a big enough car park that I've very rarely (if ever) seen totally full in all the time I've lived in the area.

I can't imagine that there were that many gardai busy picking up drunks at 8pm on a Thursday night.

brown-dog

I had a simialar experience in Dublin - I had called the gardai and followed the drunk driver to amke sure that it was the correct car they got. It was around the area I used to live in Sandyford and was coming up to traffic lights and I live on the corner and just pulled in to my driveway to call them again when the drunk driver actually turned around in the middle of the road, drove up behind my car in my house and started going mental saying I was following him ( he was off his face ) and then proceeded to kick a massive hole in the inside of my car door! I had called the gardai 4 times before they eventually arrived and I gave them his number plate, discription and everything but they said there is not alot they could do if they couldnt find him drunk behind the wheel and no evidence that he had put his foot through my car door!!!!!! There you go - they do there job most of the time but dont expect too much

vibe666

they seem to spend a lot of their time and effort as revenue collectors for the government but not much time on that other stuff. you know, crime and whatnot. :rolleyes:

Paparazzo

You can bet your balls if your name as Mr. Cowen or Mr. Ahern the cops would have got up off their fat lazy arses and done something

stink_fist

Maybe they were to busy attacking protesters?

TheBigLebowski

Maybe they recognised the description of the car and the reg as one of their colleagues and decided to turn a blind eye?

Fey!

Is drunk driver detection exclusively down to the Traffic Corps now, and do they operate 24/7.

If Navan is like Galway, then the Traffic Corps is based in a seperate part of the city (Liosban, soon to be Oranmore) to the main Garda station (Mill Street). Therefore, even if the Mill Street carpark is full, someone may have been sent out from Liosban.

TheNog

OP first fair play to ye for ringing it in. It is only when the drunk drivers realise that people can and will ring a garda station to report them will it get most of them to think again.

Secondly I am a Garda and am stationed within the Louth/Meath division, same as Navan. I can tell you it is a very busy station which is at the moment is under-resourced but it will be getting more members soon. They also have a large district to cover sometimes with only one car but usually 2 cars as the town and district is that busy. On the weekend nights the van is put on the road too. The 4-5 marked cars you saw are probably the Anvil cars which are based at Navan too but are not manned 24hrs.

On my travels I have reported suspected Drunk Drivers and most times they are caught and other times they are not. It is simply down to timing as the car could tied up at another job or they could be too far away to intercept. On one occasion, before I joined up, I saw a driver all over the road coming into Dunshaughlin and I phoned Ashbourne. They dispatched a Traffic car but they also must have called ahead to Navan at the same time because one patrol car appeared from behind me and one patrol car came from the Navan direction.

In my own station when we get a call from a motorist following a drunk driver we try our very best to intercept but sometimes we could be 15-20 minutes away and with any build up of traffic we could just as easily cause an accident even blues and sirens on. Remember we take a risk when travelling at speed, its a risk for us and for other road users too. Sometimes that risk is too high.

Arresting drunk driver is possibily the easiset charge a Garda can get. It takes roughly an hour to get breath samples on the breathilyser and charge them to the next court though Navan guards have to travel to either Trim or Kells to breathilyze one drunk driver.

To finish off, you did right and just because it didn't work out don't give up. Next time you see a drunk driver or any type of bad driving, report it 'cos you could save a life.

TheNog

OP quick question for you. Why didn't you post this in the Emergency Services Forum? We do get people asking us questions or concerns about our job which we are only too happy to answer.

TheNog

Fey! wrote: »

Is drunk driver detection exclusively down to the Traffic Corps now,

No any unit including traffic, regular unit or unmarked can arrest a drunk driver. The regular units also carry out traffic duties as well as all the other calls.

Fey! wrote: »

and do they operate 24/7.

Traffic don't operate 24hr but the regular do.

Fey! wrote: »

If Navan is like Galway, then the Traffic Corps is based in a seperate part of the city (Liosban, soon to be Oranmore) to the main Garda station (Mill Street). Therefore, even if the Mill Street carpark is full, someone may have been sent out from Liosban.

