Driving caution query

Thoie

I was just reading another thread about a guy who crashed his car, and he mentioned that the guard gave him a caution. It reminded me of an incident about 10+ years ago where someone crashed into me (and I was later shown to be blameless). When the gardai arrived, one of them cautioned me under the Road Traffic Act (I can't remember the precise wording - it was a long time ago, and I was a bit upset at the time).

Is it a normal thing that gardai have to caution everyone involved, even when their own private opinion is that one person was at fault? Thinking about it logically now, I presume it's just that as the gardai didn't witness the crash themselves they have to give everyone involved the same warning.

Totally different question - if I see what looks like a really big fire a couple of miles away from my house, is there any point telling someone, as I don't know where it is? *looks worridley at the giant plume of black smoke* Or should I just comment randomly about it on the internet?

Mr Jinx

Thoie wrote: »

I was just reading another thread about a guy who crashed his car, and he mentioned that the guard gave him a caution. It reminded me of an incident about 10+ years ago where someone crashed into me (and I was later shown to be blameless). When the gardai arrived, one of them cautioned me under the Road Traffic Act (I can't remember the precise wording - it was a long time ago, and I was a bit upset at the time).

Is it a normal thing that gardai have to caution everyone involved, even when their own private opinion is that one person was at fault? Thinking about it logically now, I presume it's just that as the gardai didn't witness the crash themselves they have to give everyone involved the same warning.
QUOTE]

it used to be the case a few years ago that people involved in traffic accidents would be given a caution, however that is not done anymore

Prenderb

Re:Fire

My advice is:
If you can see a fire from that far away and you're sure it's a fire, then call the fire brigade. They'll be able to see the fire too, once they get to your house, or a similar distance from the fire in another direction, and use the smoke to find it.

Edit: I hope I haven't been tricked into going off-topic for a ban.....:P

Thoie

Prenderb wrote: »

Re:Fire

My advice is:
If you can see a fire from that far away and you're sure it's a fire, then call the fire brigade. They'll be able to see the fire too, once they get to your house, or a similar distance from the fire in another direction, and use the smoke to find it.

Edit: I hope I haven't been tricked into going off-topic for a ban.....

Yes, it's all part of my cunning plan to get complete strangers banned from the internetz. All of them.

I would hope/assume that seeing as how I asked the question originally, it wouldn't be off topic.

And no, I couldn't guarantee it was a fire, but on the other hand I've never seen plumes of black smoke coming from that direction before. I just remember calling the fire brigade before, but they were a bit put out because I didn't know the precise location, and apparently being able to see it from my house wasn't a good enough indication. While I'm aware that you should never presume someone else has called the ambulance/fire brigade, I ended up leaving it today as the area I could see it in was fairly populated, so I'm hoping someone closer to the area knew what was happening.

Prenderb

I meant that in a :P kind of way, sorry.

Thoie

I'd meant to add a smiley as well Now we will both be banned for off-topicness.

timmywex

The caution that you were given was probably just saying

You have the right to remain silent but anything you do say may be taken down and used as evidence against you in court, or something similar!

Its basically so that if you admitted liability they could quote you in court

Eru

Thoie wrote: »

I was just reading another thread about a guy who crashed his car, and he mentioned that the guard gave him a caution. It reminded me of an incident about 10+ years ago where someone crashed into me (and I was later shown to be blameless). When the gardai arrived, one of them cautioned me under the Road Traffic Act (I can't remember the precise wording - it was a long time ago, and I was a bit upset at the time).

Is it a normal thing that gardai have to caution everyone involved, even when their own private opinion is that one person was at fault? Thinking about it logically now, I presume it's just that as the gardai didn't witness the crash themselves they have to give everyone involved the same warning.

A long time ago if a Garda intended in bringing you to court for a traffic matter they had to give you the Oral warning or caution but thats not done anymore.

The Judges rules (which some Judges decided a long time ago) state that any Garda who believes an offence may have been commited must caution all persons. So, a car crash you didnt witness needs to be investigated. Most of the time its a genuine accident, insurance will look after it and theres no need to rub salt in the wound by bringing some poor sod to court however theres also cases where it turns out one of the drivers was driving like a complete lunatic and thats where the caution comes into play.

Thoie wrote: »

Totally different question - if I see what looks like a really big fire a couple of miles away from my house, is there any point telling someone, as I don't know where it is? *looks worridley at the giant plume of black smoke* Or should I just comment randomly about it on the internet?

Most problems can be resolved by posting about it on the internet and if they arent, well someone will have made the call