Traffic Corps that cover Navan district are based in Dunshaughlin now.

Dellboy2007

I think it's great that we have so many people who will go out of their way to put a stop to things like this. I wish i was more bothered or had less to do with my time.

vibe666

TheNog wrote: »

OP quick question for you. Why didn't you post this in the Emergency Services Forum? We do get people asking us questions or concerns about our job which we are only too happy to answer.

I didn't even realise there was one tbh, never even thought to look. boards.ie is a big place these days, it's easy enough to get lost.

thanks for your posts though, very well thought out and informative. and no I won't give up doing it. I just kept thinking what would happen if someone was hurt or killed as a result of this guy being on the road and it was no choice at all.

Actually as a Garda, I have a quick question for you which has been playing on my mind.

it occured to me when he stopped that I could just park up in front of the guy and open his door and remove his keys from the car and either throw them right into the bushes as far as possible or to just drop them back into the Navan garda station on my way back and tell them where he was.

WOuld that have been an acceptable thing to do? if they'd gone back to him would they be able to prosecute him for drink driving if he didn't have keys in the car at the time they catch him?

I'd also considered getting my g/f to video him in action on my phone which has got a 5MP camera in it so the quality would be plenty good enough to see what was going on.

I'm just thinking that if it happens again is there anything I could do differently?

TheNog

vibe666 wrote: »

I didn't even realise there was one tbh, never even thought to look. boards.ie is a big place these days, it's easy enough to get lost.

Emergency Services Forum can be found Soc - Emergency Services - Other Emerency Services.

You can ask questions of the Ambulance and Fire crews there too

vibe666 wrote: »

it occured to me when he stopped that I could just park up in front of the guy and open his door and remove his keys from the car and either throw them right into the bushes as far as possible or to just drop them back into the Navan garda station on my way back and tell them where he was.

WOuld that have been an acceptable thing to do? if they'd gone back to him would they be able to prosecute him for drink driving if he didn't have keys in the car at the time they catch him?

I'd also considered getting my g/f to video him in action on my phone which has got a 5MP camera in it so the quality would be plenty good enough to see what was going on.

I'm just thinking that if it happens again is there anything I could do differently?

Answer simply NO. Never in anyway put yourself in danger. Nine times out of ten it could work out but the one time you could put yourself at risk. In your actions you did everything right, you followed the driver and gave updates to the station. There was nothing more you could do.
If the driver was arrested for drunk driving without actually being caught driving by gardai, say if arrested when he was parked up, he could still be prosecuted for drunk in charge ( keys would have to be in the ignition) or drunk driving but not caught actually driving by Gardai, a statement from you and attendance in court would be required. Sometimes the driver would plead guilty before court appearance so you would be required in court. It is tricky enough prosecution to get but I have done it in the past. In all cases the driver would have to be arrested to determine the alcohol level.

Again fair play to ye and don't give up.

vibe666

thanks again TheNog, tis appreciated.

Raiser

biko wrote: »

Fair play OP for trying to do something about it.

+1

Those gobsh*tes should be ashamed to cash their paychecks - In my experience the Gardai are a miserable crowd of wasters - almost without exception.

vibe666

i would imagine it's like any other public service sector.

underfunded, understaffed, overmanaged and overworked.

Dellboy2007

vibe666 wrote: »

i would imagine it's like any other public service sector.

underfunded, understaffed, overmanaged and overworked.

Sure

TheNog

vibe666 wrote: »

they seem to spend a lot of their time and effort as revenue collectors for the government but not much time on that other stuff. you know, crime and whatnot. :rolleyes:

Actually most of my time is spent on crime such as visiting crime scenes, getting statements, public order, domestic violence, applying mental act, files and we must give traffic attention as well. Things like speeding, no tax, no insurance, no driving licence, dangerous/defective vehicles, stolen cars, dangerous driving, travelling criminals and drugs. In the same day we have summons to serves and warrants to execute too.
The last thing I am is a revenue collector but it is my job to enforce road safety. You did your part in enforcing road safety too.

Paparazzo wrote: »

You can bet your balls if your name as Mr. Cowen or Mr. Ahern the cops would have got up off their fat lazy arses and done something

TO me it doesn't matter who you are. All calls have to be prioritised ie emergency ones attended to first (serious traffic collisions, robbery, burglary in progress etc), least urgent calls are left last (burglary discovered, theft etc).

Dellboy2007 wrote: »

I think it's great that we have so many people who will go out of their way to put a stop to things like this. I wish i was more bothered or had less to do with my time.

Surely you could spare 5-10 minutes of your time and the price of a phone call to possibly save someone from serious injury or death?

Raiser wrote: »

+1

Those gobsh*tes should be ashamed to cash their paychecks - In my experience the Gardai are a miserable crowd of wasters - almost without exception.

*Ahem* Making a fairly generalised comment, don't you think? I have had days when I didn't have time for a break. Just last week myself and a colleague I arrested 4 fellas for theft at 9pm, we finished at 10pm but after interviewing, photographing and fingerprinting we finished up at 3am. Crashed at the station for 2 hrs and back to work at 6am. Happens from time to time.

vibe666

sorry for any offence TheNog, you obviously take your job very seriously but you have to admit there's a few bad apples in the bunch who are just in it for the money/status/power/chicks etc.

Kirby

TheNog wrote: »

Surely you could spare 5-10 minutes of your time and the price of a phone call to possibly save someone from serious injury or death?

To be fair thats not his job....its the gardai's job. The OP rang and rang and rang and nobody showed up. It wasnt his job but he did it as a concerned citizen.

Thats what the OP and several other people in this thread did and nothing ever came of it. Any body with an ounce of sense can realise that the gardai cant be everywhere at once. Its not an easy job but you guys choose to do it. And i respect that decision immensely. It cant be an easy occupation and you dont get paid enough for doing it right. Trouble is in my experience most of them dont do it right. A combination of poor policy makers and lazy officers.

Take my last 2encounters with the guards as an example. I spotted a guy trying to rob my neighbours house.....spotted him going in the back door. I rang the Gardai and they showed up in 10 minutes, asked me had happened and so on. Now, they didnt catch him but i was thrilled at the speed and competency of them. Great stuff!

But then another time there was a load of drunk eejits outside my house. They jumped over the gate, completely thrashed 2 of our cars, did some damage and left. This took about 30 minutes. I rang about 5 times. nobody showed up. Completely unacceptable.

I realise these are only a couple of first hand experiences but thats all the public have. And you cant just fob it off as " a few bad apples". Unfortunately, the type of people who gravitate towards police work are prone to lazyness and bigheadedness. Not to brand all with the same brush but it IS a problem. A guy i went to school with is now a Guard.....and if you knew the guy you would find that a disturbing prospect.

To get back on topic though, you mentioned something in your post about the priorities of the guardai and Your damn right. the priorities are wrong. 80% of road death happens on secondary and below roads.....and yet all the speed camera's and checkpoints are on motorways. Its disgracefull, and its pure money making. Motorways are safe as houses. Its dodgy country roads that are the problem. There is a Guard in my area who patrols the bus lane on a small patch of the N3 every morning. Surely there are more pressing tasks that he could see to? Yes, ii'm ranting slightly but Im just so annoyed at most of our public services at the moment.

TheNog wrote:

All calls have to be prioritised ie emergency ones attended to first (serious traffic collisions, robbery, burglary in progress etc), least urgent calls are left last (burglary discovered, theft etc).

The navan police station was packed according to the OP. Lets assume they werent just being lazy and had other work to do. Well, that work should've been dropped. What if the drunk driver had killed a child crossing the street? Thats more important than paper work.

Beta Ray Bill

I know this is off topic but I have never once had a good experience with a member of the Garda

TheNog: You are one in a million mate, I commend you for you efforts, if every Garda had your approach maybe we wouldn't have such a lawless country.

The Garda are generally Very Very Lazy and un-interested.

Do Garda get commission based on how many fines/arrests they make etc?